You can never underestimate your opponent in mixed martial arts and that lesson was learned on episode two of The Ultimate Fighter 18.
It was a battle of the top two picks in the house as Ronda Rousey chose for her top selection, Shayna Baszler, to face off against the No. 1 overall pick, Julianna Pena of Miesha Tate’s squad.
Baszler was a massive favourite heading into the bout, as she holds wins over the likes of TUF 18 castmate Roxanne Modafferi and UFC bantamweights Alexis Davis and Julie Kedzie, while Pena was on a two-fight losing streak before appearing on TUF 18 and relatively new to the sport.
“I’m not going to lose to her. She doesn’t deserve to be in the same ring with me,” Baszler said before the bout. “She should be coming to my seminars and learning from me.”
THE FIGHT
Pena began the fight by throwing some hard leather and landing several solid punches in the first 15 seconds of the round.
Baszler, though, was quickly able to take the fight to the ground and impose her will.
The two exchanged in a handful of exciting and technical scrambles with Baszler ending up in a dominant position nearly every time.
At the start of the second round, Pena landed a straight right hand that backed Baszler up. They traded strikes in the pocket and along the cage for a while before Pena took the fight to the mat.
Once on the ground, Pena smothered a fatigued Baszler, eventually taking her back and locking in a rear-naked choke that forced Baszler to tap.
“I’m like three times the fighter she is. I don’t know what the (expletive) happened,” a teary-eyed Baszler said after the fight.
Baszler, who submitted Colleen Schneider to earn her spot in the house, was the early favourite to win the women’s tournament.
“I don’t think anyone on my team thought I would win,” Pena said. “It doesn’t matter if you wear lip gloss or get dressed up, once that cage door closes I’m an animal and I’m a gamer and I’m coming at you.”
OUTSIDE THE OCTAGON
Besides all the action in the cage, there was a lot for fans to take in as some classic TUF drama was on full display.
Rousey gets emotional
Rousey’s emotions began to show right from the get-go and the UFC women’s bantamweight champ got under the skin of Tate rather quickly.
“Ronda’s already getting on my nerves and my team’s nerves,” Tate said after the first training session with her team. “It’s just kinda typical Ronda, so what can I say?”
Following Pena’s win over Baszler, Rousey was brought to tears.
“Coaching’s tough, man. I wish I could take everything Shayna’s feeling and just feel it myself right now,” Rousey said. “It was my job to make sure they got through this and I (expletive) failed today.”
Watch The Ultimate Fighter 18 every Wednesday on Sportsnet 360 and get weekly episode recaps on sportsnet.ca
“I saw Shayna hurting like that and then I looked over and I saw Miesha just smiling at her pain and she’s going to pay for every (expletive) smile she smirks,” Rousey added.
Fans can expect a lot of this throughout the season.
“It was ridiculous. You can feel the tension between them. You can just see it,” Team Rousey member Jessica Rakoczy told sportsnet.ca.
“When they’re sitting near each other, standing near each other, you can see the tension. It was really sick.
Battle of the sexes
For the first time in the show’s history men and women moved into the famed TUF House together and the battles of the sexes dynamic was on display right off the bat.
Several of the male contestants joked about potentially ending up in a relationship with one of the female contestants.
But despite all the talk of what might happen in the house between the contestants, most of the athletes remained focussed on the task at hand.
“I can’t really speak for anyone, I can only speak for myself, but I came here to do business and looking for a boyfriend was not on my list of things to do,” Pena said.
Another issue the housemates discussed was how they should go about training together.
The women said they don’t want to be treated any differently than a male training partner, but Team Tate’s Tim Gorman he wouldn’t give his all while training with them in practice.
“How I feel morally as a man, I’m not going to go a hundred per cent with some girl,” Gorman said. “That’s just all there is to it. They’ll get hurt.”
This led to a couple of the girls — namely sportsnet.ca’s TUF 18 blogger Sarah Moras — telling Gorman and the guys they would get tapped out in training sessions if they went easy on them.
Injury replacement
Unfortunately for Gorman, that was one of the only interactions he had in the house as the 9-2 bantamweight was removed from the show due to an injury.
It was revealed through an MRI that Gorman tore his hamstring and was not medically cleared to compete on the show so the UFC brought in Winnipeg’s Louis Fisette as a replacement.
Fight Selection
With Team Tate’s win they gained control of fight selection and the former Strikeforce champ picked Chris Holdsworth to take on Team Rousey’s top male pick, Chris Beal, who is battling a hand injury following his fight to get into the house.
On the Next Episode
Holdsworth and Beal battle it out; one of Tate’s fighter accuses another of leaking their fight picks; and the coaches nearly come to blows when a heated debate arises.
