Tag: miesha tate

Rousey-Tate: Hottest Rivalry in Sports? Please

UFC women’s bantamweight linchpin Ronda Rousey undoubtedly loathes her coaching nemesis on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18, Miesha Tate.
But the fact that Rousey and Tate simply hold a bona fide disdain for one another doesn’t mean the duo sho…

UFC women’s bantamweight linchpin Ronda Rousey undoubtedly loathes her coaching nemesis on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18, Miesha Tate.

But the fact that Rousey and Tate simply hold a bona fide disdain for one another doesn’t mean the duo should rightfully draw comparisons to some of the most riveting rivalries in sports.

Deeper and more heated feuds exist in virtually every sport, and truth be told, the Rousey-Tate conflict doesn’t even embody the most captivating rivalry in MMA.

Here are three reasons the Rousey-Tate quarrel pales in comparison to the most deeply layered disputes in sports.

 

Begin Slideshow

Sexy Miesha Tate GIFs, Old-School Nick Diaz Photos, And More Highlights From the CagePotato Tumblr


(Hey, is that a Timex?)

We’re celebrating something special today, Potato Nation: CagePotato’s Tumblr has surpassed 100 followers!

We’re very grateful that our fans and many members of Tumblr’s MMA community have followed us. If you haven’t yet, here are some of the highlights from our first few weeks that you missed — and that you’ll still be missing on a regular basis until you follow us right here.

– To start off, we have an excellent GIF set of Miesha Tate from this season of TUF. This, for obvious reasons, is our most successful post to date.

– There exists a statue of one kid armbarring another kid. It’s in Germany although I’d have expected something like that to be in Brazil instead (or even Japan because of their Judo connection).

– World champions Renan Barao and Jose Aldo in a sparring match. They’re likely not going 100%, but it’s still pretty cool to watch.

See what Conor McGregor was doing with his money, as well as some sick, old-school UFC artwork after the jump.


(Hey, is that a Timex?)

We’re celebrating something special today, Potato Nation: CagePotato’s Tumblr has surpassed 100 followers!

We’re very grateful that our fans and many members of Tumblr’s MMA community have followed us. If you haven’t yet, here are some of the highlights from our first few weeks that you missed — and that you’ll still be missing on a regular basis until you follow us right here.

– To start off, we have an excellent GIF set of Miesha Tate from this season of TUF. This, for obvious reasons, is our most successful post to date.

– There exists a statue of one kid armbarring another kid. It’s in Germany although I’d have expected something like that to be in Brazil instead (or even Japan because of their Judo connection).

– World champions Renan Barao and Jose Aldo in a sparring match. They’re likely not going 100%, but it’s still pretty cool to watch.

– Legendary video maker NickTheFace made an unbelievable trailer for UFC 168: Weidman vs. Silva 2 that puts the UFC’s recent video efforts to shame.

– Another fan-made piece of UFC 168 content, this time a poster, dwarfed the UFC’s official efforts. The poster was made by Dan Goland. The same artist made a truly epic poster for UFC 166. Yeah, “epic” gets thrown around a lot but the poster he made captures the gravity of Junior Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez III.

– Conor McGregor shows off how much cash he has in his wallet. I think this is what he was using all that money for.

– Various members of the UG photoshopped the picture of Joe Rogan in Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s Cossack hat. We put together some of the better ones from the original thread.

– This is what Nick Diaz was doing instead of going to school so he could learn to buy houses.

– Remember that photo from UFC Magazine featuring Dana White mean-mugging as if he were a real fighter? So do we.

– Artist Chris Rini made woodwork pictures of the bout between Royce Gracie and Kimo Leopoldo at UFC 3. These are amazing. If you’re an MMA fan with loads of disposable income, pick these up.

Those are just a few of the highlights from CagePotato’s nascent tumbls, or tumblerings, or what have you. Thanks to all our readers that follow us, and a pox on all of our readers who don’t!

— Matt Saccaro

TUF 18 Ratings Update: A Round of Applause For Our First Group of Female Contestants


(“I’m so sorry…I’m sorry…I’m…*looks down*…hey, those really are nice shoes.” Photo via Getty.) 

If you’ve been following The Ultimate Fighter this season, chances are that, like us, you’ve been more than impressed with the quality of the fights themselves. Four great fights with four decisive (not to mention brutal) finishes have easily outshined most if not all of the petty drama that oft permeates the TUF house, a trend that has only increased since the program’s move to the FX and FOX Sports 1 networks.

Unfortunately, great fights have not necessarily equaled great ratings this season. Blame it on the new network, blame it on the time slot, but TUF 18‘s ratings have been just barely swimming above the “lowest live-viewership” record since the premiere episode. Yes, despite seeing a temporary boost with the second episode, MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer is reporting that last week’s fight between Davey Grant and LivesWithParents pulled in just 640,000 viewers.

In fact, episode 3, featuring the fight between Chris Holdsworth and Chris Beal, similarly drew in just 639,000 viewers. Here’s the thing, episodes 2 and 4 — which featured the female fights of Baszler/Pena and Rakoczy/Modafferi — performed significantly better than those featuring their male counterparts. As Meltzer writes:

For the Ultimate Fighter, there has been an up-and-down pattern in the ratings. As in, the week of a women’s fight, the audience is up. The two women’s fights, airing on Sept. 12 and Sept. 26, did 870,000 and 778,000 viewers live. The men’s fights on Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 did 639,000 and 640,000. 


(“I’m so sorry…I’m sorry…I’m…*looks down*…hey, those really are nice shoes.” Photo via Getty.) 

If you’ve been following The Ultimate Fighter this season, chances are that, like us, you’ve been more than impressed with the quality of the fights themselves. Four great fights with four decisive (not to mention brutal) finishes have easily outshined most if not all of the petty drama that oft permeates the TUF house, a trend that has only increased since the program’s move to the FX and FOX Sports 1 networks.

Unfortunately, great fights have not necessarily equaled great ratings this season. Blame it on the new network, blame it on the time slot, but TUF 18‘s ratings have been just barely swimming above the “lowest live-viewership” record since the premiere episode. Yes, despite seeing a temporary boost with the second episode, MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer is reporting that last week’s fight between Davey Grant and LivesWithParents pulled in just 640,000 viewers.

In fact, episode 3, featuring the fight between Chris Holdsworth and Chris Beal, similarly drew in just 639,000 viewers. Here’s the thing, episodes 2 and 4 – which featured the female fights of Baszler/Pena and Rakoczy/Modafferi — performed significantly better than those featuring their male counterparts. As Meltzer writes:

For the Ultimate Fighter, there has been an up-and-down pattern in the ratings. As in, the week of a women’s fight, the audience is up. The two women’s fights, airing on Sept. 12 and Sept. 26, did 870,000 and 778,000 viewers live. The men’s fights on Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 did 639,000 and 640,000. 

Additionally, the DVR numbers for TUF 18 have been incredibly strong:

Viewership has increased anywhere from 32 percent to 37 percent from the initial reports when you factor in people who watched the show via DVR between Thursday and Saturday. For example, the Sept. 26 show, the most recent to have DVR numbers for, did an additional 272,000 viewers of the initial airing, pushing total viewership to 1.05 million.

The Ultimate Fighter has always been a strong DVR property as compared to most sports programming, but the increases have historically only been in the 15 percent range. 

So it’s not exactly great news, but it does offer a sliver of hope for TUF‘s chances on FS1.

Personally, I’d love to help the show out by tuning in Wednesday nights. I really would. But if the UFC expects me to miss out on Always Sunny so I can listen to Momma Rousey hand down life lessons, they are sorely mistaken. Because I need characters whose problems I can identify with, and seeing an illiterate janitor, a sociopath, a tranny-lover with delusions of grandeur and a bird woman drunkenly argue about things they have no understanding of is like going to a family reunion every week for me.

–J. Jones

TUF 18 Episode 5 Recap: Well, At Least We Know Where Ronda Gets Her “Crazy” From


(The shirt says “Fighting is in my DNA,” just in case you guys didn’t get the message. Photo via UFC.com)

After winning control of the fight picks and securing their first victory last week via dive bomb KO, Team Rousey has selected that roommates and BFF’s Davey Grant (Team Rousey) and Louis Fisette (Team Tate/Lives With Parents) will do battle this week.

Episode 5 starts off with Grant and Fisette shooting the breeze about still being friends after they fight and all that noise, then switches to Roxanne coping with her loss by bawling her eyes out in the fetal position, then switches to Raquel Pennington discussing what it was like coming out to her parents. Non sequiturs FTW!!

Anyway, Grant is our first featured fighter this week. He speaks in what I like to call “Terry Etim English,” in that I can only understand one out of every thirteen words he says. I think he’s missing his children, but he could just as easily be talking about buying his mum a caravan.

