The Ultimate Fighter: Team Edgar vs. Team Penn continued Wednesday evening, April 30, on Fox Sports 1.
After winning the show’s first matchup between Hector Urbina and Cathal Pendred, Team Penn earned control of the matchups and elected for one of their top dogs, light heavyweight Dan Spohn, to enter the cage to face Team Edgar’s Todd Monaghan.
In his elimination fight to enter the house, Spohn defeated Tyler King via knockout in just 10 seconds, crushing his opponent with a brutal overhand right that ended the fight almost before it began.
Now, Spohn enjoys significant momentum moving forward, and his coach, UFC legend BJ Penn, said on tonight’s episode that he thinks Spohn will knock out all of his opponents on his path toward winning the title of Ultimate Fighter.
Monaghan, meanwhile, faced significant adversity during his fight to enter the house.
Against Jake Heun, Monaghan was dropped early and nearly finished, but he recovered and slapped on a fight-ending armbar to salvage his chance at UFC glory.
Now these two face off inside the cage, and only one man can advance to the next round.
Here’s how it went down:
There’s no sense in detailing this matchup too much. It was awful.
Spohn apparently didn’t want to pursue another knockout, as he rocked Monaghan early in Round 1 but proceeded to wrestle his way to a unanimous decision victory.
After his early success on the feet, Spohn barely threw another punch for the remaining nine minutes of action, electing to out-grapple and out-position his foe instead.
While Spohn said after the fight that he was happy to show off his other skills, UFC President Dana White disagreed. When previewing next week’s fight, the bald-headed boss said, “It’s impossible to suck as bad as the last fight did,” per Dan Downes of UFC.com.
Ouch.
Speaking of next week’s fight…
Team Penn chose Tim “The South Jersey Strangler” Williams (8-1) to face Team Edgar’s Dhiego Lima (9-1).
Penn said during the episode that Williams is a “cardio machine,” and he expects him to break Lima with his pressure and relentless offensive attack.
Episode Highlights:
- Combat sports legend Renzo Gracie visited Team Edgar to drop some knowledge and to inspire the UFC hopefuls. All the fighters, especially Monaghan, enjoyed learning techniques from the lauded Brazilian jiu-jitsu standout, and they all seemed impressed with his teaching style and execution. If only Monaghan had actually used what he learned in his fight…
- The show’s first winner, Cathal Pendred, brought mats into the house so he and his teammates could work even when they were away from the gym. Spohn took the lead, showing them some breathing and relaxation techniques that he teaches as a third-degree black belt in Kachido Aikijitsu. The fighters struggled with Spohn‘s workout routine and walked away positively impacted by his lesson.
- Spohn dropped a fellow cast member in training, prompting everybody to paint him as a ferocious killer on the feet. As we saw, it didn’t quite work like that during his fight with Monaghan, but the potential is certainly there.
- Monaghan, a preacher, gave a sermon to the house. While some absorbed his message, others, notably Team Penn’s middleweight standout Pendred, mocked him and questioned how genuine his teachings were. Was it from the heart, or was it for TV time?
- Team Edgar’s Corey Anderson asked Monaghan before the fight what he would do if he was in trouble during the fight, and Monaghan replied that this was not even a possibility. Monaghan‘s inability to accept his potential defeat bothered Anderson and the rest of Team Edgar, and they felt he was overconfident heading into his fight with Spohn. They were right.
Episode 4 of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Edgar vs. Team Penn will air next Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.
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