UFC

Tonight's third episode of The Ultimate Fighter 5 featured the best fight I think I've ever seen on an Ultimate Fighter episode.  These lightweights are turning out to be a whole lot of fun, thanks, in most part, to their general insanity.  Crazy fighters = Good TV.  We begin the episode with a short recap and, again, Gabe receives an inordinate amount of screen time for someone who hasn't fought yet. 

We're reminded how much of a pit bull Manny Gamburyan really is and how, if he were given five minutes in the Octagon with me, I'd leave in a bodybag.  BJ Penn is visibly pissed off that his team hasn't won a fight yet, but you can't really blame him for the losses.  Both of his previous fighters were over matched.  Gabe gets some more time in the spotlight, thanks to him asking Dana White if he can get a colonic, in order to help him cut weight.  He gives Gabe the okay.

Nate Diaz is bloodthirsty, and he lets it be known that he wants to fight and he wants to fight now.  Team Penn, in general, is upset with Gabe.  He's still 20 pounds overweight and his solution is not to work hard, but to go get a colonic.  We see the colonic in disgusting detail.  I will mention it no more.

We get a montage of Corey Hill showing off his ability to turn on “the crazy” whenever he deems fit.  During training, he tends to start yelling incoherently, but it's all in good taste.  His team doesn't mind, because Corey works his ass off, and you can tell. The man, for being so skinny, is seriously cut. 

Jens Pulver brings in a guest coach for his team and it's grappling specialist Jeremy Horn, who gives Team Pulver some pointers.  He immediately takes Corey Hill under his wing, seeing the massive potential that he possesses.  You see, Corey is still extremely raw, but he has the desire to get better, and he's improving at a rapid clip.  Horn invites him to come train at his Salt Lake City gym after the show is done taping.

The fight announcement comes, and Nate Diaz gets his wish.  Pulver selects Nate to fight Team Penn's Rob Emerson. 

Nate Diaz is a 21-year old kid, with a bit of a street-fighting mentality.  He is aggressive, with a great submission game.  Rob Emerson is 25, from The OC, and has a lot of experience fighting.  He is a kick-boxing/stand-up specialist.

The general feel we get is that this is a fight between the top fighters on each team.  Diaz says that no one wanted to fight Emerson so he decided to stand up to the challenge.   

I'm glad he did.

The first round ended up fairly even.  It was five whole minutes of stand-up, a grudge match that saw no hint of domination by either fighter.  Emerson has great take down defense, and did an amazing job of not letting Diaz take him to the ground  Both fighters, near the end, exchanged punches to the face, but that was about it.

The second round was epic.  A minute or so in, Diaz finally took Emerson to the ground.  It was Diaz's fight from there on out, but it was an absolute war.  Emerson took blow after blow to the head and body, but kept fighting.  He eventually tired, and submitted to a rear naked choke. 

Afterwards, Dana White congratulated both fighters on what he said was perhaps “the best fight there's ever been on The Ultimate Fighter”.  BJ Penn couldn't be upset with the way Emerson fought, he was a warrior.  Nate Diaz was just a little better.

We'll have an exclusive interview with Rob Emerson tomorrow afternoon.

-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer