Tonight, join us right here for live discussion of episode 5 of The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Faber. As always, the show airs on Fox Sports 1 at 10:00 p.m. ET.
Last week was another good one for TUF 22, and it allowed me to figure out why I like this season. It's because the show is actually being the show it was meant to be. So far, it's about professional fighters working with high level coaches to become the best fighters they can be. No drunk house fighting (yet), no pranks (yet), no door smashing (yet). Even the coach rivalry seems pretty good humored. Plus, they've been dedicating a lot of footage to the actual training, which is what I want. So thumbs up on this season so far.
In the fight last week, the Europeans got their first win thanks to Marcin Wrzosek. The Polish Zombie looked pretty good in a decision win over Tom Gallicchio, who went all in for the round 1 sub, and gassed when he didn't get it. Solid fight - highlights are above. Also "Be patient Marcin. Marcin, be patient. Marcin!... Patient."
This week: Saul Rogers vs. Billy Quarantillo in the first fight picked by Conor McGregor. Rogers is an English fighter with a strong 10-1 record who looked quite good in his qualifying fight. He holds wins over UFC veteran John Maguire and TUF teammate Artem Lobov, and is one of the most seasoned fighters on the show. Quarantillo is 6-1 with a far lower level of opponent. Both men are good grapplers, but Rogers has the edge in pretty much every area, and should be the obvious favorite here.
Here are the current standings:
Team McGregor (Europe) 1-2: Abner Lloveras, David Teymur, Frantz Slioa 0-1, Marcin Wrzosek 1-0, Martin Svensson, Mehdi Baghdad, Sascha Sharma 0-1, Saul Rogers, Artem Lobov
Team Faber (United States) 2-0: Billy Quarantillo, Chris Gruetzemacher 1-0, James Jenkins, Jason Gonzalez, Julian Erosa, Ryan Hall 1-0, Thanh Le, Tom Gallicchio 0-1, Johnny Nunez
Join us tonight for TUF 22.