By Neil Davidson
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Rival coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior Dos Santos each send a fighter to the semifinals in Episode 8 of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
But the day probably belongs to Team Lesnar as welterweight Chris Cope upsets Shamar Bailey, who was Dos Santos’ first pick on Season 13 of the reality TV show.
Ramsey Nijem of Team Dos Santos wins the other quarter-final, making short work of Lesnar’s Clay Harvison in the episode that aired Wednesday night.
Next week’s quarter-final matchups are Chuck O’Neil (Lesnar) versus Zach Davis (Dos Santos) and Tony Ferguson (Lesnar) against Edmonton’s Ryan McGillivray (Dos Santos).
Season 13 has been short on sparkle and Wednesday’s episode was no exception.
A pep talk by Brian Stann, former decorated marine and current middleweight, adds some class to a season that has been stale at best.
Making a point of Nijem’s “nice panties” at the weigh-in doesn’t raise the debate much but the Utah-based fighter with Palestine roots wastes little time choking out Harvison.
Harvison scores points in fighting just days after dislocating his pinky and getting stitches. But the drama of the striker versus wrestler matchup lasts some 10 seconds as a clinical Nijem dumps Harvison, takes his back and locks in a rear naked choke.
The fight is short and not very sweet but Harvison still gets props from UFC president Dana White for answering the bell despite his injuries.
“Clay was just outclassed with wrestling,” says Lesnar, cutting to the chase.
The next fight follows a predictable reality show thread as an overconfident Bailey — despite a nagging back injury — looks to punish underdog Cope for annoying him at the house with his morning shouts.
White sounds his own warning, however, about Bailey’s first fight.
“He looked very one-dimensional to me,” White said of Bailey, the wrestler.
The UFC boss is proved right as Bailey fails to execute his quarter-final takedowns. The Dos Santos camp expects to get the judges’ nod after two dull rounds but Cope, who blunts all of Bailey’s attacks, gets the decision.
Bailey loses more points for telling White afterwards he decided to take a risk by skipping his wrestling base to show he can bang.
“Well looks like you tried to take him down a bunch of times,” an astute White counters.
Bailey blames it on his sore back.
