Team Sonnen’s Uriah Hall continued his reign of terror and Team Jones’ Josh Samman picked up another dominant win as the two beat Bubba McDaniel and Jimmy Quinlan, respectively, to advance to the semifinals of The Ultimate Fighter 17.
Neither fight lasted too long, but it ended up being one of more memorable episodes of the season.
This fight seemed to be over before it began as nearly everyone expected Hall to win convincingly — and win convincingly he did.
McDaniel, who lost to Kelvin Gastelum in his preliminary fight but earned a spot in the quarterfinals after defeating Kevin Casey in this season’s wild card matchup, moved forward aggressively early and it proved to be the wrong strategy.
Hall landed a swift knee to the body and then a laser beam of a right cross to McDaniel’s left eye and he went down. Hall landed a few more punches before the referee stepped in. All said and done, the fight was over in about 10 seconds.
“I don’t know what happened,” said a dazed McDaniel after the fight. “I really don’t know what the hell just happened.”
Afterwards, Hall’s coach and former No. 1 UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen was nearly speechless.
“You’re a contender, Uriah,” Sonnen told his fighter in the cage as doctors examined McDaniel. “I’ll tell you what, I spent five years in that division and you’re a contender, for the title.”
Hall made headlines across the sports world earlier this year following his highlight reel spinning-heel kick KO of Adam Cella – regarded as one of the most spectacular knockouts in the history of the UFC let alone TUF.
“The way that this guy knocks people out it’s scary,” UFC president Dana White said. “This guy is the nastiest guy in Ultimate Fighter history.”
Predictably Quinlan, who submitted Clint Hester of Team Jones with a rear-naked choke in the preliminary round, rushed forward aggressively looking to pursue his grappling advantage. He shot in for a takedown, lifted Samman over his head and slammed him to the ground. Although he ate some nasty elbows to the ribs, Quinlan passed nicely into side control and landed some ground-and-pound.
For the next several minutes Quinlan maintained a dominant position. However, with less than a minute remaining in the opening frame, Samman, who knocked out Tor Troeng in the first round of their preliminary fight, got back to his feet and began landing strikes. After a few solid knees, Quinlan went down and Samman took his back.
He began throwing simultaneous punches with his right and left hands from back control. They landed hard and Quinlan, to the surprise of many, tapped out.
On last week’s episode, Team Jones’ Dylan Andrews and Team Sonnen’s Kelvin Gastelum advanced to the semifinals with impressive wins over Luke Barnatt and Collin Hart, respectively.
On the next episode of TUF, Samman fights Gastelum and Hall will take on Andrews in the semifinals with the winners meeting in the finale on April 12.