With Team Penn up 2-0 in the early going of The Ultimate Fighter 19, Team Edgar looked to Dhiego Lima to get its first win of the season. In his way was a scary man known as “The South Jersey Strangler,” Tim Williams.
A lot of this episode revolved around the future of the season, as Matt Van Buren of Team Edgar irked many of Team Penn.
This was especially true with Chris Fields, as both men expressed their dislike for one another and their intent to fight at some point.
When it came time to fight, we got a great scrap between two awesome middleweights on this season. As BJ Penn put it, it was the fight of the season so far (not including elimination-round fights).
Williams dominated the first round using good cage work, solid clinch and great top control. Williams had Lima’s back for a good portion of the round and almost got a rear-naked choke.
The second round was a different fight. Lima stayed off the cage more and opened up with his hands. He really started scoring on the feet, which led to a shot by Williams. Lima sprawled nicely, quickly jumped Williams’ back and secured a rear-naked choke of his own. Williams tapped and Lima effectively gave Team Edgar its first win.
Williams was distraught, but it was a sweet transition to choke by Lima. Had the fight gone to the end of the second round, it would have been pushed to a third and Lima looked the fresher of the two.
Team Edgar finally got a hold of the pick, and despite Van Buren‘s pleas to get his fight with Fields, they went with their top pick Corey Anderson to take on Josh Clark.
Teams
| Team Edgar 185 | Team Penn 185 | Team Edgar 205 | Team Penn 205 |
| Ian Stephens | Mike King | Corey Anderson | Anton Berzin |
| Dhiego Lima | Tim Williams | Patrick Walsh | Josh Clark |
| Eddie Gordon | Cathal Pendred | Matt van Buren | Dan Spohn |
| Hector Urbina | Roger Zapata | Todd Monaghan | Chris Fields |
Notes and Observations:
- Matt Van Buren is officially the bigmouth of the house. The Team Edgar guys seem half-and-half about him, while most of Team Penn dislikes him in a big way. He says what he feels and doesn’t apologize for it. This was especially the case when he made fun of Chris Fields’ accent, upsetting the Irishman. We will see if he can back up his tough-guy act.
- Patrick Walsh tweaked his back in training, an injury he says has been nagging him for a while. Expect this storyline to continue down the road, especially when fight time nears for Walsh. This will affect his ability to score takedowns, as that is the former Ohio State wrestler’s bread and butter.
- Tim Williams has some gnarly facial scars that he got from a terrible car accident. Anton Berzin made him a picture of a half-faced skull because it reminded him of Williams. That leads me to call for Williams to change his nickname to “Two Face,” even though “The South Jersey Strangler” is super badass.
- The fighters say they are fighting boredom when not in the gym. They said they shoot pool and write in journals to pass time, but they showed two fighters playing nutball in their room. If you don’t know what nutball is, you basically sit across the room from one another with your legs spread and you toss a tennis ball at the opposing player’s testicles. Yeah, they are really bored.
- Dhiego Lima talked about coming to the USA, learning English quickly and showed he was brainstorming middle names for his daughter on the way. He mentioned his brother Douglas as a successful fighter, but didn’t mention he was a major player in Bellator. Not really a surprise, though.
- The fight next week should be interesting. I think Anderson’s wrestling is going to be too much for Clark, but Clark did get into the house by using a triangle armbar from the bottom to tap out a wrestler. We will see if he can do that again.
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