Tonight’s third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Live features an honest-to-God big fight.
That’s something we haven’t really seen in past seasons of the show, at least not since Roy Nelson smothered Kimbo Slice with his belly back on the Heavyweights season. Justin Lawrence and Cristiano Marcello were my two picks to advance to the finals of this season, and yet here they are, meeting in the second tournament fight.
The fight came about when Dominick Cruz punked Urijah Faber at the end of last week’s episode. Cruz had control of the fight pick for this week and selected Lawrence from his team. Instead of picking an opponent from Faber’s team, Cruz instead told Faber to pick his best guy.
Faber asked his team who wanted to step up and face Lawrence. They all stayed quiet, and nobody volunteered. Cruz ultimately picked Marcello, setting up a highly intriguing striker vs. grappler battle between two favorites.