At the TUF house, a few members of Team Tate, including “friends with benefits” aficionado Julianna Pena (Author’s note: I’m a really good listener if you ever need one, Julianna. Just sayin’), start to play truth or dare. I shit you not. The first “truth” that comes up: Who’s the hottest guy in the house? Sarah “Cheesecake” Moras votes for Anthony “Sharkbait” Gutierrez. Pena strongly disagrees, labelling him the ugliest guy of them all. Choose your words wisely, Julianna, because if Gutierrez catches wind of his ugliness he will buwn this whole house to da gwound.

Josh Hill is up next and chooses dare. He is given the challenge of using a cheesy pickup line on Roxanne Modafferi. He chooses “Nice shoes, wanna fuck?” It should be noted that Roxanne is not wearing shoes at the time. She didn’t say “No,” though.


(The shirt says “Fighting is in my DNA,” just in case you guys didn’t get the message. Photo via UFC.com)

After winning control of the fight picks and securing their first victory last week via dive bomb KO, Team Rousey has selected that roommates and BFF’s Davey Grant (Team Rousey) and Louis Fisette (Team Tate/Lives With Parents) will do battle this week.

Episode 5 starts off with Grant and Fisette shooting the breeze about still being friends after they fight and all that noise, then switches to Roxanne coping with her loss by bawling her eyes out in the fetal position, then switches to Raquel Pennington discussing what it was like coming out to her parents. Non sequiturs FTW!!

Anyway, Grant is our first featured fighter this week. He speaks in what I like to call “Terry Etim English,” in that I can only understand one out of every thirteen words he says. I think he’s missing his children, but he could just as easily be talking about buying his mum a caravan.

At the TUF house, a few members of Team Tate, including “friends with benefits” aficionado Julianna Pena (Author’s note: I’m a really good listener if you ever need one, Julianna. Just sayin’), start to play truth or dare. I shit you not. The first “truth” that comes up: Who’s the hottest guy in the house? Sarah “Cheesecake” Moras votes for Anthony “Sharkbait” Gutierrez. Pena strongly disagrees, labelling him the ugliest guy of them all. Choose your words wisely, Julianna, because if Gutierrez catches wind of his ugliness he will buwn this whole house to da gwound.

Josh Hill is up next and chooses dare. He is given the challenge of using a cheesy pickup line on Roxanne Modafferi. He chooses “Nice shoes, wanna fuck?” It should be noted that Roxanne is not wearing shoes at the time. She didn’t say “No,” though.

Anthony’s turn at the wheel. He chooses truth and is asked to out the weakest fighter in the house. He selects Louis Fisette (which, considering he lost his qualifier bout, makes sense), then tell the cameras that “If you play truth or dare long enough, someone’s going to get offended.” If this bit lasts any longer I am quitting my job.

It’s training time for Team Tate, which gives us a chance to learn something about Fisette other than the fact that he is a bum who still lives with his parents.

Turns out, he’s a Canadian who still lives with his parents. He got into MMA through a friend when he was 18 and blah blah blah this dude still lives with his parents let’s all point and laugh.

Fresh off his victory over Chris Beal in episode 3, Chris Holdsworth is struggling to stay away from the plethora of junk food that the TUF house has to offer. Gutierrez is in the same camp, but has yet to fight. Looks like we might have Gabe Ruediger 2.0 on our hands, Nation. Someone get the tissues for his breakdown when he inevitably misses weight.

Back to the gym for a Team Rousey training session, which can only mean that Momma Rousey is in the building (bow chicka wow-wow). Ann Maria has already criticized MMA fans and The Ultimate Fighter in general for their portrayal/treatment of her daughter, and right from the get-go she seems…perturbed. She calls out members of Team Rousey, including Jessica Rakoczy (who just fought last week) for putting in enough effort. Ronda talks about how she used to intentionally send her to tournaments injured, bringing new meaning to the phrase “crazy like a champion.” I’m pretty sure Mick went easier on Rocky.

After her little pep talk, the Rousey’s make a surprise visit to the house to give Grant a further pepping. Momma Rousey talks about how having kids makes you stronger or something and I have the weirdest boner right now.

Fight time!

Round 1: Grant starts off with a strong outside leg kick, then lands a nice combo that backs Louis up against the cage. Fisette reverses Grant but can’t get him down, allowing Grant the opportunity to fire off another three punch combo. Grant grabs a leg and Fisette tries an Yves Edwards, single leg flying knee only to be slammed to the mat. Grant stacks him up and lands a few decent shots. Louis tries for a kneebar but is soundly denied. Grant snatches up a kimura then leaps into an armbar but Fisette is able to escape. A scramble ensues and Grant winds up back in Louis’ guard, landing some nice elbows thereafter. Grant’s size/reach advantage are winning him the day here, and he piles on an onslaught of elbows and punches until the round ends. A bloodied Louis was saved by the bell there, which Rousey makes sure to point out.

