This is the last episode of The Ultimate Fighter 4 before the live finale. If you have made it this far then you are very patient. There’s at least three other things I’d rather be watching on TV tonight but my duties here outweigh my other interests. What’s your excuse?
Din Thomas recalls how easily Travis Lutter defeated Pete Sell in the last episode. Travis was able to control Pete for the entire fight but Matt Serra finds the silver lining by applauding Pete’s toughness. Georges St. Pierre says Travis is the most dangerous middleweight in the house. He’s also the most boring but GSP doesn’t mention that.
Prank Wars
Charles has nothing to do in the house now so he eats out of boredom. The problem is that he eats everyone else’s food without asking them. He ate an entire frozen pizza that belonged to Edwin. Matt Serra jokingly offers Charles a mayo sandwich. Gideon is disgusted by the fact that Charles ate 3 ½ cheeseburgers. HA! I ate 10 McChickens in one sitting so tell that story to someone else. And what’s with not finishing his fourth cheeseburger? Quitter.
Gideon and Pete Spratt do the water bucket over the doorway trick to just about everyone. Not Shonie though. I’d like to think he’s too clever to fall for it but in reality I’m sure he was sleeping. They didn’t attach the bucket to a rope though so the trick ends with the bucket landing on everyone’s head. The results are still the same.
Edwin thinks it would be funny to put about six pizza boxes in Charles’ room. He goes through with his idea but then we see Edwin running out of Charles room after dropping the boxes. Charles is in hot pursuit and is chasing Edwin around the house. Edwin smartly leads him into Gideon and Pete’s room where Charles is met with a bucket of water. The culprits laugh for thirty minutes while Charles doesn’t seem amused at all. Captain Miserable indeed.
Training Day
Edwin decides to train with Team No Love out of respect for Patrick. Whatever. It makes sense to want to train away from your opponent but do it out of respect for yourself and the fight. Edwin’s cut is still tender. It opened a little during practice and it seems inevitable that it will open during the fight with Patrick Cote.
Patrick wants to strike and prefers to fight on his feet. Georges St. Pierre says Patrick must fight better than he did against Jorge. Patrick agrees that he must fight a better fight but that’s generally the way tournaments work. The next stage is supposed to be harder.
Dana thinks Patrick will win by KO. He is too strong for Edwin and should be able to take advantage of that during the fight. Cote also has a psychological edge as he notices that Edwin is staring at his shoulder during the pre-fight staredown. The unwillingness to look him in the eye gives Patrick more confidence for the fight.
Mikey Is Injured
Mikey Burnett gets a call from the UFC doctor and he informs him that his neck is in bad shape. Mikey is going to need surgery to fix his neck. With surgery, recovery, and rehabilitation, Mikey won’t be able to fight for one year. He’s 32-years-old now and hadn’t fought in seven years prior to TUF 4. It seemed like he had his life back in order and was ready for another UFC run but this is a huge setback. Hopefully everything will go well with his surgery.
Fight Day
Patrick Cote is confident about this fight and has a good feeling about it. He feels that this is the best matchup for him. He really has Pete Sell to thank for that one.
Edwin Dewees sees Patrick as one step on his journey to the middleweight title. When Edwin is getting ready for his fight you can see Shonie pimping up for the evening. It’s like my eyes automatically find him whenever he’s in the room.
Patrick Cote vs. Edwin Dewees – Round 1
They exchange kicks to start. Cote attacks with punches and lands in a clinch. Edwin forces Patrick into the cage. Edwin goes for a takedown but Patrick ends up on top. I specifically hear Shonie tell someone to “do the damn thing.” Now my ears automatically pick up everything he says. It’s still sound advice even if it only served as amusement for Shonie and myself.
Cote lands some punches from the mount and I’m surprised he hasn’t opened Edwin’s cut. I figured it wouldn’t take much for Edwin to be dripping blood again. Cote gets to his feet and is happy to let Edwin up. They trade punches a bit and it looks like a boxing match. Cote should win that and he does. He is clearly the aggressor. It doesn’t seem like Patrick wants this fight on the ground either. Edwin slipped and Patrick could have taken advantage of it but he didn’t. He let him back up and continued the fight on the feet. Not that there is a problem with that. Patrick is winning the fight on his feet but Edwin should take note of it.
Edwin goes for a leg trip but Patrick lands on top when they fall. Edwin tries to tie him up but Patrick scores points with some punches. It doesn’t look like he is doing much damage with those shots as Edwin’s forehead is still clean. It looks good for the judges though.
Round 2
This round starts off similar to the first round. Edwin is playing right into Patrick’s gameplan. He’s making it an easy fight for Cote. Patrick catches a right kick from Edwin and lands a nice right hook. They go to the ground where Patrick lands more punches but eventually lets Edwin back up. CLOSEUP OF SHONIE! They evidently know what the people want to see. Patrick now seems content to counter Edwin’s jabs with hooks.
Patrick starts throwing heavier punches and slips an uppercut past Edwin’s defense. Patrick gets Edwin down and rains hammerfists. Might be looking at a stoppage here. Edwin is hanging in there but he’s not doing a lot to protect himself. Patrick goes for a kimura but he sucks at submissions. It looked like Patrick knew he had something but he wasn’t sure what it was. More hammerfists and Edwin is finally bleeding. Edwin survives the round but it could have been stopped twice and would be over if Patrick was better at submissions. Edwin is clearly down two rounds.
Round 3
Mikey accurately tells Edwin that he keeps standing in front of Patrick after he throws a punch. Edwin needs to be moving after the throws. Good advice. Patrick finds himself on top of Edwin again and they giggle about something. This is a fight, stop giggling. Maybe Patrick gave Edwin a nipple lick and the little fella liked it. Patrick is staying busy with short elbows, shoulder pressure, and punches.
There is one minute left and Edwin appears to be screwed. Patrick has held the same position for three minutes and Edwin has done nothing to change that. Edwin’s left leg is locked up by Patrick and he’s been having his way with him offensively. The fight ends and referee Steve Mazzagatti applauds their sportsmanship. That’s about all that Edwin showed in this fight.
The winner by unanimous decision is Patrick Cote.
Post-Fight
Edwin reveals that the giggling was about the cut on his forehead. Before the fight, they both joked about Edwin’s cut reopening and I guess they still found it amusing during the fight. Edwin thinks he’ll be back and he’s sure he can do better. I sure hope so. Cote says that the guys laugh at his accent but there’s no laughing at his skills. He’s the first Canadian TUF finalist but I don’t really care about that stat. How many other Canadians were on the show? Kalib Starnes and the guy that got Chris Leben’s pee on his bed?
The Middleweight finals will feature Travis Lutter versus Patrick Cote.
The Welterweight finals will feature Chris Lytle versus Matt Serra.
The winner of each final will receive a combined $200,000 in cash prizes and sponsorships. The winner will also get a title shot but Dana expects to see many of these guys back in the UFC. Dana says that given the history of TUF finales, we should expect an awesome show. I doubt it. My irrelevant picks to win are Travis Lutter and Matt Serra.
Next Week
The Finale of TUF 4 is on November 11th on Spike TV at 9 PM ET. In addition to the middleweight and welterweight finals, Michael Bisping is making his UFC debut against Eric Schafer. Schafe’s last fight was a win over Rob McDonald at UFC 62. That’s all from me folks. I’m leaving the review of Ultimate Fight Night in the more credible hands of Kevin Wong. He did a great job previewing TUF 4 before the season began and will do a great job wrapping things up.
As always, head to the forum to chat about the episode or this season of Ultimate Fighter.
