Following its first victory of the season, American Top Team already dropped the ball last episode. On this episode of The Ultimate Fighter 21, it looks to regain home-gym advantage from the dominating Blackzilians.
This episode was unique because it was the halfway mark of the season, so the coaches were given the option of making two substitutions to their squad.
In examining their teams, both gyms made one replacement to their squad.
On Blackzilians‘ side of things, it was discovered that following his knockout loss to Hayder Hassan, Andrews Nakahara was given a medical suspension by the athletic commission. That meant he was ineligible for the rest of the competition, which led to Glenn Robinson inserting World Series of Fighting veteran Alexandre Pimentel into the field of fighters.
As for American Top Team, it was already down a fighter after Steve Montgomery suffered a seizure and was medically released from the house. So, Dan Lambert simply added Bellator vet Cristiano Souza to the squad.
As for the fight pick this week, ATT went with its captain and power wrestler Nathan Coy. He was countered by Blackzilian Vicente Luque, an underdog in the eyes of many.
When it came to fight time, things did not go as many would have probably expected. Coy constantly looked for his takedowns, with Luque defending them proficiently. Not only that, but Luque lit Coy up on the feet. We all knew that Luque held the striking advantage, but we figured that he’d overcommit and get grounded by Coy.
It went to a sudden-death third round, where a gassed Coy continued to shoot for takedowns. However, he left his neck open, which allowed Luque to grab a hold of an anaconda choke and earn a tapout, giving Blackzilians yet another win.
That put the Blackzilians up 200-50, and even more impressively, six fights to one. They continue their hold on home-gym advantage as they go into the final 50-point fight next week.
Season Results
| Winner | Loser | Points | Leader |
| Kamaru Usman (B) | Mike Graves (A) | 25 | Blackzilians lead 25-0 |
| Luiz Firmino (B) | Uros Jurisic (A) | 25 | Blackzilians lead 50-0 |
| Valdir Araujo (B) | Steve Carl (A) | 25 | Blackzilians lead 75-0 |
| Carrington Banks (B) | Sabah Homasi (A) | 25 | Blackzilians lead 100-0 |
| Hayder Hassan (A) | Andrews Nakahara (B) | 50 | Blackzilians lead 100-50 |
| Jason Jackson (B) | Marcelo Alfaya (A) | 50 | Blackzilians lead 150-50 |
| Vicente Luque (B) | Nathan Coy (A) | 50 | Blackzilians lead 200-50 |
Notes and Observations
- What’s kind of funny about ATT replacing Montgomery with Souza is that both men were a part of the ill-fated Fight Master: Bellator MMA. What’s even funnier is that Souza defeated Montgomery, his teammate, to get into the Bellator house and participate on the show.
- Luque easily has the best English of any of the Brazilian fighters on the show. He has a slight accent, but just barely. I think that’s because he was born in New Jersey and moved to Brazil at a young age. This likely gave him time to develop his English before leaving (I believe he said he moved to Brazil at the age of five).
- I am so surprised at most of these fights. I thought ATT was way stronger in terms of talent, and it is getting dominated. The biggest surprises, in my eyes, have been Luque and Jason Jackson, who beat guys I thought were vastly superior to them.
- Dana White didn’t think there should be a third round, as he believed Luque secured the victory after two rounds. While he may have had a point, I think it was the right call. I actually think all the fights should be three rounds. I don’t like the two-round fights, as it takes away from a potential fatigue-induced finish down the stretch. There are more third-round finishes than you would think.
- Just an observation about the live finale. It doesn’t appear that the UFC is going to be keeping a lot of these guys around. There are already eight fights added, and we’re not even on the final 100-point round of the show. Usually, there are 11 or 12 fights on a card. That means there are three or four fights left to add. After you consider there will be the finals bout between the two best fighters, there would only be room for two or three more bouts.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com