TUF 13 Episode 8 Recap: dos Santos Bests Lesnar; Quarterfinals Set

The wildcard picks have been chosen, and it will be Chuck O’Neil of Team Lesnar meeting Javier Torres of Team Dos Santos in the final preliminary match-up.

Len Bentley, the number one pick for Team Lesnar, is shocked, but at no loss for words.

“At no point in time were any of the names superior to mine,” he exclaimed.

Len immediatlet sought out UFC president Dana White after the wildcard selections to ask why he wasn’t chosen. The head honcho responded, ”Nobody felt like you wanted this thing bad enough.”

Rather than make his case, Bentley instead asks White for a spot in the finale against Ryan McGillivray – if he should lose in his next bout. Needless to say, White is confused about Len’s intentions and leaves the conversation telling Bentley that if he showed the kind of desire to fight during their previous meeting before the wildcard picks, he would have been chosen for the selection.

Back at the house, Ryan confronts Bentley in an effort to ”stir the pot” by suggesting that Brock may have been one of the main deciding factors as to why Len was ultimately not the pick.

Fighters begin their preparations for the last preliminary bout, and Junior raves about Torres, his number three pick overall.

“I hope he can show everything that he got because in the training he show a lot good skills.”

As Lesnar’s team enters the gym to begin training, Len has every intention of confronting his coach about what he felt was ”his” missed opportunity to return to the show.

“Most people don’t like Brock Lesnar and I gave him a chance when I got here and Brock was blowing smoke up my butt like I was going to be the wildcard,” says Bentley in a confessional.

“Brock only coaches when the camera is on him and doesnt give a crap about us.”

When Len asks Brock why he wasn’t the pick, Brock points to his knee injury that occurred during training. Though it wasn’t major, Bentley had aggravated his patella in training in the previous episode, and the pain continued to plague him.

“Dana did like the idea of Len fighting, however, when Bentley injured his knee that changed,” said Brock.

As O’Neil prepares for his upcoming bout with Torres, Lesnar begins to second guess Chuck as the wildcard pick. Appearing to be lackadaiscal and unfocused in training, Lesnar is beginning to regret his decision.

Back at the house, Chuck decides to shed his demeanor of the ”happy-go-lucky fun guy” by beginning to take himself seriously, and the first step to redemption is by shaving his beard and dropping the ”trash bag Charlie” persona.

Back at the gym, Brock begins to work with O’Neil one-on-one, and Lesnar is liking what he sees from Chuck. His faith is restored back in the welterweight fighter.

At the house, Chris Cope draws the ire of Team dos Santos’ Shamar Bailey. A relatively reserved guy, Shamar has finally had enough of Cope’s loud and boisterous ”wooing” around the house, which has woken Bailey up on several occasions. Cope apologizes, but the damage is done and Bailey has it out for Chris and hopes they meet in the next round.?

“I think we’re going to put an end to it,” says Shamar.

The coaches challenge is underway, and it’s a full-fledged football course. Lesnar is excited, having taken a turn with the Minnesota Vikings in the past, while dos Santos is less than thrilled. The winner will receive $10,000, while the members of his team will each earn $1,500.

Surprisingly enough, Junior is just a few steps ahead of Lesnar throughout the course, and ultimately walks away the winner.

“I think we both sucked, he just got luckier than I did,” says Lesnar.

In an act of good faith, Junior rewards the opposing team $500 each for the coaches and $100 for each fighter, however, chooses not to reward Lesnar.

“He doesn’t deserve, he lost,” says dos Santos while holding back a laugh.

Now, the final preliminary bout is just ahead.

“In my opinion, Javier looked like a turd in his first fight,” says the UFC president, who ultimately chose Torres based on the coaches opinion of the fighter.

Conversely, O’Neil is the one whom White is impressed with.

In the first round of the bout, the match has shades of Javier’s initial fight with Chris Cope: a clinching affair for the most part, though O’Neil is making Torres work from every position. In the second round, Torres finally manages to score a trip from the clinch against the cage. He lands in side control. Chuck is proving savvy from his back, though, and eventually works back to his feet. Right away, O’Neil scores a takedown of his own and the moment Javier tries to work back to his feet, Chuck locks up a d’arce choke. It’s tight, and Torres is forced to submit.

Team Lesnar is now tied up with Team dos Santos, 4-4, heading into the quarterfinals, and the match-ups are revealed. Shamar will get his crack at Cope and O’Neil will have his chance to exact revenge when he meets with Zach Davis in a rematch.

TUF 13 Quarterfinal Match-ups:
-Clay Harvison (Team Lesnar) vs. Ramsey Nijem (Team dos Santos)
-Chris Cope (Team Lesnar) vs. Shamar Bailey (Team dos Santos)
-Chuck O’Neil (Team Lesnar) vs. Zach Davis (Team dos Santos)
-Tony Ferguson (Team Lesnar) vs. Ryan McGillivray (Team dos Santos

Highlights of the next episode features the two fights that will be first up, as Ramsey meets Harvison and Cope takes on Bailey.

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