Round 2:  Louis immediately shoots for a double at the start of the round and pushes Grant into the cage. Grant picks up Louis and delivers an effortless slams, winding up in side mount, then full mount, then back control. Punches reign down from above before Grant flattens Louis and secures a fight-ending rear-naked choke.

Damn. For a British striker, Grant has an incredibly solid ground game. In a show of good sportsmanship, Fisette hugs Grant then hoists him onto his shoulders to carry him around the ring. Uh, dude, you were supposed to use those grappling skills during the fight.

After jumping out to an early lead, Team Tate has now dropped two straight, evening things out between teams. If there was ever a time for Bryan Caraway to try and secure that threeway, it is now.

With Team Rousey still in control, Jessamyn Duke (Team Rousey) is selected to take on Raquel Pennington (Team Tate) next in a matchup that pleases both coaches. Like I said, Bryan, the time is now.

Next week: It’s sexy, slow-mo pool party time with the Hooters girls! Seriously. Plus, Julianna uses her makeover skills to turn a couple of her housemates from drab to fab (*double snaps*).

Team Rousey Women
Shayna Baszler (eliminated by Julianna Pena in the quarterfinals, episode 2)
Jessamyn Duke
Peggy Morgan
Jessica Rakoczy

Team Rousey Men
Chris Beal (eliminated by Chris Holdsworth in the quarterfinals, episode 3)
Davey Grant
Anthony Gutierrez
Michael Wootten

Team Tate Women
Julianna Pena
Sarah Moras
Raquel Pennington
Roxanne Modafferi (eliminated by Jessica Rakoczy in the quarterfinals, episode 4)

Team Tate Men
Cody Bollinger
Chris Holdsworth
Josh Hill
Louis Fisette (eliminated by Davey Grant in the quarterfinals)

–J. Jones

The Ultimate Fighter 18, Ep. 5 Live Results: David Grant vs. Louis Fisette

The Ultimate Fighter returns Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET for another installment of its 18th season.
David Grant (Team Rousey) battles Louis Fisette (Team Tate) in this week’s male bantamweight matchup, but there is sure to be some in-house goings on as we…

The Ultimate Fighter returns Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET for another installment of its 18th season.

David Grant (Team Rousey) battles Louis Fisette (Team Tate) in this week’s male bantamweight matchup, but there is sure to be some in-house goings on as well. Team Rousey will try to even the score as Team Tate is up 2-1 heading into the fight.

Come back for live coverage of the next episode of The Ultimate Fighter. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

TUF 18 Episode 4 Recap: Piss Fits, Toilet Paper Roll Men, And a Gnarly Dive-Bomb KO

(Rakoczy vs. Modafferi highlights, via Fox Sports.)

While the first women’s quarterfinal bout on TUF 18 featured an ego-driven meeting of Team Rousey and Team Tate’s top picks, the second one pitted the female bracket’s #4 seeds against each other. At the end of last week’s episode, we saw coach Miesha Tate select WMMA veteran Roxanne Modafferi (who comes onto the show with a five-fight losing streak) to go in against Team Rousey’s Jessica Rakoczy, a former boxing champ who has only earned one victory in five MMA fights. Once again, we have a meeting of the old school vs. the new school — not to mention a classic matchup between a grappler who’s shaky on her feet vs. a striker who’s still learning this jiu-jitsu stuff. Spoiler alert: The fight ends by stoppage, and it’s ugly.

Ronda Rousey is psyched about the matchup, though. “They’re such predictable little pussies,” she says. “[Modafferi’s] not gonna be able to bully in, you’ll be able to pick her apart, it’s perfect.” Rakoczy apparently suffered a shoulder injury during her elimination fight, but she’s ready, and Miesha Tate will pay for every smile she smirked.

Modafferi thanks Tate for the fight-selection — in Japanese, obviously — and says she’s not going to underestimate Rakoczy, even though her team (and guest coach Dennis Hallman) are convinced that Modafferi’s got this one in the bag. Vengeful MMA Gods, that’s your cue to enter.

