Recap and analysis for episode 8 of The Ultimate Fighter 14
THIS WEEK: The biggest prank in TUF history? According to HeavyMMA blogger T.J. Dillashaw, yes. Also, Dennis Bermudez takes on Akira Corrasani in in the first featherweight semi-final.
Louis describes the atmosphere at the house, which can best be described as “testy.” He describes the multiple cliques in the house. Akira harps on Bryan’s seeming inability to get his hair done in anything less than 45 minutes, so he takes it upon himself to shave Caraway’s head in the middle of the night. He succeeds in shaving a tiny strip before Caraway chases him through the house. Well, that was really messed up and yes, Akira cements himself as the jackass of the house.
I think these fellas are getting tired of one another at this point.
Mayhem Miller hears that Tiki is planning a big prank involving his car, so he rides his bicycle to the gym.
Team Bisping is indeed planning a big prank, but it doesn’t involve the car. Bisping and Tiki keep Team Mayhem occupied in their locker room, and Mayhem doesn’t realize anything is going on until it’s too late.
Miller’s team gets hit with a fire extinguisher first. Then a mariachi band appears and walks into Mayhem’s locker room, just totally rocking out. There is fire extinguisher smoke everywhere, so they head outside. The band continues playing. That’s a pretty good prank and Mayhem gives Tiki his props for coming up with the thing. Dustin Bedford is not happy and calls Bisping an asshole.
The guys realize they can’t really do cardio because of, you know, all of the smoke, so they run sprints around the parking lot for a little bit.
Everyone harps on Dennis for being dumb. The clips they show certainly cement this opinion.
We head back to the gym, where it’s time for Akira to conduct his training session. They run him through a lot of drills off his back, where his game is the weakest, in hopes of strengthening it before his fight with Dennis. He says that if Dennis wants to hold him down for fifteen minutes, then “he’s a big pussy.” That’s stupid.
Marcus decides to put a nasty jockstrap on Bisping’s face. Bisping retaliates by slamming Akira to the ground and then rubbing the jockstrap in his face. Yeah, that’s super smart – throw the guy on your team who is fighting in the semi-finals to the ground and risk injuring him. Absolutely brilliant move.
Bisping shows up at the house and calls a team meeting, allegedly to announce a special coach that is coming in to work with him. Instead, we get a Silly String assault from Bisping. They call it a fair trade. The math doesn’t add up to me. Jock strap never equals Silly String.
Bermudez says he’s tired of Akira playing games. He usually goes in the cage to win, but this time he’s going in to hurt Akira.
At the gym, Miller brings in Siyar Bahadurzada to work with Dennis. Siyar has worked with Akira in the past, so Miller says that he’s like an advanced version of Akira. Siyar, by the way, has signed with the UFC. Siyar works with Dennis on putting constant pressure on Akira.
Akira sings a song for Dennis back at the house. Wow, Akira can actually sing.
Mayhem brings his lovable dog Gator HotdogDog to the weigh-ins and pulls off a neat trick, pointing a fake gun at the dog. The dog plays dead.
WEIGH-INS
Akira Corrasani (146) vs. Dennis Bermudez (146)
Dana says Akira was nuts for calling out Dennis.
Bisping demands that Gator HotdogDog be banned from the training center because it’s not hygienic. Mayhem protests at first, but relents. He says he respects Bisping, but then again he also respected his own Dad and that didn’t stop him from whipping his ass.
By the way, Gator HotdogDog has a Twitter.
It’s time for the fight.
AKIRA CORRASANI VS. DENNIS BERMUDEZ
Round 1: This round turns out to be the only round. Akira landed a ton of big punches due to Dennis getting wild in his technique and dropped him. But Dennis rebounded, landed a huge slam on Akira and then sinked a guillotine with Akira sitting against the cage. Akira suffers through it for a bit before tapping.
Winner: Dennis Bermudez via submission, round 1
Post-fight, Akira has no idea where he is or what happened. He’s heartbroken that he’s out of the tournament. I actually felt bad for the guy here despite him acting like a jackass all season long.