In case you missed it (and my brilliant recaps), the tensions between the Pulver and Penn has seemed to extend down to their respective teams, Nathan Diaz chokes out Robert Emerson, and Gabe gets a colonic. Team Pulver is 3-0 and Nate Diaz has a little less pressure on himself. This week on the Ultimate Fighter, Sting takes out Kurt Angle with a baseball bat. Wait a second, my Tivo must have started recording a few minutes early. Kurt’s not looking too good these days, with all the bandages on his head and whatnot. What’s with all the interviews about him coming up and beating up everyone in the UFC? Speaking of which, the show begins with a recap of the happenings of the last few weeks (in TV time) in the Ultimate Fighter. In case you missed it (and my brilliant recaps), the tensions between the Pulver and Penn has seemed to extend down to their respective teams, Nathan Diaz chokes out Robert Emerson, and Gabe gets a colonic. Team Pulver is 3-0 and Nate Diaz has a little less pressure on himself. Apparently there is a weak link on Team Pulver, and it’s Wayne Weems according to the coach. No standup, no ground, no endurance according to Manny, and he’s never done plyos before. Interesting enough according to his offical bio, he’s 16-2! Which begs the question, how bad could he be, or how bad could his opposition have been? Apparently word has leaked to team Penn, because Gabe Ruediger has asked BJ if he could Weems. Now, Pulver’s team currently has the choice of fights, so it may be a moot point. BJ laughs over it, but a few from the team (particularly Rob Emerson) think it’s a weak move to ask for the weakest fighter, moreover to go to BJ directly and ask him as opposed to making it a team decision. Back at the gym, Pulver is less than happy with Brandon Melendez’s work ethic in the gym. Brandon claims that his foot is hurt, but he wants to fight next. In addition Melendez is overweight. Pulver makes the ultimatum that Melendez can’t fight unless he is within 10 points come fight announcement time. Entertainment time at the house as Marlon Sims claims to have over 300 street fights. The guys seem less than impressed, but Marlon insists that his word is true. Fight announcement time and Pulver makes the announcement because Dana White had an appointment and couldn’t be there. Dana White skips out on some of his TV time? I’ve seen celebrity entertainment reporters on meth that don’t like the camera as much as Dana does. Must be something big. At any rate, Jens makes the announcement that Brandon Melendez will fight Andy Wang. Gabe Ruediger actually cornered Andy Wang in his last fight, and warns BJ that Andy likes to brawl and has tendency to ignore his corner. BJ gets Andy’s reassurance that he will follow the gameplan, and that is to get the fight to the ground. Andy is a black belt in BJJ and is an instructor at the R1 gym (probably the top wrestling MMA academy in the country. As Andy explains his background and that he emigrated from Taiwan at a young cage, footage of him is shown shooting in and working with Tony DeSouza. Both fighters make weight at the weigh ins. Brandon Melendez steps unto the scale wearing a thong that shows entirely way too much. That’s an unfortunate image that will be burned in my mind for some time to come. For the face off photo op, Andy brandishes a pair of nun-chucks. There’s a surprise coach for Team Pulver, as it’s none other than Matt Hughes mopping the mats! Poll time, and the audience is invited to text whether or not Marlon Sims is telling the truth or full of it. Pulver hands the coaching duties for the day to Matt Hughes, who works the team with intensity and spends plenty of time with Brandon Melendez in preparation for his upcoming match. Andy is fighting for his deceased Grandfather, and Brandon is fighting for his wife and children. Both fighters seem to have a lot of mutual respect for each other, so the pre fight trash talking is minimal. As the first round begins, Brandon catches Andy with a stiff left that puts him on his butt. To his credit Andy gets right back up, takes a couple of more punches for his effort, but gets right back in the match. Andy seems determined to land an overhand right, where as Brandon manages to mix up his punches much more. As the round wears on it is apparent that Brandon’s strategy is working better. BJ is audible in corner yelling, then begging in the corner for Andy to take a shot or attempt a takedown. Andy either doesn’t hear or completely ignores BJ, as he is content to look for the overhand right. The only break in this cycle is when Andy loses his mouthpiece, and the bout is momentarily stopped to allow his corner to put it back in. By the end of the round Pulver is happy as he has noticed that Andy is just trying the overhand right over and over again. An exasperated BJ tries to make Andy promise to go for a takedown. The results of the poll are in and 55% of you believe that Marlon Sims is telling the truth about his street fighting experience. No comment. Round two picks up right where the first round left off, with Brandon displaying even more of a clinic of standup fighting. Although I’m not so sure if it’s that Brandon was so good or Andy would only try the overhand right over and over again and he would not, despite his corner’s insistence (or his BJJ black belt), try for a takedown. As Andy’s face gets more and more bloodied, he finally two minutes in goes for the clinch and pushes Brandon to the fence. Brandon tries a high knee to get out and lands on his butt, and incredibly, Andy backs off to throw an overhand right and gives Brandon his chance to get back to his feet. Andy does manage to push to the fence again at the two minute mark, but again Brandon shrugs him off. The final minutes of the round end with more stand up from Brandon, and more attempts at the overhand right from Andy. Match ends, and it’s a fairly easy call at a unanimous decision for Brandon Melendez. From the recap Andy explains that after the initial knock down he felt like a kid who was fighting for his lunch money, and the only way he could win was by knockdown. BJ is fairly upset and frustrated as he recounts his experience in cornering. Brandon Melendez is obviously happy, but somewhat puzzled why Andy never tried to take him down. After the fight Andy is shown crying in the cage. Crying would be an understatement in this case. As the oldest of five siblings I couldn’t make the younger one cry that hard if I peed in their Cheerios. In the post fight interview BJ even has a laugh at Andy’s expense. BJ says that no one remembers a loser. Andy states he hopes people say that he’s a warrior, but the editing cuts back to showing him bawling in the dressing room. Next week Coach Tony DeSouza beats up Noah. (See how he did it! Order Tony’s instructional Cholitzu now at the OTM Fight Shop!) Corey Hill calls out Gabe Ruediger (interesting how they announced the fight already), but Gabe still has 22 pounds to cut. Can he make it? Stay tuned for the next episode of the Ultimate Fighter!