In Hindsight – The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback – Thoughts on Episode 4-7

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As always, detailed recaps by Trent Pusey are available at Inside Fights.

Now that that little bit of pluggage is out of the way, let’s look at the episode.

The first thing is that I’m totally shocked at the lack of The Shonie Show in this episode. I mean, you’d think that they’d show him “blinging” Patrick Cote’s Captain Miserable sketch. Or at least buying a Bedazzle kit.

But hey, at least we got the antics of Captain Miserable himself, Charles McCarthy. I really don’t know what’s up with the guy. He really is Debbie Downer come to life. And like Debbie Downer, continually showing him on TV is getting tedious and repetitive. Everyone else making fun of him, though, is pretty good. When it gets to the point where Patrick Cote gets air time to make fun of you, I don’t know if it can get any lower. Well, yes it can. I’m waiting for the inevitable GSP-Cote conversation (en Francais) where they verbally punk out McCarthy.

I’m not sure what was up with Ace being there. Franklin really didn’t seem like he wanted to be there and the Middleweights sure weren’t all that happy about his being there. Chalk that one up to experience, then, and we’ll see how things go with Chuck Liddell as guest trainer. Although I’d love to see Tim Sylvia there giving advice on how to lumber around and go for one punch knockouts because you’ve got a reach advantage.

And finally, the third “breakout star” of this season, Matt Serra, gets to fight. His opponent is lucky loser Pete Spratt, replacing Jeremy Jackson – who if you recall was the second person to leave The Ultimate Fighter due to female-related issues. Spratt has been learning some things from Mikey Burnett. I’m not sure that it’s such a good idea for the guy who’s been out of MMA the longest to be giving you pointers, but what do I know? I’m not a fighter, and my high-school wrestling record shows that I’m a damn good tomato can.

So onto the fight. Spratt gets a good punch in, and a decent knee, but Serra absorbs the knee to get the takedown. From there, Serra methodically works his way from guard to full mount, and from there it’s ground and pound, baby. Spratt gives up his back and Serra keeps pounding away until Spratt taps out.

So now the four Welterweight semi-finalists are set: Shonie Carter, Din Thomas, Matt Serra and Chris Lytle. Cote and Jorge Rivera fight next week to join Travis Lutter, Pete Sell and Edwin Dewees in the Middleweight semis. Can Team Mojo go 7 for 8? And we get to see Shonie switch teams. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Sir Linksalot: The Ultimate Fighter

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).