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Time for the semi final fights to kick off as we draw closer to see which 2 fighters will be crowned Ultimate Fighter in their respective welterweight and lightweight fight brackets . So who will move one step closer to the finale show?

The show starts as Dana White picks the matchups. Dana is tempted to mix it up with teams mate fighting each other but between him, Dan Henderson, Mike Bisping and the TUF 9 contestants they settle on keeping the competition as USA versus UK. Here are the pairings:

Nick Osipczak vs DeMarques Johnson

Andre Winner vs Cameron Dollar

Ross Pearson vs Jason Dent

James Wilks vs Frank Lester 

First of the 4 bouts is between welterweights Nick and Demarques. In the USA camp Jason Pierce the contestant unable to fight is receiving a hard time from his fellow team mates. Richie Whitson is not keen on Pierce being friendly with Brit Dave Faulkner and Team UK in general.

During Johnson’s training session Hendo tells us Johnson is the one he picks as the welterweight winner of the show. Only time will tell if he has backed the right fighter. Usually in Johnson’s bouts he is the combatant boasting a height advantage but this time Nick has a slight edge over the American.

Leading up to the fight the rumour circulates that Pierce is giving away Team USA’s training secrets to the Brits. Henderson challenges Pierce on the matter but is eager to deny. It turns out Nick was behind asking Dave Faulkner to infiltrate Team USA via Jason Pierce.

Pre fight  Bisping is shown pushing Nick hard in training. Mean while DeMarques prays for victory kneeling inside the UFC octagon. In paper it would be fair to say the more experienced mixed martial artist Johnson is the odds on favourite with 13 wins under his belt but the less expierenced Londoner Nick is undefeated at 3 and 0

Round 1) Demarques lands a hard blow on Nick. Nick gets taken down by the strong American wrestler but defends well soon regaining the upright position how Bisping taught him. As round progresses Johnson imposes his will on Nick in the ground game. Right at the end of the 1st round the Brit fighter fights back on to his feet laying into the American nearly finishing him. That what was one heck of an exciting round.

Round 2) Nick takes down DeMarques but unfortunately for the Brit he turns it around snatching top position. Johnson continues to dominate on top throughout the round. At one point during the onslaught Bisping from the Team UK corner protests at what appears to be back of the head stikes aimed at Nick. He covers up, defending just enough to see the fight through to a 3rd and final round!

Round 3) In the standup exchanges Johnson lands a huge knee to the head of Londoner Nick. Aiming a kick at Johnson, Nick is taken down once more. Demarques is strong on the canvas, eventually Nick turns it around taking top position. The fight goes the distance, Johnson won on the score card but it was one hell of a scrap.  The first MMA loss for Nick Osipczak but I’m sure we’ll see more this talented young Brit mixed martial artist.  

Demarques Johnson secures his seat in the final versus the winner of James Wilks and Frank Lester. Next episode on tonight at 11pm on Virgin1 tonight will see the 4 light weights square off in episode 11. The following week showing in US on June 20th will be finale show.  

Make sure you tune into Virgin 1 every Sunday at 11pm in the UK
on Freeview TV, Sky or Virgin Media. Setanta Sports subscribers can
catch The Ultimate Fighter second showing every Wednesday.
Over in the States the programme is aired on Spike TV a few days earlier.

Fight fans can now follow BluRayMMA(me!) and BluRayUFC on Twitter.

UFC & MMA blog by Dynamite Duane

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Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping is pleased to be in the lead once again but will
Team UK maintain their lead over their American counterparts – Team USA?

The next pair of Welter Weights to compete on TUF 9 will be Brit and Wolfslair graduate David Faulkner taking on the American Jason Pierce. A bit of an odd matchup in the sense that these 2 have bonded well and become good mates. All of that will have to be left behind when they enter the UFC octagon.

Ginger haired Richie Whitson has the contagious skin condition Impetigo,
fellow American Jason Pierce is paranoid about catching it, hoping to prevent the spread to him and everyone else he sprays a can of disinfectant all over the TUF house.

Pierce has an ankle injury giving him bother in trainin, which doesn’t bode well going into his fight versus Faulkner.

