The Ultimate Fighter Report – Season 10, Episode 5
Report by F4Wonline.com
The show opens with Coach Rashad reminding us that his team is 4-0 thus far, which is entirely due to Rampage having atrocious picks both with fighter and fight selections.
During Team Rashad training we get an injury angle as Matt Mitrione mentions that he has a balky left shoulder, coming from a football background he feels he can push through it. Mitrione then mentions he would like a cortisone shot to help him work through the injury, Rashad correctly mentions that taking cortisone is generally meant to be taken right before competing to reduce inflammation and allow you to work through an injury. Taking multiple shots just to survive training opens you up to further straining sore muscles. Inflammation is just a symptom of injury and is actually your body repairing itself, if you numb that inflammation and keep straining through it then your body will never heal. Rashad thinks Mitrione just needs some ice and a massage.
We move onto the next angle which is that Zak Jensen isn’t very good at fighting. Rampage thinks Jensen will be the next picked by Team Rashad to fight, smash-cut to Jensen struggling in team drills. It’s mentioned how Jensen was the last fighter picked and Rampage feels that all Jensen brings to the table is that he’s big and has some wrestling. That’s actually spot-on analysis. Jensen adds that he’s terrible off his back. Schaub doesn’t think Jensen should be on the show.
In angle follow ups Matt Mitrione wants to fight next after sitting out on training. The coaches laugh at him, feel he has to prove himself first, and vow not to let him sit out or whine any more. Wes Sims is wacky and is mad that Jensen left some “kids” for Sims to step in in the shower, Jensen denies everything and is embarrassed and later while rolling Sims actually puts Jensen to sleep. Whether or not it was Sims getting payback or Jensen not tapping is not made clear. Mitriones’ teammates then all call him a faker as we get clips of him playing basketball and football in the backyard.
At the fight selection Rashad picks his teams Justin Wren to fight Team Rampages’ Wes Sims.
Justin Wren was a standout folkstyle and Greco-Roman amateur wrestler before recently transitioning to MMA. While at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, Wren won two state and one national title and added a national Greco-Roman Title a year later. Still only 22, Wren has piled up eight wins against only one defeat and has moved to Colorado Springs to train with Bang Ludwig, Nate Marquardt et al, before entering the Ultimate Fighter House.
Wren has a very diverse wrestling game, showing the ability to land takedowns from single or double legs, lateral drops, arm drags, body lock throws, or suplexes from every which way. Wren has heavy hips and lands hard on top of his opponents to finish his throws which enabled him to wrack up lots of pins in wrestling, in MMA that would allow him to pass or open up free shots to pound. In terms of MMA I’ve only seen highlights of Wren thus far, mainly him wailing away with both elbows and hard punches from mount. Wren is still very green, but being such a strong guy with the ability to throw around your opponents is a great building block.
Kimbo claims that after training with Wes Sims he knows that Sims isn’t a tapper or quitter. I suggest Kimbo watch some of Wes Sims’ fights.
Sims talks about how training at the Hammerhouse with Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman has prepared him for dealing with top-notch wrestlers, and also how that he’ll keep Wren on the end of his long jab. He feels that Wren is one-dimensional and will have no answers for that.
The Sims Whoop Ass Tour (SWAT) has made the Ultimate Fighter House its most recent stop. Wes Sims fights are almost guaranteed for some wackiness as in his career he has gotten bit, executed a jacknife powerbomb then soccerkicked his downed opponent, tried to dive out of the ring before going to sleep while being piggybacked, push kicked a referee into having a fight restarted before losing for a second time in a night, stomped Frank Mir in the face for a DQ, pulled guard on Mir, and of course the infamous Tim Sylvia fight where Sims talked an insane amount of trash before pulling guard and tapping to strikes almost instantly.
For all the talk of Sims keeping Wren at a distance that hasn’t been Sims’ MO in prior fights. Sims is really long at 6’11” and does use that length to fire push kicks, but he hasn’t used that reach otherwise. Sims runs straight at opponents offering them easy clinch opportunities as he wildly flings both hands and knees. Being so aggressive doesn’t help the fact that Sims has shown no defensive wrestling and very poor balance, Antoni Hardonk straight up pushed Sims over as Sims footwork is all over the place. Not to mention the fact that Sims pulls guard quite a bit to his own detriment, leading to losses against Mir, Sylvia, and Steve Bosse.
