The Ultimate Fighter Season 11: Liddell vs. Ortiz

Episode 3 Review

The show did not start with a happy scene for Chris Camozzi. He was told by Dana White that his jaw was broken in his previous fight. The injured Camozzi said “It took me years to get here, and it only took two seconds to end it.” Dana told Team Ortiz to pick any loser from Episode 1 to replace his injured fighter for the duration of the show. Ortiz chose to bring back Seth Baczynski, who lost to Court McGee but did so impressively enough to get called back in.

Court McGee has been very happy with Chuck’s coaching, saying that he doesn’t pick favorites and wants to coach everybody. Chuck’s team members have gotten along very well and have shown great chemistry thus far. Tito’s team, on the other hand, has not. They have been bickering back and forth and can’t seem to see eye-to-eye. The turmoil on Ortiz’s team is mostly between Jamie Yager and Nick Ring. In Team Ortiz’s last training session, Yager was complaining about ring striking him too hard on purpose in a sparring session. When Ring confronted Yager, a verbal battle broke out and Yager started calling Ring names. Tito stopped the training session and explained to the team about the opportunity that his fighters have to become something.

Since Team Liddell won the last fight in the previous episode, they still have control of the fight selection. He chose his fighter Brad Tavares to take on Team Ortiz’s James Hammortree. All the fighters in the house were excited about this fight because both fighters are known to let their hands go and will put on a fireworks display of strikes. Little did they know that this fight wouldn’t be have much striking at all. Instead it would be a intense wrestling match of takedowns and position reverses.

Fight Results

Brad Tavares def. James Hammortree by Unanimous Decision in Round 3 (Overtime)
Hammortree started the first round with a early takedown attempt that was reversed by Tavares. Tavares then took control of Hammortree’s back, but James managed to work his way back on top of Tavares and get into a half guard. Tavares worked the fight back to his feet while riding Hammortree’s back. Tavares went for a suplex but slipped on the mat and ended on his back with Hammortree on top and in the guard position. The round ended with more wrestling and very few strikes thrown by either fighter. The second round began the exact same way the first did with Hammortree going for an early takedown and Tavares again reversing it. Instead of getting Hammortree’s back, he landed himself in half guard. As James worked his way back up to his feet, Tavares hit him with a flying knee, and it was the biggest strike of the fight. Unfortunately for Tavares, his flying knee caused him to slip and Hammortree took an immediate advantage and took control on top of Brad. Tavares tried a submission attempt from the bottom, but James got out of it and back into guard. Hammortree controlled what was left of the round and it went to the judges to decide what to do next. The judges called the two rounds a draw and ordered a sudden death overtime round. In overtime, the two fighters started to let their hands go and threw some punches, but it didn’t last long because Tavares was getting the better of the striking. James went for a takedown and was successful. However, the takedown was quickly reversed by Brad and he was now on top and in control. Hammortree eventually worked his way back up to his feet and pressed Brad up against the fence, a position they stayed in for nearly 3 1/2 minutes. I seriously thought the referee should have stood the two fighters up here because they were at a stale mate and nothing was happening. This made for a boring ending to a fight with a lot of exciting wrestling. It was now all in the judges’ hands and they chose Tavares as the winner, who was happy about the victory. Hammortree can now only hope for a wildcard spot in the future.

Continue on to read the Episode 2 review.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12