Team Tate blog: Chris Holdsworth on 'The Ultimate Fighter 18,' episode No. 6

What a great episode we had this week. Raquel Pennington vs. Jessamyn Duke was just a fantastic fight. It was great to see “Rocky” perform so well in the fight. Even though she is 3-3 in her career and 25 years old, I was impressed with her from the very beginning of the season

I thought she was a very mature and yet laid-back athlete. She was never a person who had just super-high energy. She really just kind of kept to herself. She would still interact with all of us, but she was pretty chill overall.

Before the fight, I honestly didn’t know a lot about Jessamyn. I knew she was 1-0 or 2-0 and was coming into the show after some weird result where she got finished, but it was ruled a no-contest. I didn’t know the exact situation. Still, I imagined she had decent skills, and it definitely looked like she was long and lanky for the weight class. I think that type of bodyframe can always give someone an advantage.

I actually sparred a bunch with Rocky, and we had a feeling the fight with Jessamyn was going to happen, so we really tried to focus on a gameplan against her and work on some things that would be in her favor. We thought Rocky’s power and aggressiveness would be the key to beating Jessamyn.

As for the fight, I think when it’s that close, you have to expect it’s going to go to the third round. People want to see that in a fight as good as that was. People want to watch that final round and see who can really win it. I kind of felt the first round was close but that Jessamyn might have edged her out a little bit. The second round, Rocky definitely got in the better shots and was landing more. So after that, I figured it would go to a third round.

Dana White was out of his chair and enjoying himself. All the fighters were talking back and forth and expecting the same. These girls were just leaving it all in the cage. No one wanted to lose, and you could really see that.

In that third round, Rocky just had a little bit more energy and a little more power behind her punches. She ended up getting cut from the knees later in the round, but I think she did enough to win. I think the was just landing crisper punches and moving forward a little bit more. Jessamyn’s back was up against the cage a few times. Judges definitely don’t like to see that, and I think that made the difference and may have cost her the fight.

There’s no doubt this was a great fight. I’m not sure I can say it was the best fight I’ve ever seen, like some people are. I think a truly great fight has to be a fight that kind of goes all over the place, not just a standup battle. I know there’s some fans out there who only want to see the standup action. I know that gets their juices flowing. But for me, if I’m going to say something is the best fight I’ve ever seen, I want to see some grappling involved. I want to see some submission attempts. I want to see some takedowns. Of course I want to see some striking, but I need all of that to say it was the best fight I’ve ever seen. After all, I’ve seen some great, great fights.

Still, our morale was definitely high after winning a fight like that. We were back in control and up 3-2 for the season. We had the next pick and matched up Josh Hill with Mike Wootten. Josh was ready to fight, and we felt good about the way things were going.

I think our fight pick had a lot to with Cody Bollinger needing a little more time with his weight. He would go down and back up. I think Josh was closest to weight, and he felt the best. The coaches thought that would be a good matchup for him.

Now, while the fight was the big focus of the show, we did get to have a little fun beforehand at Green Valley Ranch with the Hooters girls. We definitely had some fun hanging out and watching the fights. I didn’t do anything crazy like getting naked and jumping into the pool like somebody did – which they didn’t actually show. I didn’t get into the pool at all. I threw a few beach balls at people’s heads, but for the most part, I just chilled out and ate and watched the fights.

“The Ultimate Fighter 18? cast member Chris Holdsworth (4-0) blogs each Thursday exclusively for MMAjunkie.com. The bantamweight prospect takes readers behind the scenes of the FOX Sports 1-broadcast series, which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET. Catch Holdsworth on Twitter at @holdsworth135.