Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) reality TV series, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), kept trucking, as season 16 episode three featured Shane Carwin's team trying to keep control over Roy Nelson's band of welterweights.
Up to this point, Team Carwin had held the decided advantage, and the signs were starting to appear to be revealing that it was going to be a long season for Coach Nelson and his men.
In this, the third episode, the drama continued to ramp up, as viewers were treated to a fighter's bed being floated across a swimming pool (via a "genius" prank from some of the fellows on Team Nelson), a man admitting that he prefers to have intercourse with his wife before fights...but not finish, and a morbid speech from the life of the party, Shane Carwin, where he detailed soldiers losing their limbs in battle.
You know -- just your standard, run-of-the-mill TUF episode.
At the onset of episode three, Team Carwin announced the fight match up, pitting their number one pick, Sam Alvey, up against the relative unknown, Joey Rivera.
Based on the video footage, the way the fighters (from both teams) were talking, as well as the footage we've seen, thus far, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Alvey would be essentially walking through Rivera, en route to the next round of the competition.
In case you're unfamiliar with Alvey, he's a veteran fighter who has done tours for Bellator Fighting Championships, he holds noteworthy wins over Jason Guida (Yep. That Guida.) and Karl Amousou, and he's just a tough guy in general.
He was the number one pick for a reason, and many were picking him to possibly even win the entire competition.
Enter Joey Rivera.
"Boom Boom" only has eight fights under his belt. However, seven of those resulted in wins. He's a quiet mannered guy, and, quite frankly, he just hasn't had a lot of camera time during this season of TUF.
Expect that to change from this point on.
From the get-go, Rivera made it clear that he had no intention of being walked through. If anything, it was quite the contrary.
At the opening horn, Rivera charged to the center of the cage and proceeded to kick Alvey, square in the head. It was the first time, but it was anything but the last.
For two grueling rounds, Rivera imposed his will over Alvey, and his opponent was seen to be doing anything but "Smile'N."
Rivera used brutal kicks, superior grappling and technical takedown work, on his way to winning a clear cut unanimous decision.
It was a sad moment for Alvey and his fans. He's a pretty tough fighter to cheer against. Surely, the loss will be tough to swallow for Team Carwin, who witnessed the defeat of not only their number one pick, but really, the spiritual leader of the entire team.
That's just how it goes in this crazy sport of MMA, sometimes. The minute you think you know how things are gonna go down, something altogether different happens.
Did you miss TUF 16 episode three? No worries. In addition to this recap, you can also check out the full, LIVE blog of the episode, here.