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This episode features the U.S. Eliminations. 16 fighters come, 8 stay and 8 go home. In a moment of Deja Vu, as the fighters are lined up and BLAF is giving his “Do you want to be a f$&king fighter?” speech, Jason Pierce passes out from his weight cutting. His eyes roll into the back of his head, and he takes a nap. When he comes to, BLAF does not look too happy as he feels the cutting should have already taking place.

Adding to the drama is a herpes sore by way of John Shackleford. During the routine physical the doctor spots his unwanted pet on his forehead. BLAF says “You have a Herpes legion on your forehead that’s contagious. You can not be here in the house with these other guys. So I’m sorry, but thanks for trying.”

The last chapter in the soap opera is with Christian Fulgium in the form of needing to cut more weight. He hops on the stationary bike and starts pedaling away. BLAF is really pissed now. Christian eventually can’t make the weight cut, or as BLAF says “You’re quitting, right?” The season is not starting out well for the U.S. team. Before the bouts have even begun, 2 fighters are eliminated. If you are a superstitious person, this is what is known as a Bad Omen.

BLAF gives them a warning that the U.K. team not only showed up at weight, but were HUNGRY. He feels let down and that this team is lacking commitment and seriousness.

Because of the 2 fighters eliminated, it ends up being that the first bout will be between friends and room mates.

U.S. Lightweight Eliminations:
Paul Bird (5-1) vs. Richie Whitson (4-0) wins by RNC in RD1!
Santino Defranco (13-4) vs. Waylon Lowe (3-2) wins by RNC in RD2!
Cameron Dollar (2-1) vs. Tom Hayden (3-1) wins by RNC in RD2!

U.S. Welterweight Eliminations:
Kevin Knabjian (10-3-1) vs. Mark Miller (8-5) wins by TKO in RD2!
Steve Berger (19-19-2) vs. Jason Pierce wins by UD!
Ray Elbe (20-11) vs. Damarques Johnson wins by TKO in RD1!

Because of the two missing fighters, alternates had to be brought in. Next week we will see the rest of the elimination bouts:

Kiel Reid vs. Frank Lester (Welterweights)
Jason Dent vs. Rob Browning (Lightweights)

Yes, Rob Browning is Junie Browning’s younger brother.

As expected the U.S. team was light in wrestlers. One wrestler out of the bunch in Iowan Paul Bird and he got eliminated. This team’s stand out fighters? I think Richie Witson showed some promise…heart, determination, scrap, aggressive, and well rounded. The other solid fighter was Tom Hayden who simply dominated his bout. Damarques Johnson surprised me with his dominance over Elbe and IMO he may be the best fighter on the team based on what little I’ve seen so far. Still too early to tell.

I think the teams are pretty much evenly matched. Both seem to favor striking and don’t mind grappling, but are light in wrestling. I think we may have a pretty darn close season.

For greater detail on what happened specifically in the fights check out MMAJunkie’s recap and Sherdog’s recap.