THE FIFTH EPISODE of the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter aired in the early hours of this morning, as Conor McGregor coaches a team of European UFC hopefuls against their American counterparts, who are under the stewardship of Urijah Faber.
Team Faber took a 2-1 lead into the latest episode for the USA, but English lightweight Saul Rogers had the opportunity to level things up for Europe as he took on Billy Quarantillo in the fourth match-up of the competition.
The episode will be repeated tonight on BT Sport 2 at 10pm so don’t read any further if you’re planning to avoid spoilers until then.
Conor McGregor’s hands-off approach to coaching his team has been criticised by Faber in recent episodes, and McGregor didn’t show up to the weigh-in for the fight between Rogers and Quarantillo, with fellow European coach Tom Egan taking his place.
Egan, who became the first Irishman to fight in the UFC back in 2009, came in for some light-hearted criticism from Faber too as a result of his choice of outfit.
Faber: “So Billy and Saul at the weigh-in, there’s no Conor. But they did dress Tom up kind of similar to Conor. He had his little goofy outfit on and some of the guys even thought that it was Conor. His head is too proportioned to be Conor.”
Earlier in the episode, both teams took a break from the daily grind of working towards a UFC contract to head out for dinner together, with McGregor unsurprisingly keen to splash the cash: “Just bring a load of stuff, please. Is this the menu, that’s it? Just give me everything.”
Despite winning his fight against Europe’s Sascha Sharma in episode three, the USA’s Chris Gruetzemacher admitted that he was finding the TUF experience difficult.
“I’m all over the fucking place,” he said. “I like to be optimistic and be, like, this is the opportunity of a lifetime — which it is — but being in this nice house, all this stuff, I’d rather be at my own place. I’d rather be around my little comfort zone, the people I know, the people I care about, the people who care about me.
“I miss home. I want to see my family, I want to see my friends. This place is nice, it’s a cool opportunity but I’m here to fight, go home, be in the finale and make some money. And just be happy, because right now being in here is not fun.”
When Saul Rogers and Billy Quarantillo took to the cage with a view to making it into the quarter-finals, the bout was as one-sided as they come. It lasted the two rounds but Rogers dominated from start to finish to take the decision on scores of 20-16, 20-17, 20-17.
McGregor described Rogers’ performance as “a lion attacking a gazelle”, and UFC president Dana White was also impressed: “He showed today that he’s probably one of the favourites to win this thing.”
Urijah Faber was left frustrated by Quarantillo’s display, as he shot in for a takedown instead of following the gameplan by keeping the fight standing — “What the heck is he doing?” — but McGregor seemed to enjoy every second of it.
With Team Europe subsequently retaining the right to pick the next fight, McGregor selected Frenchman Mehdi Baghdad to take on Julian Erosa in next week’s episode.
Another interesting angle to episode six will be the arrival of UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw to assist Faber in coaching Team USA.
A rivalry has been building recently between McGregor and Dillashaw — who confirmed his departure from Faber’s Team Alpha Male earlier this week — so it should make for another episode worth tuning in for.
