10 Thoughts on “The Ultimate Fighter” Episode 6: “Path to Greatness”

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Last week, Team Sonnen’s Kelvin Gastelum submitted Team Jones’ Bubba McDaniel to take back the hammer for his team. Now, we’ll see top contenders Josh Samman and Tor Troeng battle in the next bout. We’ll be recapping our 10 thoughts, as always, so stick around at 9 PM ET for “10 Thoughts on ‘The Ultimate Fighter'”.

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Jon Jones’ Team is Excited
Josh Samman is a workhorse, evidently. Honestly, he’s beginning to become a bigger jerk than Bubba McDaniel. He is starting they think that Tor Troeng is just another guy from Sweden. He’s one of the top guys coming out of Europe and he’s my pick to run over Samman tonight. At least, that’s what I want. Who’s with me?

Uriah Hall is an individual
Luke Barnatt gets popped during a training session from a jab via the thundering fists of Uriah Hall. The two proceed to each pout. Uriah gets pissy and huffs around the mats while Luke takes his gear off and walks around the room. Honestly, there’s a lot of testosterone coming out right now and we’re sure to see a lot more as the season goes on. Hall has one of the scariest KOs in TUF history, so I wouldn’t tempt fate with that guy.

Coach Josh Samman Leads the Way
“Dad,” as Adam Cella calls Samman, has begun to take a leadership role in the house. It’s good to see someone trying to work to keep his team focused and keep the men in the house accountable. Samman comes off a bit more likeable in this episode, especially when he starts talking about his leg issues or his upbringing, but he’s still going out on a limb in trying to lead his team. Sticking his neck out like that might cost him.

Gilbert Makes Trouble
Uriah calls out Luke. They’re teammates and while they might have to get in the cage later, it might be best not to bring that possibility up now. Kevin Casey says it best, as I paraphrase him, this was kind of a bad idea. Hall will have to watch his back now as he surely put his foot into his mouth. Now his teammates don’t even think that he deserves to be with them. And neither does Team Jones. They want him for themselves, which makes sense, because since his KO win, no one has wanted to fight him.

Uriah’s Being Sensitive
Don’t take the kidding seriously, man. Uriah called an opponent a bitch and brought their girlfriend into the fight. Then he distances himself from his team. Then he distances himself from the other team. The guy is just cracking ahead of time and he jokes about it, but it’s probably true. He might be a strong fighter, but the “house” is bringing out some ugly qualities in Uriah Hall.

So Much Uriah This Episode
The show’s resident “good guy” Bubba McDaniel (kids, I am kidding) talks with Uriah Hall about the incident the night before around the campfire. When Bubba is giving you life advice, it might be time to close up shop, people. He’s come off like a jerk this season, shown some really petty sides to himself and he’s given you next to nothing to cheer for. This being said, I understand fully that these guys are placed in a pressure cooker on this show and that the UFC is their dream. He was, however, a jerk before he lost. We’ll see if his loss humbles him at all.

Bowling For Soup
The guys are let out of the house for an outing and Chael Sonnen challenges Jon Jones to a contest. Three frames to the winner and the losing coach had to wear the opposing coach’s team jersey in an upcoming training session. It’s funny to see such a great athlete like Jon Jones just absolutely devastated by a big loss…in bowling. Well, he’ll look good in that Team Sonnen jersey.

Round 1 – Fight!
Silence and calm. Tor describes that moment before a fight starts pretty eloquently. Except when you’re doing a recap of the fight. Then it’s more hectic and stressful. Well, getting punched in the face for money has to be stressful as well. Yeah, I am sure of that.

Samman comes forward with an early flurry that sees him clinch with Troeng, but Tor reverses position and gets him against the fence. On a break, Tor tags him with several shots to the face. Samman looks for a trip takedown/toss, but ends up with Tor in his guard. Samman gets tied back up with Tor against the cage and lands some short punches. Troeng gets free and slips on the break. Samman capitalizes with a body kick and follows it with several straights. One of them puts Troeng on his back and Samman lands one more shot. Tor Troeng was just pounded out of the tournament…unless he gets the wild card.

Recap time…
Tor lacked a sense of urgency in his fight according to his own coach. Then he let his hands down. Then he got knocked out. Chael tries to console him in the locker room, but Tor is pretty disappointed in himself. Saman comes into Team Sonnen’s locker room to congratulate and check on Tor, and Uriah is beyond annoyed with Samman. He doesn’t say anything to his face, but just behind his back, which is yet again, another example of his change in attitude. He’s like a pro wrestling “tweener” now; too nice to be a heel, too mean to be a good guy. Either way, I think that Hall is the man to beat and am absolutely salivating at the chance to see that fight.

The next pick is…
Clint Hester of Team Jones will take on Jimmy Quinlan of Team Sonnen. Great contrast in styles with a former pro boxer taking on a high level grappler. I would tell you my pick, but I don’t want to give anyone any more advantage in the Inside Fights Ultimate Fighter pool – I forgot to get my pick in this week.

We’ll see you all next week, yo! Good night.

An Inside Pulse "original", SMS is one of the founding members of Inside Pulse and serves as the Chief Marketing Officer on the Executive Board. Smith is a fan of mixed martial arts and runs two sections of IP as Editor in Chief, RadioExile.com and InsideFights.com. Having covered music festivals around the world as well as conducting interviews with top-class professional wrestlers and musicians, he switched gears from music coverage at Radio Exile to MMA after the first The Ultimate Fighter Finale. He resides with his wife in New York City.