The last episode of the regulary season of The Ultimate Fighter: Live took place last night to establish who will fight in the live season finale on FX next Friday night.
Firstly there was a recap of the last week in the house and the fighters and coaches got to check out the Harley Davidson motorcycles that both the eventual winning castmember and coach will get at the end of the series.
Then it was back to the house and for the first time this season there was almost a full-blown fight after Chris Tickle threw a water bottle at a sleeping Daron Cruickshank who didn’t take kindly to it and ran after the prankster.
When he caught up with him he was clearly still seeing red and threw a leg kick and several punches at Tickle before giving him a piece of his mind.
The housemates, including Tickle who tried to laugh it off, were surprised by his reaction and wondered if he’d be kicked off the show for his actions, but it appears the matter was overlooked.
Dana White did make an appearance the next day in training, but only to inform the cast that they’d all get the chance to fight on the TUF: Finale next week. All except Mike Rio and Andy Ogle who are injured, but will get a chance to fight on another card.
So it’s on the semi-final fights and first up is James Vick Vs Mike Chiesa.
Vick got the better of the first round which saw the two trade strikes for the most part. Vick dropped Chiesa down to his knees near the end of the round with a strike and then looked for a guillotine choke, but couldn’t finish it before the end of the round.
Chiesa stepped things up in the second round though and managed to secure a takedown and moved to mount where he unleashed a barrage of strikes that left his opponent able to do nothing but cover up until the ref stopped the fight with 1.55mins of the round gone, sending Chiesa to the final.
Vinc Pichel and Al Iaquinta then fought to see who would be facing Chiesa in the finale.
This was a hard fought fight that went the full two rounds with Iaquinta winning the first solidly with better striking and takedowns, while the second was fairly evenly matched.
A third round could have been a possibility, but in the end the judges saw both rounds in Iaquinta’s favor so he progresses to the final.
So it’s Mike Chiesa Vs Al Iaquinta who’ll battle it out at next week’s TUF: Live Finale to establish who’s the next Ultimate Fighter.
