As a result of Din Thomas’ victory over Mikey Burnett last week, Team Mojo has regained The Hammer. Middleweights fight next but Mojo isn’t giving anything away to Team No Love. Jorge Rivera wants to fight Pete Sell, as he feels Patrick Cote would be a tougher fight for him, and he’d like to avoid that in the first round.
Charles McCarthy was emotional after Mikey lost. Apparently being someone’s roommate for two weeks equates into a serious bond. This transitions into the house dubbing him Captain Miserable. McCarthy is always negative about everything. On this particular day, Charles was not in the mood for games. Enter Shonie Carter. The fighters are supposed to make their own grocery lists, so Shonie thought it would be funny to write “personality” on Charles’ list. And it was funny. Charles didn’t agree. After comparing handwriting, Charles thought Pete Sell did it. Sell was upset with the accusation but nothing really came from it.
Birthday Time
Jorge and Charles are still bemoaning Team Mojo’s mind games. Fortunately, Randy Couture pops in to break the monotony. The housemates are surprised at Randy’s appearance and speculate something may be wrong. Not the case. Randy came to congratulate Jorge on the birth of his daughter. Randy gave Jorge a video phone and he was able to see and share images of his girl.
Another New Trainer
Dana adds yet another trainer, this one UFC Middleweight champion Rich Franklin. Franklin knows the deal here and just wants to help out where he can. He says he is only here for a week. I’m sure helping out is on his mind but scouting his next opponent can’t hurt. Rich said he was told his next fight will be against the TUF 4 winner. He won’t have a buffer fight in between.
Fight Announcement – Middleweights
Pete Sell steps out and points to Charles McCarthy. I really miss Shonie singing at Charles. Charles said he knew all this time that Pete was going to pick him. He’s been playing this fight out in his head and he’s ready for the fight. Some playful banter with Rich Franklin takes us to a commercial.
Fighter History
Charles McCarthy is 0-1 in the UFC with his only fight coming against David Loiseau at UFC 53. Perhaps he lost because he was crying on the way to the ring. McCarthy got a takedown in the first round and even got Loiseau’s back but was unable to get the choke. Round 2 was all Loiseau and then he hit a spinning back kick that finished Charles. Dana said Charles has become highlight fodder, so they make sure to embarrass him even more by replaying it over and over. Dana must love sticking it to this guy with the editing. They even show him slipping off of a treadmill as they finish his segment. He comes off as a major tool.
Pete “Drago” Sell made his debut in the aforementioned UFC 51 battle against Phil Baroni. This was brought up when Mark Laimon joined the show to explain Matt Serra’s feud with him. They get into more detail of the fight, saying that Sell was a 5-1 underdog. The first two rounds were Baroni’s but he got caught in a guillotine choke in the third round and went to sleep.
Sell took his momentum into Ultimate Fight Night 1 when he fought TUF 1 contestant Nate Quarry. Sell went down in under a minute to a left hand and as Sell says, he had no choice but to eat the second punch. Pete claims he had his wits about him and covered up after the second punch but the ref thought differently and stopped it, albeit awkwardly as he seemed to just lay on top of both fighters. Dana thought the stoppage was early and I haven’t seen that referee since. I doubt I’ll ever see him again, too. Poor guy never stood a chance.
Fight Day
Well look at this. It seems as though we are going to have a fight that goes longer than the Kentucky Derby. Pete Sell says he is a natural fighter and that fighting is what he loves to do. Charles thinks he belongs in the UFC because the UFC calls him sometimes for fights. Fair enough, but this guy is made to look like a complete tool. Need more proof? He goes on to say that he wrote an equation on paper on how to win this fight. That would be hilarious if it weren’t true. If he wins, the house could rename him the Quadratic King and ask him to lay down formulas for their fights. At least that’s what I would do.