Edmond Tarverdyan mean-mugs Hallman and tries to pick a fight as soon as he sees him. Hallman calls his bluff and offers to settle it right then in the training center. Rousey holds her coach back, then gets in Hallman’s face and throws a “piss fit.” (Miesha’s words, not mine.) Dana White has to come in and play peacemaker, which is kind of an unexpected role for him. I’m sure it’s just that infamous reality show editing, but man, Tarverdyan and Rousey are really coming off like crazy assholes here.


(Rakoczy vs. Modafferi highlights, via Fox Sports.)

While the first women’s quarterfinal bout on TUF 18 featured an ego-driven meeting of Team Rousey and Team Tate’s top picks, the second one pitted the female bracket’s #4 seeds against each other. At the end of last week’s episode, we saw coach Miesha Tate select WMMA veteran Roxanne Modafferi (who comes onto the show with a five-fight losing streak) to go in against Team Rousey’s Jessica Rakoczy, a former boxing champ who has only earned one victory in five MMA fights. Once again, we have a meeting of the old school vs. the new school — not to mention a classic matchup between a grappler who’s shaky on her feet vs. a striker who’s still learning this jiu-jitsu stuff. Spoiler alert: The fight ends by stoppage, and it’s ugly.

Ronda Rousey is psyched about the matchup, though. “They’re such predictable little pussies,” she says. “[Modafferi’s] not gonna be able to bully in, you’ll be able to pick her apart, it’s perfect.” Rakoczy apparently suffered a shoulder injury during her elimination fight, but she’s ready, and Miesha Tate will pay for every smile she smirked.

Modafferi thanks Tate for the fight-selection — in Japanese, obviously — and says she’s not going to underestimate Rakoczy, even though her team (and guest coach Dennis Hallman) are convinced that Modafferi’s got this one in the bag. Vengeful MMA Gods, that’s your cue to enter.

Edmond Tarverdyan mean-mugs Hallman and tries to pick a fight as soon as he sees him. Hallman calls his bluff and offers to settle it right then in the training center. Rousey holds her coach back, then gets in Hallman’s face and throws a “piss fit.” (Miesha’s words, not mine.) Dana White has to come in and play peacemaker, which is kind of an unexpected role for him. I’m sure it’s just that infamous reality show editing, but man, Tarverdyan and Rousey are really coming off like crazy assholes here.

Raquel Pennington gets frustrated by Modafferi’s lower intensity during a grappling session, and wants to train with the male fighters instead. So, Coach Tate makes it happen, running a men vs. women sparring session. Sarah Moras demands that Louis Fisette hit her in the face when she senses that Fisette might be taking it easy on her. He takes her down and pounds on her a bit. So now you’ve seen men fighting women (technically) in the UFC. Happy now, you weirdos?

Jessica Rakoczy has taken on the role of house mother, cleaning the house and kissing boo-boos. With her team down 0-2, she feels the pressure to carry the team on her back, despite her weakened shoulder.

Modafferi and Shayna Baszler are old friends from the dark ages of WMMA, and fought each other in Japan back in 2006. Now, the Happy Warrior spends her free time teaching Baszler Japanese. Everybody loves Roxanne Modafferi. Her constant kindness and sheer unguarded weirdness have made her something of a beloved team mascot.

Rakoczy opens up about the abusive step-father who haunted her childhood and ended up beating her mother to death. “He’ll have his karma,” she says. “He’ll be going to hell, that’s for sure.” Luckily, Jessica was able to focus her resulting anger and aggression into boxing.

Roxanne and Jessica both come in under the bantamweight limit (133 and 132 pounds, respectively), then have a little fun with some nunchucks and a dart-gun before they face-off. Suddenly, Roxanne’s “Happy Warrior” smile goes away. Even the men feel the chill in the room.

Jessica talks about how awkward it is to be preparing for a fight while living in the same house as your opponent. Roxanne makes a life-sized man out of toilet paper rolls. (I’m…so…roneryyyy….) Jessica starts to get emotional thinking about not having her son around. Roxanne gets emotional after reading a note of encouragement from Julianna. Pfft, women, amirite?

Time to bang…

Round 1: Both fighters measuring distance with leg kicks. Jessica throws some fast straight punches to the body and head. She starts out as the aggressor, but then Roxanne fires back some punches of her own, moves Jessica back to the fence, and takes her to the mat. Roxanne hangs out in guard for a bit, Jessica kicks her off, Roxanne comes right back in. Jessica looks for a submission off her back, but can’t put anything together. Roxanne on top in side control, sneaks in a short elbow after a moment of inactivity. Jessica scrambles to her knees, Roxanne looking for back control. She can’t get it, and Jessica winds up on top. Now it’s Roxy looking for an armbar. She loses it and Jessica comes in hard with an elbow from the top. A couple more strikes from above from Jessica, as Roxanne tries to tie her down. Jessica escapes when Roxanne tries for a heel-hook, somersaulting out of danger. Back on the feet, Roxanne misses a spinning backfist by a mile; it is truly Sonnen-esque. Roxanne shoots for a double, Jessica stays on her feet and defends. A bit of dirty boxing against the fence, and Roxanne takes Jessica to the mat again. Jessica tries to work her guard as time expires.

