TUF Nations (Australia vs. Canada) Episode 8, “Rattle Them Bones” – Vik Grujic vs. Luke Harris – Live Recap, Review

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Hey fight freaks … welcome back to our coverage of TUF Nations. And since there’s no hockey game on of note I’m going to do this live as it happens. It’s the perk of a travel day for the Blackhawks, I suppose.

This week it’s Vik Grujic vs. Luke Harris, the final preliminary fight. Team Canada will have the edge in the semi-finals, as they’ve won more fights, as Cote is not going to have to deal with the fact that he’s going to have to have multiple fights where he can’t corner either fighter.

Canada has officially won the prelims, as they’ve got more prelim wins that the Aussies. They could wind up on the losing end if the Aussies end up winning both brackets, of course, but the odds are against him. We get the fallout from last week’s fight as Jake Matthews is sulking after his loss. The Aussies really like the kid, who’s 19 and insanely talented.

This week’s fight is billed as striker vs. grappler but most of Grujic’s wins are by submission, much like Harris.

Time to profile both of this week’s fighters.

Grujic is fighting for his family and he discusses how it hurts to be away from his family.

Harris backpacked through Argentina and got into Brazil, learning BJJ there. He loved it and stayed for a long time. He’s a newlywed who has put off his honeymoon for the show.

The Aussies are training first and we’ve got a special guest. Commercial break.


THE CHAMP IS HERE! Jon “Bones” Jones is here to help out with the Aussies. They have Izzy Martinez in their camp and he’s worked with Jones in the past at Team Jackson’s so it makes sense they could get him in to help. He also works with Noke on a regular basis as a training partner there as well.

Jones is there to work some elbows and he has a variant out of the clinch using an arm pull to set it up.

He’s also there to give a pep talk on wanting to win it. Jones was turned down for TUF because of his age, as he wasn’t 21 yet.

The guys on both teams seem in awe of Jones as they get to meet him. It’s interesting to see a bunch of grown men acting like children around someone like Jon Jones.

Sheldon Westcott is hurt and is going to get an MRI. Cue the ominous music.

Time to profile Harris for a bit. He’s the older statesmen of the Canadians this season. Commercial break


We’re back and now Cote is dealing with the fact that his team is going to be fighting each other in one of the semi-finals, at least. Everyone is stressed.

Cote has told his team to all pick Richard and let the cards fall how they will. I can imagine it’s genuinely difficult to have to choose someone you’ve been training with on a regular basis to fight or to potentially corner or corner against.

Jones is eating with the team and he’s talking to them about being an elite fighter. It’s interesting to see Jones, who a short while ago was someone without the length of time in his career for such a high level resume, discussing all the things to do to become elite with his peers. He’s the same age as these guys but at such a higher level than them that he’s not quite a peer … but not quite a veteran leader. Commercial break.


We’re back and it’s back to training, this time with Kyle Noke’s crotch lift against the cage. Noke thinks Vic’s wrestling isn’t as good as it good and my guess is they’re training him to stand and bang with Harris and his vaunted submission game.

Time to weigh in and no problems from either guy. Commercial break.


Team Canada has their own visitor as they have Cung Le visiting. Cote dropped a decision to Le, which they show highlights of, and Le walks them through some striking variants.

Westcott comes back in a neck brace and it’s looking like he’ll be the first guy in a long time to get pulled from the show due to injuries. He’s got whiplash, apparently, with strained ligaments in his neck. We’ll be waiting for the doctor to evaluate him further.

Now we’re in the final countdown to fight time. Both guys are prepping. Commercial break looms as we both guys get taped up and go to the cage.


Round 1: Harris is looking to get close and Grujic is looking to stick and move. The Aussie with the takedown and he uncorks some elbows and Harris is out :50 into the first round. Wow.

Vic Grujic wins via TKO (Elbows) at :50 of the first round.


Quick analysis after the fact as the elbows are shown in slow motion. They aren’t pretty, for sure.

Both guys discuss the fight and we’ll get fight matchups from Dana White, Cote and Noke next week.