Pete Sell vs. Charles McCarthy – Round 1
Sell works the jab early while Charles does nothing. Sell misses an uppercut that leads to a clinch. Pete hiptosses Charles down to the mat and Charles goes for a foot lock. The foot lock appears to be meaningless and only leaves Charles defenseless to some of Pete’s hammerfists. Charles rolls over and gives his back. Sell rains down more fists, looking to stop the fight now. It was later revealed that Charles heard a pop in his knee and thought he tore his ACL, leaving him momentarily stunned. Charles did not tear his ACL and went into a shell to avoid serious damage.
Charles regains his composure and rolls to his back. Both men lightly jockey for position until Pete gets side control. I’m happy this fight is longer than the last three, but it does remind me how annoying Matt Serra is when he’s cornering the fighters. Charles rolls through the side control and gets to his feet. The two men remain in a clinch and Sell takes McCarthy right back down. Charles has a firm lock on Sell’s thigh? Seriously, what could he hope to do with that? Sell punches whatever openings McCarthy gives. Charles weathers the storm until the bell.
Sell went for no submissions in the first round. Serra tells Pete that McCarthy doesn’t want to be there. It’s hard to disagree with that as Charles went for no offense in the entire first round. Not a joke. He stood there when Pete jabbed him and didn’t counter and laid there when Sell got his takedowns. Dominating round for Pete Sell.
Round 2
Charles opens the round with a super-lame takedown attempt. Sell cinches in the guillotine and it looks like the Baroni win. Pete has it in deep but Charles does a good job hanging in there. McCarthy actually slips out of the hold and now is mounted on top of Sell. Jorge yells at Charles to punish him. Here we go. Payback time. Charles has his best opportunity to score points and land blows but instead just literally lays on top of Pete. Charles doesn’t seem that tired. He’s just lazy.
McCarthy finally gets to work with some punches to Sell’s stomach, punches that Sell shows have no effect on him. Still, with 3:20 left in the second round, it’s the first type of offense Charles as tried. McCarthy floats over to side control and works an armbar while throwing in the occasional elbow to Sell’s face and midsection. Sell can’t do much but wait for Charles to move. He’s gone lazy again. His armbar is nothing more than extending Pete’s arm a little bit and holding it in place. “Charles! Do something!” can be heard more than once from Team No Love during this sequence.
Sell explodes and we finally have some action. The brief skirmish puts us back where we were with Charles on top of Pete. Charles puts more body blows to Sell as the bell rings to end the second round.
Everyone agrees that a third round is coming as Charles won the second round by laying on Pete. Dana confirms it and a sudden victory round will decide it.
Round 3
Drago throws some jabs and lands a nice uppercut upon Matt Serra’s request. Pete takes Charles down and drops some elbows. Sell is cut over his right eye from a combination Charles threw before the takedown. Charles gives his back and Pete gets his underhooks in. They roll over to their side and rest until Charles finally explodes and gets on top. Team No Love is trying to rally Charles as he’s behind this round. Working the cut wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Pete grabs Charles leg as he is caught in an awkward position. Charles slips out of it with under a minute to go. Charles goes for an armbar but it’s not very deep. The bell rings with Pete surviving the submission attempt.
The winner by unanimous decision is Pete Sell.
Post Fight
Charles said this was the first time he went three rounds. He feels he showed he can fight but he’s disappointed with the result. I don’t know that he showed he can fight. He barely threw any punches and just stood there with his hands up when they were on their feet. He covered up in a ball when Sell punched him on the ground. He laid on top of Pete and did nothing with the advantage on the ground. Not very impressive from where I sit. And I sit in a really, really, awesome chair.
Next Week
Charles feels even more miserable after his loss and the guys taunt him even more. This time they give him the business over his loss and he’s not happy about it. Rich Franklin has some advice for Matt Serra and it seems Serra has a different opinion concerning Ric’s ways. The final first round bout for welterweights takes place as Matt Serra fights Pete Spratt.
As always, head to the forum to chat about the episode or this season of Ultimate Fighter.
