TUF 13 Episode 3 Recap: Disruption in the Ranks, Lesnar Steps Out

“Chicken (expletive) into chicken salad,” said coach Brock Lesnar after his second-to-last pick, Chris Cope, upset Junior dos Santos’ third pick, Javier Torres. The saying has become Lesnar’s tag line, but his team is not taking too kindly too it, especially his number one pick, Len Bentley. Lesnar picks up on Bentley’s attitude and thinks putting him in the next fight would be a good way release some of that negative energy.

Assistant coach Erik Paulson tells Lesnar that a lot of the negativity might be because of the ”chicken salad” comments, so Lesnar has a sitdown with his team to explain his intentions.

Justin Edwards joins Team dos Santos, filling in for Keon Caldwell, who left the show to ”be with his daughter.”

Assistant coach Lew Polley continues his run of  Team dos Santos, now with dos Santos’ permission, following Torres’ loss.

“Junior is being way too nice because he is looking at them like kids, not like men in a gladiator sport, who are about to fight other men in the UFC,” said Polley.

Polley ups the intensity, but just as he does, Shamar Bailey gets cut during a wrestling drill.

“Shamar got cut and we were going really hard and the problem is I’ve wrestled in college, so I understand what it takes and that’s what wrestling practice is every day. But there’s a fine line between overtraining and training hard, and I feel like we’ve crossed it just a little bit,” said Ramsey Nijem of Team dos Santos.?

Lesnar selected his number one pick, Bentley, to face Team dos Santos’ number two pick, Ryan McGillivray. ?

Dos Santos assessed Bentley as having the wrestling advantage, but expects a knockout because of McGillivray’s superior hands.

Team Lesnar notices more dissention when his team becomes wary of Chris Cope, who just regained control for the team, because he is hanging around quite a bit with Team dos Santos.

Later, Bentley talks to Lesnar about Cope and asks the coach to talk to Cope to make sure that he won’t talk about his game plan with the other team. Lesnar shrugs it off and tells him to just focus on the fight and not get caught up in the drama.

Team dos Santos is dealing with its own issues. Coach dos Santos is growing tired of Polley’s coaching style, especially when he initiates a practice regiment without consulting with the other coaches first. Dos Santos put’s his assistant coach in his place, and Polley apologizes and laments that sometimes he can be ”overzealous” when it comes to training.

Lesnar has a personal issue come up just before the bout, and apologizes to Bentley because he won’t be there to corner him. Lesnar reiterates that his personal life comes first ”and everybody knows that,” and abruptly walks off screen.

Bently continues to be paranoid of anyone finding out his game plan, so he travels to the gym alone with his coaches to go over final details for the bout.

Just before Bentley walks out, Lesnar calls and wishes him luck in the fight, apologizes for his absence, and tells him that he’ll be thinking of him the whole time.?

Mauricio ”Shogun” Rua, then the UFC light heavyweight champion, stops by to wish both fighters good luck, and to watch the fight with UFC president Dana White.

The fight is by far the best of the season thus far.

Early in the opening round, Bentley manages to drop McGillivray with a strong left hook and landed some strong ground and pound before McGillivray works the action back to his feet. McGillivray finally finds his range and staggers Bentley with a right cross. McGillivray then drops him with a left hook and pounces. The round ends with McGillivray cinching up a d’arce choke, but the bell sounds.

The action sways back and forth with neither fighter getting the better of  the other in the exchanges in round two. A late takedown and a flurry from McGillivray sealed the win for him, with judges scoring the bout 19-19, 20-18, and 20-18 in his favor.

Team dos Santos regains control with a very emotional McGillivray’s victory.

White congratulates Bentley on a good fight, who now sits atop the list for the infamous ”wild card” pick.

The episode closes with Ramsey Nijem of Team dos Santos acting a fool, drinking and causing a ruckus, however claims that it is all part of a ploy.

Former welterweight champion Matt Hughes stops by and helps Team Lesnar with some wrestling practice.

That’s the show, and now it’s Team dos Santos 2, Team Lesnar 1, with Team dos Santos in control.

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Brian Lopez-Benchimol is a writer for MMAWeekly.com.
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