TUF Team Rampage Vs Team Griffin Episode 8 Recap

Episode 7 ended with Rampage mouthing off in general, and to Forrest Griffin after his fighter lost due to a poor 2nd round. Episode 8 literally kicks off with Forrest Griffin kicking out the door to his locker room in response. But it was all love and cuddles after that with Pat Shultz walking past the busted door in order to apologize for the comments he made to Forrest Griffin after the fight when waiting for the judges' decision (see my Episode 7 recap for more details). He understood that someone of his level should never disrespect a UFC veteran like Griffin, and Forrest graciously squashed it. Since we have seen 7 fights with 14 out of the 16 fighters going in the octogan, only 2 fighters were left. It's going to be Rampage's top pick CB Dollaway against, Dave Klein, the kid with low self esteem.

Question: Would you ever shoot someone by the name of Rampage with a net gun? The answer to that question would seem obvious to most, except to Forrest Griffin. Not sure that is something I would have done if Quinton was 93 years old, much less right before he starts his training session. Quinton was a great sport about it. Rampage was also a great sport about getting BEAT by CB Dollaway in practice pretty quickly after trying to prove a point about CB's ego. CB was a strong wrestler that has great hands and feet. CB is supposed to be a nice guy, and you can ask CB about CB, and CB will tell you all about CB in the 3rd person. Gary Whittaker can't stand it when people do that.

Nick Klein's coaches advised him to focus on a wrestlers typical weakness, which is to put them on their back, a position that they are not used to being in. As a BJJ fighter, this should be an area that Nick is able to exploit. Team Griffin has shown so far to have the superior coaches, so it will be interesting to see if they can corner Nick Klein to an upset victory.

Tale of the Tape

CB Dollaway       Name        Nick Klein

        24                   Age            23

        6'2''                Height        6'2''

        75,75''            Reach        76,5''

        6-0                Record        4-0

Round 1: Steve Mazzagatti is again the referee, after a quick exchange, Nick goes for and gets the takedown, but CB looks like he is in the better position. CB gets better ground position, but is being warned repeatedly about hitting Nick in the back of the head. Nick is trying to pull submissions out of nowhere, almost getting CB's knee, and then his arm shortly after. Nick seems to be focusing on trying to score a submission, while CB is working the ground and POUND hard. Both are strong ground fighters, and you can see the skill between both of them in their transitions in and out of positions. The round ends with Nick again getting close to an arm bar, but not succeeding.

10-9 for CB Dollaway. CB was just so much more active, and had dominate position more often than Nick.

Round 2: both fighters looking to stand and bang for the first 30 seconds with CB getting the better with strong leg kicks, until Nick takes CB down...on top of him. CB's continues to punish with strong ground and pound. Both fighters getting warned, with CB for continued strikes on the back of the head, and Nick for an upkick while CB's knees where on the ground. In the end, CB spun around and got Nick in his guillotine choke. 

Winner: CB Dollaway.

You can see that CB is worth the 1st round pick, and is a true contender to win it all.

Next up is the next round selections, where the fighters that have one their 1st round match up while now face each other. Because more fighters from Team Griffin one, you can expect at least match up whereby 2 team members will have to face each other.

CB Dollaway is first up, and asks to fight Cale Yarbrough.

Cale Yarbrough only wants to fight someone from Team Rampage, and doesn't care who.

Amir asks for either Cale or Dante.

Dante asks for Daniel Cramer

Matt Brown asks for Amir, given that Forrest said that his next fight will most likely be someone from the same team.

Jesse Taylor asks for Cramer, then Brown

Daniel Cramer asks for 1 - Cale, 2 - Matt Brown, 3 - Amir

Tim Credeur asks for Daniel Cramer

The coaches and Dana White have decided the match ups will be

Jesse Taylor versus Dante Rivera

Amir Sadollah versus Matt Brown

Daniel Cramer versus Tim Credeur

CB Dollaway versus Cale Yarbrough