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The episode starts off at the UFC Performance Institute and gets right down to business. Mark Hulme of Team Valentina is getting ready for his fight. Representing South Africa, Mark Hulme is shown having a strong ground game with both wrestling and jiu jitsu. However, he feels that his striking has improved a lot lately and he has become a complete MMA fighter. Hulme feels that his opponent has no ground game at all, so he’ll be able to be a whole lot more physical and have the advantage.
Valentina then takes her team on a helicopter trip over Las Vegas so that the team can relax and see the city in a new way. The team seemed to really enjoy it, as it gave them a new perspective on the places they fight in.
Mark Hulme’s opponent, Paddy McCorry of Team Alexa, is shown at the TUF house showing off family photographs. He’s using them to remind himself of why he’s there and what drives him to win. Representing Ireland, McCorry talked about how growing up in Belfast was interesting due to all the trauma from the division in religions. He has a high level striking coach, though, and has really focused on that aspect of his game.
Alexa is shown explaining why she hasn’t brought the team out like Valentina has. She feels that it’s more important to focus on healing the body rather than having a lot of fun. The team seems to be fine with her way of doing things. Robert Valentin tells her that the team prefers to be in the gym.
Speaking of being in the gym, the episode transitions to Paddy McCorry’s fight preparation. He talks about how he loves being in the gym and spends the majority of his time training. Alexa reiterates how strong McCorry’s striking is. Alexa mentions that McCorry was asking to face Mark Hulme, so it’ll be interesting to see if they have a good plan for Hulme’s ground attack.
Paddy McCorry seems confident in his ability to use his striking against Mark Hulme. He has an emotional moment talking about how he wants to win for his little brother. He wants to be a great role model for him.
Back at the house, Mark Hulme talks about living in South Africa. He talks about having a lot of bad luck with injuries from accidents. He talks about going to Table Mountain in South Africa. He said that he walked the long distance of 900 miles to the mountain in order to communicate with god. It took him 50 days and it turned his life around.
Both fighters are shown making weight and the fight is on. Dana White talks about how it’s going to be a fight of striking vs. ground game with experience playing a role. The Tale of the Tape shows that Mark Hulme has a five inch reach advantage.
…which he almost immediately uses. He catches a kick to start off the first round, lays in a couple hard punches, and takes Paddy McCorry down. Hulme tries to go for a rear naked choke, but Paddy McCorry is able to fight it off and stand up with Hulme still riding his back. Hulme keeps his grip and takes Paddy down twice, keeping him down the second time. Paddy does a nice job of listening to his coaches to stand back up, but Hulme still has his grip against the fence. Paddy is finally able to turn his body around and transitions into a guillotine, brings Hulme down, and cinches it in. Hulme taps moments later. Wow! Quite the turnaround win for Paddy McCorry.
There’s a touching scene of Paddy McCorry getting his tape and gloves cut off while crying happy tears. On the other side, Mark Hulme is frustrated with himself, but gives credit to Paddy for earning the win.
With the first round of fights completed, Dana sits down with the coaches to discuss how the semifinals should shake out. Dana also brings in the fighters to see what they think. Some fighters have a name in mind while others just want a fight.
The fights that are finalized are:
Middleweights
Ryan Loder (Team Valentina) vs. Omran Chaaban (Team Alexa)
Robert Valentin (Team Alexa) vs. Paddy McCorry (Team Alexa)
Featherweights
Roedie Roets (Team Valentina) vs. Kaan Ofli (Team Alexa)
Mairon Santos (Team Alexa) vs. Zygimantas Ramaska (Team Valentina)
Ryan Loder vs. Omran Chaaban will kick off the semifinals next week. See you then!
