TUF 9 Episode Three Review

There is a god! Somewhere out there the big man (or whatever) is smiling down upon us. And on Weds he said: "Let Rob Browning be banished from this house!"

Yes people, our wishes have been answered. Junie Browning Jr. is off the show for good and we will not be forced to bear witness to his drunken, juvenile antics anymore! You know you must have a crappy personality when the entire house is rooting against you no matter your country.

This week was the best week on TUF I can remember in a long, long time. It started out simple enough with both teams moving in to the house. There wasn't much animosity between the two teams but that will change I'm sure of it. You stick professional fighters competing against each other in the same house for six weeks with no outside contact and see what happens.

There was classic fraternal mocking and drunken tough guy antics from Browning (egg tossing of all things) but overall the two teams got along well for their first few days. The biggest step forward was everyone getting together and pledging not to mess with each other like last season. I gawt a little fechlempt... tawk amongst ya'selves... I'll give you a tawpic - chick peas: neitha a chick noor a pea, discuss... (classic SNL, look it up kiddies)

In any case, there were the routine training montages. We found out why Bisping hadn't been around for the first round of elimination fights (visa issues). And finally we got into the elimination fights to determine the last two members of Team USA.

The first fight was Frank Lester v. Kiel Reid. Lester had some decent stand up but couldn't get anything effective off against Reid. Reid was your traditional wrestler.

Reid had minimal stand up and submissions but certainly knew how to take you down and hold you there. Unfortunately he was a little too good. Going for a big slam on Lester, Reid hit his head on the mat and knocked himself out.

Lester nearly twisted Reid's arm off in the process but that's irrelevant as the ref called a stop to the fight in the first round. Lester moves into the house and Reid leaves, disgusted that he ended his own chance at getting on the show.

Lester wasn't all that impressive but he's a factor none the less. Also, you have to root for a former Marine. Fighting in a cage must be like picking daisies compared to being in a live fire zone in some godforsaken desert.

Next up was the fight everyone was dying to see: Jason Dent v. Rob Browning. My suspicions were confirmed that the only reason Browning was brought on was because of his name. I say this because right before his fight Dana White admits that Rob's true fighting weight is 135 and he only weighed 150 at the time of the fight for a fight at 155.

Dent probably outweighed Browning by at least 15-20 lbs by the time they fought. It showed too. Browning's striking, which actually wasn't bad, had no effect on Dent.

Dent walked right through Browning as he won easily by TKO in the first round. Dent looks like he has some promise in the LW tournament but obviously beating Browning was not the ultimate Litmus test.

So the teams are finally set and next week we get in to quarter final and country v. country match ups. Due to the luck of the draw (or coin flip in this case) Henderson gets to pick the first fight. I can't wait to see what happens next week. Bisping looks like he's going to quite the pisser this season huh?

As always I'll end with my quote of the week. This week the honor belongs to Damarques Johnson of Team USA: "Bisping's like that proud parent at a church basketball game that I got into a fist fight with." Poor grammer aside Damarques, you're on you own with that one buddy. Good luck to you sir.

That's it for this week. I'll be back with my UFC 97 review this weekend and I'll have more TUF shenanigans next week. Until then,

Soccer kicks and head stomps...