Back on the stool, Roxanne sucks in some very deep breaths as Miesha Tate politely asks her for one takedown in the next round. They know they probably won the opening frame due to top control, and Roxanne’s best bet is to do it all over again. Back on Team Rousey, Edmond’s advice to Jessica is simple: Box the shit out of her.

Round 2: Jessica flashes some punches, and Roxanne wades in to clinch, her arms out like a mummy. Jessica fends her off and scores a brilliant backpedaling knockdown with a left hook. Roxanne pops up and they scrap from close quarters until Roxy falls back into guard. Instead of immediately letting Roxanne up, Jessica tries to make Roxanne pay right then and there, diving in with a punch and trying to work some ground and pound. Roxy nearly catches her in an armbar, and Jessica realizes that maybe standing and banging is the best option here. She retreats to her feet and starts putting on a boxing clinic, tagging Roxy once, twice, then sending her to mat again with another left hook. Hammerfists from Jessica as Roxanne clutches at her legs, trying to convert a double. The ref stops the action and then stands there for a few seconds as everybody wonders what the hell is happening. Finally, the ref takes Jessica aside and tells her that if she grabs the fence again, he’s taking a point. (He also warned her for fence-grabbing in round 1, saying that if she did it again, he’d take a point. Well, he’s not exactly following up on that threat, but the pause does give Roxy a long moment to clear the cobwebs, which is sort of fair, I guess.)

The ref restarts the fight in the same position, with Jessica against the fence and Roxanne down on her legs. Roxanne is tenacious, and eventually drags Jessica down. Jessica flips her with ease and gets on top. Coach Ronda screams at her to stand up — seriously, Jessica, WTF? — but Jessica insists on playing around in guard. As soon as Roxanne latches onto her arms, Jessica takes a page out of the Sarah Kaufman playbook and picks Roxanne, slamming her hard on the mat. Roxanne’s head takes a rather hard bounce. She’s visibly dazed, trying to get up while half-asleep. Jessica stuffs a left hand in her face from above, and Roxy endures what might be her third flash-knockout of this fight. Jessica gets on top, grinds down with some strikes, and gets to her feet. Once more, she pops Roxanne in the face from above, as Roxy rolls around on her back, trying to find the strength to get up. Roxanne gets to one knee, collapses to the mat, and Jessica fires off a perfect dive-bomb KO. It’s over. Thank God, it’s over. Roxanne fought the last 20 of that fight while unconscious. Late stoppage, but at least they let a samurai go out on her sword.

Eventually, Roxanne wakes up screaming. She calls out for her big sister, and Jessica comes over for a post-fight hug and pep-talk. Everybody on Team Tate is gutted for Roxy, but it’s a great moment of inter-Team unity. No hard feelings. Everybody lives to fight another day, hopefully with the lessons they learned from this moment. Roxanne shouts some nonsensical gibberish. Or maybe it’s Japanese, but clearly, the poor kid has suffered some brain damage. She cries into Shayna Baszler’s arms, the only other person in the building who understands exactly how fucking badly this sucks right now.

And so, “Team Rowdy” has control of the fight picks, and Ronda chooses her #2 guy Davey Grant to face Team Tate’s injury replacement Louis Fisette.

On the next episode: Ronda’s mom shows up. HIDE. YOUR. WEED.

Team Rousey Women
Shayna Baszler (eliminated by Julianna Pena in the quarterfinals, episode 2)
Jessamyn Duke
Peggy Morgan
Jessica Rakoczy

Team Rousey Men
Chris Beal (eliminated by Chris Holdsworth in the quarterfinals, episode 3)
Davey Grant
Anthony Gutierrez
Michael Wootten

Team Tate Women
Julianna Pena
Sarah Moras
Raquel Pennington
Roxanne Modafferi (eliminated by Jessica Rakoczy in the quarterfinals, episode 4)

Team Tate Men
Cody Bollinger
Chris Holdsworth
Josh Hill
Louis Fisette

— Ben Goldstein