If you missed last week’s episode click here.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was back on FOX Sports 1 last night (Weds., Nov. 28, 2018) with the twelfth and final episode of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 28, featuring a split cast of men’s heavyweights and women’s featherweights. Last week, Team Whittaker’s Juan Espino submitted Maurice Greene to advance to the live finale, where he’ll face Justin Frazier in 265-pound action.
Who will battle Pannie Kianzad for the remaining 145-pound slot? We’ll find out shortly, as Leah Letson (Team Whittaker) collides with Macy Chiasson (Team Gastelum). But first, more in-house hijinks, starring everyone’s favorite drunk! Just kidding, Greene gets no airtime now that he lost.
It’s a dirty game.
Letson is watching tape of Chiasson’s last fight against Larissa Pacheco in hopes of putting together a competent gameplan. Not sure when they filmed this but she currently has two swollen eyes and a lacerated forehead, presumably from her Bea Malecki fight. We get the usual footage of her on the exercise bike, sparring inside the cage, and the talking to the camera about all the things she plans to do when the fight goes down later in the episode. She’ll have to overcome a significant disadvantage in both height and reach.
Meanwhile, Team Gastelum is playing dodgeball at the UFC Performance Institute. I suddenly miss middle school. They also enlist UFC light heavyweight Ilir Latifi to help train the squad in wrestling; specifically, how to effectively change levels and keep an opponent defending at all times. If an opponent can only defend, they cannot attack.
Now it’s time for Chiasson to show us what she’s doing to prepare for the contest and not surprisingly, it’s pretty much what every fighter does before they compete. She watches tape, spars, grapples, and talks about how much ass will be kicked during the bout. Coach Gastelum calls her a perfectionist. Then she has a mental breakdown during practice and just wants to brawl, believing she already peaked and shouldn’t be trying to learn new stuff the day before a fight. I blame the awesomeness of Latifi’s wrestling prowess.
Chiasson appears to be having trouble cutting weight the second time around. Letson accidentally walks into the room where her opponent is cutting weight and it leads to an awkward confrontation. It’s time for the official weigh ins and Chiasson is heavy, so they get the towels and here comes the birthday suit. That appears to do the trick and the fight is official. Later that night, Coach Gastelum and newly-crowned UFC flyweight champion Henry Cejudo take the team out for Korean BBQ. Yum!
145 lbs.: Team Whittaker’s Leah Letson (4-1) vs. Team Gastelum’s Macy Chiasson (2-0)
Round 1: Quick touch of gloves and they exchange body kicks. Teep from Letson. Then a hard right. They clinch in the center of the cage and jockey for position. Letson pushes her into the wall and they take a coffee break. Referee asks them to do something. Chiasson turns her hips and Letson goes for a ride. Chiasson jumps into mount but Letson is able to escape. Now it’s Chiasson who has her pushed into the fence. Some really brutal Muay Thai follows and Letson takes a dozen unanswered knees, including one in the liver. Down in a heap she goes and that’s the fight. Ouch.
Final result: Chiasson def. Letson by technical knockout
Here’s your TUF 28 live finale:
145 lbs.: Pannie Kianzad vs. Macy Chiasson
265 lbs.: Justin Frazier vs. Juan Espino
See you on Friday!