Get your coffee, snuggie, and sick day excuse ready; it's time for another round of late-night entertainment.
That's right, tonight (April 15, 2012) at midnight ET, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF): Brazil returns, and MMAmania.com will have live coverage of the fourth episode, which will be available on UFC.com.
Wanderlei Silva is not happy, and when Wanderlei Silva is not happy, nobody is happy.
Despite "The Axe Murderer's" conviction that the best fighter wins the show regardless of match-up, Team Vitor Belfort has taken advantage of their match-up control to jump out to a 2-0 lead, and Team Wanderlei, as expressely stated, is not happy.
On the next exciting episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil, discord invades the house as the Wanderlei squad tries to keep morale up despite their deficit while Team Vitor's Gasparzinho and Rodrigo Damm find themselves at one another's throats.
Complete results and live blog are after the jump.
Episode's now up.
Announcer guy says it's a featherweight fight this week, and considering the only guys left at that weight are scary good, this pleases me.
Creepy music and black-and-white footage start the episode;the reason is revealed when Gasparzinho, wearing Rony Jason's mask, takes a panther statue from outside and start practicing BJJ on it in the house.
Vina notes that nighttime is the time when an athlete rests. I'd call him out for being Captain Obvious, but I'm afraid he'd eat my face.
Gasparzinho is apparently keeping everyone awake,including members of Team Wanderlei. Some fool let him get his hands on silly string. After they kick him out of the house, he starts banging on the window and playing music. Jason is very unhappy with this, as he's known Gasparzinho for years and the latter is aware of Jason's insomnia. Unable to sleep, Rony just goes out and trains.
Gasparzinho has the maturity of a ten-year-old, and he's really getting on both teams' nerves.
Later that morning, Jason goes to see Vitor and tells him what happened the previous night, naming Gasparzinho but placing the blame on the green team as a whole. He also mentions that his training woke some of the others up and apologizes. Vitor vows to take responsibility for his team's action and thanks Jason for the apology.
Vitor is obviously very pleased with his squad's performance and Wanderlei is pissed. Cordeiro and Werdum have a brief chat, with Cordeiro saying that they have to ensure their fighters' heads are in the right places. Pep talk from Wanderlei seems to invigorate his team.
One of Vitor's assistants names Hugo Wolverine and Rodrigo Damm as the ones in the best shape. A quick coaches' conference indicates that it will probably be Damm. He decides that he won't name his fighter's opponents, which doesn't sit well with Damm, Mutante supports the plan, though considering his history with Vitor, he may have other motives. Bodao suggests the coaches themselves may not know.
Fight announcement coming up.
Third fight: John "Macapa" Teixeira vs. Rodrigo Damm. Two big favorites meeting early; I like it.
Teixeira seems very calm about it, and Damm doesn't betray any emotion.
Damm mentions his parents divorcing when he was sixteen, which led to him living on his own, his sisters having left or married. He says it was his sister that kept him from starving; interestingly, she started practicing BJJ first, which led Damm into it. She even sold some jewelry so he could compete in tournaments.
Carina Damm, by the way, is 17-6.
Rodrigo seems like a very calm, selfless guy. I can respect that.
Team Vitor is very confident of victory, as expected.
John Teixeira's nickname comes from the area where he was raised, a tradition also seen in Yuri "Marajo" Alcantara. His parents also divorced, leading to his mother serving as both his mother and father figure. Impressively, she raised four kids on her own, and he considers her a role model for determination.
Very calm demeanor; he's got some serious potential.
Footage of the fighters about their non-fighting business. Vitor and Wanderlei discuss the various aspects of cutting weight; the latter calls weigh-in day "Princess Day," as you can finally eat whatever you want.
Teixeira's weight apparently looks good.
Wanderlei tells his squad they're lucky to be on his team, lamenting Vitor's boringness. He says Vitor's team has two hours of training and three hours of lecture.
Both men make weight without trouble, though Macapa does go naked. No towel. Awkward.
Rodrigo says he intends to take Macapa down, mentioning his myriad accomplishments on the grappling circuit. Macapa simply says he'll do his best.
Fighting time.
John Teixiera vs. Rodrigo Damm
Round One: Aggression early from both men. Macapa lands the first good blow, a left hook. Rodrigo answers with a right, but Macapa barrels after him and drops him with a flurry. He attempts to take Damm's back, but Rodrigo gets his wits about him and slams Macapa to the ground. Damm now in Teixeira's open guard. Macapa scrambles up, but Damm is glued to him and is going hard for the takedown. No dice and they reset. Macapa tags Damm with a right, but eats a hard one-two. Not much striking technique, but there is heat behind every shot. Right straight drops Damm, but an over-eager Macapa overshoots and gets slammed down once again. Quick pass to half guard by Damm. Stalemate, with Yamasaki warning of a standup. Damm postures up and goes for elbows, but this lets Macapa scramble to his feet. More hard shots; it seems like Damm just can't take Macapa's power. Takedown attempt by Damm, who gets warned for grabbing the fence. And again; Yamasaki says he'll take a point next time. Bell; 10-9 Macapa on damage. Good fight so far.
Round Two: Quick shots right off the bat from Damm, but no success. Staring contest. Leg kick by Macapa and another. Damm shoots again but fails; he looks tired. Another hard leg kick from Macapa. Jabs from both. Leg kick by Macapa; Damm looks really, really tired. Staring contest ends with another leg kick. Eye poke by Damm temporarily halts the action; Macapa's eye is very red, but he continues. Nice lefts from Damm answered with another leg kick. Nice righr and left from Teixiera, who avoids another series of desperate shots and tags Damm on the exit. Damm shoots again and finally gets Macapa down, but the latter sweeps and gets to his feet. Another stuffed shot, but Damm eventually gets himdown. Quarter-guard by Macapa before Damm passes to side. Brief mount from Damm, but Macapa regains half guard. Mount again from Damm, but no time to work with it. Damm got stuffed a ton, but I'll give him the round. 19-19.
Third Round: Left hook early from Macapa. Failed shot by Damm. Leg kick by Macapa and again. Damm answers a third. Staring contest. Hard leg kick by Macapa; neither guy with any urgency. Nice jab by Macapa, who is slammed to the mat for his troubles. Macapa holding a strange guard; Damm working a stack pass and gets to half. Damm working for the arm-triangle; he passes to side, but loses the choke in the process. Macapa nearly spins out and finally gets back to his feet. Now Macapa working a takedown of his own. He gets it, but Damm is going hard for a kimura on his left arm. He loses it, but ends up in Macapa's full guard at the end. Poor showing by both men after a good first round; 29-28 Damm.
Yamasaki explains unanimous and split decisions. The winner by unspecified decision is Rodrigo Damm; 3-0 Vitor. Wanderlei compliments Macapa on his performance and tells him he won the fight. Rafael Cordeiro agrees; an exhausted Damm is carried to his locker room in ecstasy.
Wanderlei is livid and Team Vitor is celebrating. Product placement is involved as energy drink is dumped over Damm's head.
Macapa thanks his team for their help in training. He is very humble in defeat, and I can definitely respect that.
Next time, Damm takes the day off, much to Vitor's displeasure. Serginho feels left out, Gasparzinho accuses his teammates of stealing things, and Team Vitor starts to tick Team Wanderlei off.
Catch you guys next week, same TUF-time, same TUF-channel.
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