Hello again, Ultimate Fighter fans! Season 20 has been progressing quite nicely. The fights have been good and the in-house drama has been handled with a level of maturity we haven’t seen in a long time, if ever.
This time, Urijah Faber showed up to fill in for Anthony Pettis, coaching the fighters in the mysterious art of wrestling. It might have been hard to recognize Urijah since he had a shirt on the entire time. During the grappling session, Urijah and Carla had an intimate moment that Carla’s BFF, Felice immediately picked up on. I guess Felice can have a crush on Sergio Pettis while Carla’s down the the leader of the Alpha Males.
There’s not really a bio of Carla or Angela, just footage of Hill farting constantly and Esparza talking with Felice about maybe wanting to kiss Urijah Faber. Carla is concerned about ring rust, since it’s been close to a year and a half since she last fought, and the prospect of someone with knockout power throwing full-power punches at her head seems to have Carla a little rattled.
Justine Kish finally gets some screen time as she is worrying about her weight. She’s only fought at strawweight once before, and despite all her cardio and spinach shakes, the pounds aren’t coming off. Kish is also struggling with a wobbly knee, which is preventing her from training as hard as she wants to cut weight.
In this episode’s “Nobody Likes Heather Clark” moment, Heather is complaining about her wonky knee and nobody is paying attention to her. Additionally, Clark spent the majority of a training session on an exercise bike, then monopolizing one of the two ice baths at the end of training. Angela Magana in particular got pissed off because the fighters engaging in actual training need the ice baths to recuperate more.
The fight: #1 Carla “Cookie Monster” Esparza vs #16 Angela Hill
Esparza looked very dominant against Hill, as was to be expected. The fight started a little slow, as Hill was ready to sprawl, while Carla didn’t want to rush in and eat a big knee. Angela throws a kick, and that’s all it takes for Esparza to grab hold of Hill’s leg and drag her to the mat. Carla hit some nice in-guard slams, moved to mount, and started landing heavy ground and pound punches.
Carla went for the rear naked choke, but Angela defended well. During a scramble, Angela made to stand up, but used both hands to grab the fence to pull herself up. That left her neck completely exposed and Carla jumped on Angela’s back and sunk the fight-ending choke.
Join us next week as #6 Felice “Lil Bulldog” Herrig vs #11 Heather Clark
Quotables:
“Urijah Faber’s so dreamy!” – Felice Herrig, of course, though this time she’s verbalizing Carla’s thoughts
“You sound like Braveheart” – Urijah Faber, smitten with Joanne Calderwood, just like the rest of us
“I have a bachelor’s in theater” – Heather Clark, finally helping us make sense of why she’s doing what she’s been doing
Highlights:
– Angela Hill, on behalf of feminists everywhere, farting all over the place
– Felice Herrig making a sign for Carla, but writing in permanent marker because she’s kind of a goofus
– Carla celebrating with a GIANT F*CKING COOKIE