Mike Bisping employs the use of a slegde hammer and a massive 6 foot wide tractor tyre for Team UK fighters which doesn’t go smoothly to say the least!  One wack of the hammer misses the tyre denting the floor while someone else breaks the mat!

Back over in the American camp Pierce grumbles about the way he is being pushed physcially. Dripping in sweat Pierce quits the sparring session inside the cage. Some of his team mates get the impression Pierce does not want to fight Faulkner. We have the same old story of Team USA not sticking together as a unit.

You remember the sledge hammer incidents? Well there was one more, Faulkner accidently hit his own leg causing himself an injury resulted in the need for antibiotics due to infection. Pre fight it doesn’t look for positive for either welter weight fighter.

Time for some fun games as this week is the Coaches Challenge. UFC main man Dana White chooses tennis of all things. The money on the table is $1500 each for the winning team. Dan Henderson turns out to the better man on the court and there is a lot barracking from the USA team mates. Bisping wins some games but ultimately gets thrashed by Hendo to the pleasure of the American TUF 9 contestants. Bisping was peeed off at the jibes aimed at his pale legs.

The programme makers keep us in suspense as to wether the welter weight matchup will happen as a lightweight clash is announced for between American Richie Whitson and Brit battler Ross Pearson from Sunderland. Dan Henderson has high hopes for Whitson one of his proteges. Before their fight Richie celebrates his birthday with a surprise cake complete with candles courtesy of the UFC.

Both Whitson and Pearson make the required 155 lbs weight bracket at the weigh-ins. Pearson looks to be a real force to be contended with for Whitson.

Round 1)
The fight is a real rough and tough brawl. Whitson receives a slamming from the aggressive Pearson. During Whitson’s takedown attempt on Pearson the Brit strikes the American straight in the face kneeing him. Due to Whitson’s position the blow was illegal, consequently he Ross Pearson loses one point and Whitson is allowed a timeout. The timeout does ginger haired Whitson no favours as Pearson snatches a the tapout victory via Armbar submission. A win for Pearson and Bisping’s Team UK extend their lead over their American opposition.

UK 4-2 USA.

The action and excitement gets better each week. Next we’ll finally see what transpires between David Faulkner and Jason Pierce.

Make sure you tune into Virgin 1 every Sunday at 11pm in the UK on Freeview TV, Sky or Virgin Media. Setanta Sports subscribers can catch The Ultimate Fighter second showing every Wednesday. Over in the States the programme is aired on Spike TV a few days earlier.

MMA blog by Dynamite Duane

duane@bluraymma.com

www.myspace.com/dynamite_duane

Rob Browning the brother of last season’s entrant and attention seeker Junie Browning wasting no time in getting himself noticed on camera and in the process wound up a lot of people. Browning indiscriminately launched eggs at his fellow TUF 9 contestants from a far. He didn’t seem to care who he annoyed regardless of being British or American. His notoriety earns himself the nickname 15 minutes as appears so keen to have his own 15 minutes of fame.

 

Team USA still needed one more Welterweight fighter and one more lightweight fighter to be decided in tonight’s eliminations before the series can progress to team versus team. First up the welters.

 

Kiel Reid fought it out with Frank Lester for the remaining place with the welters on the squad. Lester pre fight told us he wanted to stand and duke it out but gets taken down by Reid. Reid is dominant on the deck, wrestling looks to be his strong suit. The fight ends by Reid inadvertently knocking himself out when he takes down Lester hitting his own head into the floor of the octagon. Lester had a Kimura submission hold on him but Reid was out and unable to tap out. An unfortunate loss to Reid but anything can happen inside the cage. Frank Lester advances to the TUF house joining Dan Henderson’s Team USA.

 

The second and last Team USA decider saw Rob Browning compete against Jason Dent for the remaining lightweight spot. Would Rob Browning make it as far as his brother? We were about to find out. Into the bout there were good exchanges from both mixed martial artists until Dent overwhelms Browning on the mat utilising a ground and pound assault for the win. Dent to stay, Browning to go home to everyone else’s pleasure.

 

The final squad for Team USA

 

U.S. welterweights

 

Frank Lester

 

Mark Miller – Chicago

 

Jason Pierce – Iowa.

 

DaMarques Johnson – Salt Lake City

 

 

U.S. lightweights

 

Jason Dent

 

Richie Whitson – Alaskan residing in California

 

Santino DeFranco – IFL

 

Cameron Dollar – Colorado Springs

 

 

 

Next episode the competition between the two nations kicks off now all team members have been decided following the elimination bouts. Dana White flips the TUF coin, Team USA win the toss picking the first fight between the rival nations.

 

Make sure you tune into Virgin 1 every Sunday at 11pm in the UK on Freeview, Sky or Virgin Media. If you have Setanta Sports you can catch the episode repeated each Wednesday. Over in the States the programme is aired on Spike TV.

 

 

 

MMA blog by Dynamite Duane

duane@bluraymma.com

www.myspace.com/dynamite_duane

 

 

 

Since Dan Henderson came off victorious over Rich Franklin it would be the former Olympian filling the role as coach of Team USA. So who would be the 8 American mixed martial artists to represent their country? Tonight Dana got the contests underway to whittle down from 16 to 8 fighters.

 

If you recall from the sneak preview not everyone was fully prepared for this chance of a lifetime at winning a contract fighting inside the UFC Octagon. 2 fighters had not reached the required weight in time for the elimination fights. Dramatically in front of Dana White, Dan Henderson and the other entrants, welterweight Jason Pierce collapsed in a heap. Despite this Pierce wasn’t dismissed. The demand of cutting weight in a too short a time had taken a toll on the guy.

 

Another contestant upon medical examination was discovered to have evidence of Herpes visible on his head, John David was sent home straight away. Christian Fulgium the second fighter to not make it as far as the elimination stage just couldn’t cut the weight in time despite being given extra time so he quit.

So two fighters down out of the 16 Dana promised 2 more fighters to be revealed later on.

 

Kicking things off from the welterweights we saw Mark Miller best his friend and training partner Kevin Knabjian after 2 rounds with a TKO victory. Looked tough for them both being buddies as only one could advance to the TUF house.

 

Second fight was the first for of the lightweights, as Richie Whitson of California took on Paul Bird in a decent fight. Whitson got the win via rear naked choke.

 

The 3^rd fight saw the super strong Waylon Lowe completely dominate Santino Defranco in the 1^st round. It appeared to be all over as Defranco turtled up taking a pounding but referee Steve Mazzagatti kept him in it. Come round 2 Defranco came back with vengeance, launching at Lowe kneeing him straight on. He follows up by submitting with a chokehold to gain the win. It’s quite possible another referee would have stopped it in round 2 but then we wouldn’t have that amazing come back which made exciting viewing.

 

The next decider were between welters Berger and Jason Pierce. Remember Pierce the fella who fainted? Well he stayed the distance of the full 3 rounds winning by a decision.

 

Another pair of lightweights entered the cage – Cameron Dollar and Tom Hayden. The 1^st round is won by Hayden, which counted for little as Dollar came back in the 2^nd round submitting his opponent to win.

 

Sixth bout of the night saw Muay Thai kick boxer Roy Elbe get beaten on the ground from Damarques Johnson impressively winning via ground and pound.

 

So six members of Team USA decided and here they are below:

 

 

U.S. welterweights

 

Mark Miller – Chicago

 

Jason Pierce – Iowa.

 

DaMarques – Johnson Lake City

 

 

U.S. lightweights

 

Richie Whitson – Alaskan residing in California

 

Santino DeFranco – IFL

 

Cameron Dollar – Colorado Springs

 

 

Six made it into the house and onto the show, leaving space for two more competitors but to get into the house you have to fight first. Dana then introduced us to 2 extra guys in with a chance. One turned out to be Rob Browning brother of Junie Browning the fighter up to all the shenanigans on TUF 8. 

 

You can catch the new episode this Sunday at 11pm on Virgin 1 in the UK and if you missed last weeks view it again on Setanta Sports 1. You lucky people stateside get to see it all before us Brits on Spike TV Wednesday evening.