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411’s Ultimate Fighter: Redemption Report 5.25.17

May 24, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka

The Ultimate Fighter 25: Episode SIX
INTRODUCTION: Current UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt will be coaching opposite former champion T.J. Dillashaw. Both of them are former training partners. The twenty-fifth season (American version) of the series, the producers have opted to bring back previous participants from the previous seasons; the cast will consist of welterweights that have all competed on The Ultimate Fighter on previous seasons; this includes former participants and winners of the show, as well as one current UFC fighter. The winner gets $250,000 (no mention of a contract). Judging by the opening video package, some of these good brothers have had rough times post TUF. LAST WEEK, Dillashaw continued to out coach Garbrandt as Dhiego Lima (12-5 MMA) defeated Hayder Hassan (6-3 MMA) via unanimous decision, putting Team Dillashaw up 5-0. THIS WEEK Two fighters recall the hardships they’ve had to overcome throughout their careers. A contentious weigh-in leads to another altercation between the coaches. Then, in the sixth preliminary bout, Ramsey Nijem (9-6 MMA) faces Julian Lane (11-6 MMA).

– Lane thinks Nijem will shoot for takedowns, and feels he will guillotine him in the first round. He promises to hit Nijem, run him down like a bitch and make him pay. Garbrandt knows Lane has turned his life around and at age 29 is ready to win. Home video time for Lane; he went to New Jersey from Ohio to train at Dante Rivera BJJ, having to leave his family behind to get the best training for the show. We also see him returning to Ohio to get some family time, he isn’t with their mother, but they all get along. He loves his girls, and got to spend 7-days with them before he had to leave for the show. He also gets in time with his extended family at church. His daughters cried when he left.

– Nijem feels he’s the more experienced fighter, and once he gets his hands on Lane, it’s over. He lost in the TUF 13 finale, getting KO’d by Tony Ferguson. He then dropped to 155 and picked up some UFC wins, and then started to rack up loses. He went 5-5 in he UFC. He was released, was broke and down on his luck after that and also got in a car accident. He couldn’t fight or train, and then the chance at redemption came and he took it. Dillashaw is again very hands on with his training. He’s impressed with Nijem, and knows Lane isn’t as technically sound. He’s adds that he’s been fighting at a higher level longer than almost everyone in the house.

– Lane discusses his time on TUF 16, where he lost his prelim fight. He admits that he was young an immature, and feels like he let everyone down. He then moved onto low-level MMA, booking all of his own fights to pay the bills, and even taking fights on 7-days notice. He knows he took fights he shouldn’t have, picking bad fights. He won a title on AXS TV, and hoped to get the UFC’s attention, but they never called.

– Nijem says he’s always wanted to fight, and now lives with his girlfriend. We see home video of them spending time together. They work out and eat healthy together, and he doesn’t go out and party anymore. He’s eliminated a lot of the stress in his life, and got back here thanks to his girlfriend.

WEIGH-INS: Nijem (170), Lane (170).

– They push and shove at the stare down, and talk trash. Garbrandt then says Duane Ludwig only shows up to be on camera, and Garbrandt’s team talks shit to him. Dillashaw calls team Garbrandt embarrassing, and it breaks down into the “Duane stole Dillashaw from Alpha Male” shit again. Garbrandt calls Dillashaw a “scared little bitch” and the guy from the commission has to settle things down. Garbrandt calls Dillashaw and Ludwig phonies and fakes. Garbrandt again lunges at someone looking to fight at the gym. He comes off so poorly, as does pretty much everyone here. Team Alpha Male coach Justin Buchholz really gets into it with Ludwig, even challenging him to fight on the finale. Ludwig says he didn’t force Dillashaw to do anything and says he has moved on, but that Team Alpha Male is obsessed with him. We get another big shoving battle, and my God Garbrandt is an immature asshole.

– Both fighters do their final prep at the house, and then head to the gym for warm ups and the fight.

Ramsey Nijem (9-6 MMA) vs. Julian Lane (11-6 MMA): ROUND ONE: Nijem hasn’t fought since his July 2015 split decision loss to Andrew Holbrook at UFC on FOX 16. lane has fought more fights, but Nijem has fought more high-caliber fights. Height & weight are even, but Nijem will enjoy a 5-inch reach. They come out swinging, and both look to establish distance and work the jab. Nijem takes Lane to the cage, Lane looks for a guillotine and drags Nijem to the mat. His technique is too loose and the positioning is off, which allows Nijem to fight to his feet and take Lane to the cage. They trade knee strikes, and Nijem accidentally catches Lane low. After a short break, they are back to action and trade strikes. Nijem mixes in some leg kicks, Nijem shoots and looks for the takedown, but Lane locks in another guillotine. Great fight by Nijem, who escapes. Nijem then double legs Lane, lays in strikes and works from half guard and then takes mount, laying in ground and pound and the ref stops it (as Nijem looked to lock in a choke, but Lane spit out his mouth guard).

– Garbrandt complains about the stoppage “because you have to let them fight,” but Lane just laid there eating 24-strikes and Nijem was locking in the rear naked choke as the ref stopped it. I found it amusing that Garbrandt took that opportunity to actually pretend to care. Lane had early success, busting up Nijem and locking in the guillotine. Lane’s technique was really loose/poor, and is positioning was bad. Nijem never stopped fighting and escaped. Lane would get another guillotine, but a combination of loose technique and Nijem’s resilience saw that one fail as well. From there, Lane looked as if he mentally broke, and took him down and laid in the ground and pound, which led to the victory. It wasn’t a savage beating by any means, and I can see why Garbrandt would complain, especially since his ass has been handed to his team so far, but Lane wasn’t really defending all that well either. Maybe instead of being a douche bag and focusing on the Team Alpha Male drama, Garbrandt could consider coaching his guys up and prepare them for fights.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Ramsey Nijem via RD1 stoppage @ 4:47

– Nijem is really humble is loss, and praises Lane. Lane says he was telling the ref he was fin when his mouthpiece popped out.

– Team Dillashaw is up 6-0.

NEXT WEEK: Justin Edwards – (9-5 MMA) faces Joe Stevenson – (33-16 MMA; the preview is basically “Team Garbrandt is going to try really hard… finally.” They will also pick the wildcard fight, where two losing fighters get another shot at redemption.

Team Garbrandt
* Justin Edwards – (9-5 MMA, )
* Julian Lane – (11-6 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Hayder Hassan – (6-3 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Johnny Nunes – (6-1 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Mehdi Baghdad – (11-5 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Eddie Gordon – (8-4 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Seth Baczynski – (20-14 MMA, 0-1 TUF)
* Hector Urbina – (17-10 MMA, dismissed due to missing weight)

Team Dillashaw
* Joe Stevenson– (33-16 MMA, )
* Ramsey Nijem – (9-6 MMA, 1-0 TUF)
* Dhiego Lima – (12-5 MMA, 1-0 TUF)
* James Krause – (23-7 MMA, 1-0 TUF)
* Jesse Taylor – (30-15 MMA, 1-0 TUF)
* Tom Gallicchio – (19-9 MMA, 1-0 TUF)
* Gilbert Smith – (12-6 MMA, 1-0 TUF)

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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