10 Thoughts on “The Ultimate Fighter” Episode 3: “Embrace the Suffering”

Columns, News, Top Story

After another solid episode here in season 17 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” we are well underway with a killer season. On tonight’s episode, we are set to see the knockout of the year, the big one that everyone keeps calling one of the most vicious that they’ve ever seen in a battle between Team Sonnen’s Uriah Hall and Team Jones’ Adam Cella and we’ll be recapping the top 10 thoughts we have about tonight’s show.

See you back here at 9 PM ET for our “10 Thoughts on ‘The Ultimate Fighter'”.

Latest updates in italics

Bubba McDaniel and Kevin Casey are on a collision course…
Even when Casey isn’t ready to battle yet because of a cut to his eye, Bubba continues to call him out in the house. Maybe next week, maybe the week after, these two are going to burn it down.

Uriah Hall wants Josh Samman…thank God.
Samman picked on the wrong dude at the campfire when Uriah Hall said that Tor “is a good cooker”. You don’t correct a fighter like that, don’t correct a person like that and you’ve got to think that if he gets past Cella tonight, that he’s going to look for a future fight with Samman. He’s dedicated to the sport too, but you have to hope he won’t burn himself out.

Adam Cella needs work on grappling
Is Jon Jones foreshadowing a massive weakness of one of his fighters? Maybe this is a red herring, but he isn’t known for doing much more than striking, which is great. Well, it’s great for fans to watch, but it’s not necessarily good for his opponents. We’re going to find out how it goes for Uriah Hall tonight because you have to think that Cella will NOT take this to the ground.

Uriah Hall will attack
Chael Sonnen is encouraging his team to attack, attack, attack. It’s the best way to get opponents shaken up and eliminates their gameplan. When Hall confided in Coach Sonnen, Chael spoke to his own fears and trepidations but also how to stay away from negative thoughts and talk. Sonnen is going to impart a ton of professional wisdom to his team, it’s one of the major advantages that he’ll have over the younger Jones, and it’s going to pay off for him.

The game begins…
Kevin Casey says that he wants to fight Bubba at another time. In fact, Coach Sonnen posts his next pick, stating that Kevin Casey will be the next fighter, but no word on who his fight will be against. Honestly, the fight against Bubba is a good matchup and would really gut Jon Jones’ team should he lose. Jones heading to the house is a good tactic that has been used every season to illustrate the more personal sides to the coaches, but this time, it only gave us a glimpse at Cella, McDaniel and Dylan Andrews.

Adam Cella might act like he’s ready, but he’s gotta be scared
He says it best: Uriah Hall has abs for days. He’s an action figure. The only question is whether he’ll have “kung fu grip” or KO power.

Round 1: Fight!
After some striking to start the round, Hall catches a kick just over halfway through the round and puts Cella on his butt. Hall already has two knockdowns from kicks to the body before they continue with more striking. Lots of striking: some good kicks from Uriah, some good backfist attempts by Cella and then…WHAM! Spinning back kick (Edson Barboza-style) to the jaw and Cella is down. And he’s hurt bad. Hall apologizes to Cella and looks really shook up, but Cella is still wheezing badly. He’s very unconscious. It’s scary. Coach Sonnen pulls Hall away from the downed Cella.

The replay is just as nasty as originally seen
Four times we get to see the spinning back kick and four times we see that Cella is just plain kicked into next week. He heads to the hospital later with Coach Jones, but he’ll hopefully be fine.

Kevin Casey vs. … Collin Hart?
Bubba loses his mind over the decision. “King” already stated that he wants McDaniel later on to make his way to the finals, but Hart is no pushover. He is coming into the house off a rear naked choke win and might prove to be the challenge Casey was trying to avoiding.

With a win like that is Hall the frontrunner on this show?
He looked like a beast in his fight and his kick was huge, but does it make him the top contender? Who else has a shot? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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.