This episode of The Ultimate Fighter opens with Dane complaining that he didn’t get the wild card slot. Jonathan also disagrees with the decision pointing out that the person who got it, Marc, was choked out quicker than anybody.
From there we move to a training session at Camp GSP. The issue of the day seems to be, at least in the mind of Michael, the effort, or lack thereof from Alex. There is some cute editing going on as we cut from an interview with Michael where he says, essentially, that Alex has no work ethic and is constantly coming up with complaints to get out of training directly to an interview with Alex and him addressing his terribly sore back.
A few other passed over wild card options take turns talking about how sore they are that Marc got the spot. Koscheck and Team GSP medic Brad Tate pick up their ongoing debate as Koscheck has taken a liking to just repeatedly calling him a “male nurse” to his face. There is a lot of trash talk that comes out of that man’s mouth but, at least to me, it never seems to have any real venom behind it. He picks on the competition the way I pick on my brothers.
Back at the ranch Alex and Michael continue their up and coming feud as they debate whether or not Alex is a useless layabout. After that useless bit of character development ends we move to the official weigh-ins though before the festivities can start the war of words between Koscheck and Tate boils over into a battle royal. Dane finds himself in the middle of it and gets shoved in the face by Koscheck for his trouble. After the dust settles Dane storms out of the room and has to be calmed down by both coaches. Koscheck flat out blames St. Pierre, going so far as to say that he probably hired Tate for the intended purpose of getting under his skin.
They finally do get around to the weigh-ins and Aaron Wilkinson and Marc Stevens both came in at an identical 156 pounds.
We then take a look inside St. Pierre’s locker room as they try and decide which team members should fight one another. He comes up with a trick he probably picked up in elementary school as each team member writes their name and the name of the person they would like to fight and then turns the sheet in to St. Pierre. Clearly this is all leading up to an eventual Alex/Michael fight.
On the eve of his wild card match Aaron gets a call from back home that his Nana has died. He cries but refuses to go home for the funeral.
Aaron Wilkinson vs. Marc Stevens
Round 1- Stevens opens up with a leg kick that he turns into a takedown. He moves from one position to the next for the first half of the first round gaining full mount, then taking the back, then giving up the back, then taking it again and attempting a rear naked choke. That quickly turns into a futile arm bar that Wilkinson is able to counter. After about 3 minutes have passed or so Wilkinson starts to show signs of life as he gains an upper hand and starts to land punches. Nothing with too much zing on them but he refuses to give the position back to Stevens. It’s quite possibly the most painful round ever. We’ll give it 10-9 to Stevens mainly because he did more with the dominant positions when he had them.
Round 2- After only a few seconds of dancing Wilkinson moves in with a knee. Stevens catches it and takes him down but once again leaves his head available and the Brit takes advantage by slipping on the guillotine choke and quickly ending the fight.
Aaron Wilkinson def. Marc Stevens via 2nd Round Submission
All those passed over for the wild card take the opportunity to pile on talking about what a shit performance Marc turned in and how they could have murdered Aaron had only they been given the chance.
Dana White meets with Koscheck and St. Pierre to discuss the quarterfinal round. Clearly St. Pierre and to a degree White are angling for a Michael/Alex match but Koscheck is less than thrilled with that idea. They call every one of the remaining fighters in and they tell management who they would like to fight.
Quarterfinal Match Announcements
White comes out and announces the following matches for the quarterfinals:
Jonathan Brookins vs. Sako Chivitchian
Cody McKenzie vs. Nam Phan
Kyle Watson vs. Aaron Wilkinson
Michael Johnson vs. Alex Caceras
Final Thoughts
I’m no fan of the wild card to begin with as I think it only exists so that the producers can wiggle their fingers a little deeper into the pie that is The Ultimate Fighter, but with this season the farce reached new levels when they advanced Marc Stevens ahead of more deserving fighters. That left me no choice but to root against him this week in his fight against Aaron Wilkinson. Luckily order was restored but I did find it a big ugly when Dana White came out and talked up the ways in which Stevens “beat the shit out of” Wilkinson in Round 1 when nothing of the sort happened. You picked the wrong guy, you got bamboozled by Koscheck, just shoot straight with me and I’ll forgive you for it.