That lack of balance and base also hurts on top where Sims has been swept when he ends up there. Being so long makes it difficult for Sims to get proper leverage on ground and pound or to control his opponents although he has shown nice short elbows from on top recently. On the bottom Sims is very active arching his long legs to try and peel his opponents backwards, and also striking constantly from his back. Being so active leaves Sims wide open to be passed, opens him up for ground and pound and also just hands his arms for opponents to grab. Once handing opponents submissions Sims has shown a surprising acumen at defending them keeping his chin down and turning into a Mir choke attempt, rolling with a Mir armbar and stepping free before stomping him, getting on the phone to create space to survive arm triangle attempts.
Dana White thinks Sims should be the favorite since Sims fought Mir tough twice. He got dominated, passed and almost finished before stomping Mir in the first, then got dominated, passed and almost finished in round one of the rematch before Mir gassed hard in the second. While completely gassed Mir was still able to knock out Sims standing in an awful, sloppy round. White also uses Wrens physique as a determining factor in his pick. I think Dana helped pick Team Rampage.
Wes Sims has no real future besides being wacky, Justin Wren does. Wren is still very green but Sims hands his opponents the very positions Wren needs to win by clinching, running straight at foes, and pulling guard. Sims hasn’t shown the ability to maintain distance and has only had real success against opponents he can bully and who will wilt, neiter of those seem to describe Wren, but we shall see. Regardless of Dana, Wren should be the favorite.
Justin Wren (8-1) vs. Wes Sims (22-12-1)
Round One
Sims comes out looking to jab but is standing in a traditional boxing stance with his back foot perpendicular to Wren. He’s also completely flatfooted, the combination of which easily allows Wren to close distance and bull Sims to the fence with double underhooks. Wren is fine with just leaning on Sims, the two trade foot stomps and knees and Wren actually allows Sims to seperate. Sims launches a push kick but is still flatfooted in a boxing stance right in front of Wren. Wren grabs double underhooks and drives Sims to the cage where he slips down. Wren on top in half guard against the cage and quickly passes to side. As Sims tries to explode and roll Wren moves with him and rotates to North-South. As he rotates Wren isolates Sims left arm, Sims didn’t hand it to him that was just great work from Wren. Wren passes to mount and locks his left hand behind Sims head to cinch in the arm triangle. He correctly passes over to the trapped arms side to cinch it up. Sims tries to connect his own hands to fight it but it looks like it’s too late.
Its on deep and Sims is fading fast. Ref Herb Dean checks Sims arm and Sims shows a little life. It was only a matter of time though and Sims passes out giving Justin Wren the technical submission victory at 1:30 of round one.
Winner: Justin Wren by Technical Submission (Arm Triangle)
After growing up watching pro wrestling Rampage is shocked that Sims didn’t let Dean drop his arm twice before Hulking up upon the third check of his arm.
Dana White is shocked that Wes Sims lost in such a fashion. “I don’t know what happened to Sims since he fought in the UFC.” They actually have this thing called the Internet where you can see that Sims does this type of thing all the time Dana. Sims stood flatfooted right in front of someone who wanted to take him down, from there all the credit goes to Justin Wren for a beautiful choke setup, getting it in real deep before Sims had a chance to defend. I anticipated Wren riding to a decision on top of Sims without opening up too much to give Sims a chance to get up but I was dead wrong.
Rampage thinks he might be cursed after his team has gone 0-5 to open the season. Dana thinks that the reason Team Rampage is losing is due to the coaches not connecting with the fighters. Of course neither has anything to do with whats happened, Rampage let Rashad pick the better fighters (I predicted the possibility of a Rashad sweep after the fighter selection) and then make the better matchups with those fighters.
Next week: Someone might get injured for real this time and KIMBO might come back!!!! Keep watching please.
