Michael Bisping immediately halts because he doesn't want the fiery fighter breaking his hand. No one seems to know what caused the outburst, especially Steven. Head coach Jason "Mayhem" Miller stops by the house and delivers Dustin Neace a cowboy hat with a large "B" on it. Team Bisping's lovable bantamweight Josh Ferguson feels it's a swagger-jacking move, especially when he notices Dustin also has taken his sunglasses to complete the look. "Come on, man," Josh says. "This is all I've got going for me."
While at the house, Miller begins asking about the mole in their camp. Steven believes it's John Dodson, and they decide to feed John false information. While they initially planned for Steven to fight Diego next, Miller instead decides he'll put Dustin against Team Bisping's Akira Corassani. Dustin is down for the secret plan. "Akira will be really fat, Dustin will be really in shape, and Diego will be really pissed," Miller concludes. That's a win-win-win situation for "Mayhem."
None of the other team members knows about the secret plan, and Steven acts as though he's going through his weight cut to fool John, who's watching the situation closely during their training session.
At a subsequent Team Bisping session, they discuss their latest intelligence. And sure enough, John has told them it'll be Steven vs. Diego with the next fight. Team Bisping begins preparing Diego for a fight that isn't actually happening. Team Miller's plan appears to be working just fine.
In the middle of the night, Josh steals Dustin's hat and hides it as part of a friendly prank. But once awake, Dustin believes rival Akira has taken it. "He's dead," Dustin says. "I'm going to [expletive] kill him. He's [expletive] with my stuff for the last time." He then begins destroying Akira's stuff and then threatens to do the same in the cage. He then takes most of Akira's belongings to the UFC Training Center and tosses it all around the dressing room. When Akira arrives, he's in disbelief. Tempers boil over, but the coaches regain order. Akira, though, swears he didn't touch his hat, but Dustin says he doesn't care. Each then throws out some emasculating and sexual-oriented insults.
Sure enough, Team Miller sticks with the secret plan, and Miller announces Dustin Neace (Team Miller's No. 3 featherweight pick) vs. Akira Corassani (Team Bisping's No. 2 pick). Both fighters are already heated, strip off their shirts, go forehead to forehead, and then Dustin shoots on Akira and gets the double-leg takedown. The teams quickly try to restore order, but the coaches also get into a brief spat while breaking up the melee.
John, meanwhile, is surprised by the pick, and he knows everything happened because of him. "Eh, [expletive] happens," John shrugs in a confessional.
With that fight chosen, the lone remaining featherweight bout pits Team Miller's Steven Siler (No. 4 pick) against Team Bisping's Diego Brandao (No. 1 pick). Diego seems perturbed that he had already cut weight, and Dustin admits it's going to be a tough week waiting for their fight.
After all the drama and bad blood, Miller confronts John about his snitching. John simply shrugs and offers no apologies or excuses.
Afterward, Team Bisping fighters move the reserved-spot parking designation for Miller to a handicapped spot. Miller ultimately parks in the spot, so Team Bisping calls for him to be towed. Later during the episode's conclusion, the car is towed away as Team Bisping lounges around watching it all from the lawn of the UFC Training Center. "We know you're mentally handicapped, but you have to be physically handicapped to park there," Bisping says.
Pre-fight
At a Team Bisping session, Bisping wants to keep Akira focused. He thinks he has a bright future, but he knows it'll be easy for him to get too distracted and heated from the bad blood. They work with Akira on getting off his back, which seems to be their biggest concern for the fighter.
At a Team Miller session, Dustin is very confident. His ground game looks sharp, and he believes he's one of the best grapplers in the house. Like Akira and his team, Miller wants to assure Dustin is simply focused on the fight and not the drama.
At the weigh-ins, Bisping initially is a no-show once again. Dustin weighs 145, and Akira is 146. The face-off is a bit less intense, and no skirmishes break out. As the face-off is taking place, the Team Bisping coaches finally arrive.
The fight
It's soon fight day, and we have Team Miller's Dustin Neace (22-16-1) vs. Team Bisping's Akira Corassani (9-3). UFC president Dana White does the pre-fight intros, Herb Dean is our referee, and we're underway with our latest bout.
There's little action early as each fighter tests his range. Nothing substantial lands in the first minute of the fight before Akira finally gets through a combination. Dustin works low kicks that don't have much behind them. He then lands a nice combo while moving forward. Akira catches a kick and dumps Dustin, but he's initially hesitant to go the ground before finally going into full guard. Dustin ties him up, but Akira mixed in some punches and an elbow from top. Dustin looks to maneuver, and then grabs an arm. He looks for the kimura but doesn't have the angle. Akira delivers some punches from the top before he's again tied up. During a scramble, Dustin grabs a heel hook and torques it. Dustin appears to let go, and Team Miller yells that Akira tapped. But the fight goes on, and Akira escapes the submission. Dustin grabs the leg again, but he can't secure it, and Akira gets back to his feet. Both fighters look a bit depleted, and sloppy striking follows. Dustin shoots again and gets the takedown. He gets up and delivers a punch before the round ends. Despite what appeared to be a tap, Akira gets the round, 10-9, because of the no-call.
Both swing wildly to start the second round. Akira connects and clinches to put Dustin against the cage. He delivers a few knees, but they eventually separate and reset. Both connect on some punches. Akira then lands a stiff left hook that drops Dustin. He quickly follows him to the mat with more punches, but Dustin regains his composure and tries to tie him up. Akira works from half guard and then postures up to deliver punches before returning to the mat. Dustin scrambles, but Akira ends up in side control and delivers knees to the ribs. Dustin works on a triangle but can't secure it, and Akira delivers more punches from the top. Dustin again looks for a triangle choke and an armbar, but the round ends with his offense shut down.
Before the scorecards are even read, Akira mockingly acts as though he's machine-gunning down Dustin, who's sitting on a stool. The coaches break it up, but Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer quickly enters the cage and says, "There's about to be a suspended fighter. You want off the show?" Bisping quickly intervenes and cools things down before Akira is tagged with a suspension.
The scores are read, and Akira takes the controversial win via majority decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment