The Ultimate Fighter 22, Episode 7 Notes: Backyard Brawl Narrowly Avoided

After a week off, The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Faber returned to Fox Sports 1 on Wednesday with another preliminary round fight and a narrowly avoided backyard brawl between two of the Americans.

The Confrontation

Almost every altercation that has ever occurred in the history of The Ultimate Fighter has been fueled by alcohol, and the latest incident was no different.

Many of the fighters on Team Faber were playing billiards in the living room.  Before long, several were taking shots of absinthe.  Soon they began betting shots on the billiard games.  Chris Gruetzemacher’s billiards game isn’t on point with his fighting ability and began losing a lot and drinking a lot.

The party soon moved outdoors and the conversation switched to fighting. Julian Erosa accused Gruetzemacher of having the most boring fight of the season thus far.

“I was sitting with Jason and Tom Gallicchio and Jason Gonzalez. We were kind of discussing who had the worst fight out of all the winners and I kind of called out Chris,” explained Erosa.

“He started just talking and kind of started antagonizing me,” said Gruetzemacher.

Things quickly escalated into an argument over who would beat who in a fight.

“I guarantee if you try to fight me you’ll get your (expletive) kicked,” asserted Erosa. “I would beat your head in is what I’d do.”

Erosa stood and challenged Gruetzemacher to ‘do something Chris.’ Gruetzemacher poured water on Erosa and threw water in his face. Gruetzemacher then opened a beer and started splashing it in Erosa’s face. He opened another beer and continued to throw it in Erosa’s face. Erosa had seen enough and wanted to fight right there. Team McGregor came outside to intervene. After a lot of posturing and yelling, cooler heads eventually prevailed.

The Fight: Thanh Le (4-1) vs. Martin Svensson (14-5)

Le’s father owns a gym and he’s been taking traditional martial arts classes since he was a young child.  He uses distance well and has a diverse striking attack.  Svensson’s game plan was to take Le down and impose his will on the ground.

Le was light on his feet in the early going, keeping the Swede on his toes avoiding kicks.  After Le slipped while throwing a kick to the body, Svensson scrambled to obtain top position.  Le was able to work his way back to his feet, but spent half the round on his back.  Le landed a right hand in the closing moments of the round that wobbled his opponent and delivered elbows for the final 30 seconds of the round.

In the second frame, Svensson secured an early takedown.  He mounted Le and the American rolled and gave up his back.  Le worked back to guard but couldn’t get up from underneath the Swede.  Le gave up his back again and Svensson applied a rear-naked choke that forced Le to tap out.

Fight Announcement

With Europeans gaining matchmaking control, coach Conor McGregor chose to pit up his teammate Artem Lobov against Team Faber’s James Jenkins.  Through six fights, the team competition is tied at three wins each.

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