The previews have been running all week on SpikeTV. Was Jorge finally getting into the ring? The teaser showed some controversy boiling around Jorge but chances are that audience will be dissappointed. Jorge seems to be one the more skilled and feared fighters in the competition with experience to back him up. As episode 4 began, I waited with eagar anticipation.

The show starts with more hi-jinx within the fighters’ house. More characters are built and reviewed for the show. We see the child within Joe Stevenson and the various ways he’s tried to keep himself preoccupied with fun. I liked Jorge even more as I see his discussion with Marcus and Anthony, assuming the leadership role and expanding on the team player mentality that he showed in episode 2.

After paying the bills with commercials, I have a feeling the show is setting up the Jorge drama but emphasizing Jorge’s tendency to not back from challenges. He also unveals “the alliance” with Marcus and Anthony. I’m not sure how much benefit gamesmanship will bring to a competition such as The Ultimate Fighter. The fight is really in the ring, and no fighter thus far has decided to chosen the easy way out. The only chance for strategy is banter, trash talk in the house since team challenges offer limited control for a strategist.

The Randy Couture challenge becomes yet another morale boosting story for Team Franklin and Jorge Grugel. If you haven’t noticed a pattern yet, episode four is fast becoming the Jorge show. The challenge is called ‘hangman’ – a version of everybody’s familiar children’s playground game of ‘king of the monkey bars’. Jorge fights off Joe in a wonderfully edited episode, since these two fighters have been the focus of the show thus far.

The winning team gets to choose which pair of fighters get to fight. Dana White is much more vocal this season than less season and offers the fighter his advice about how to ‘win’ this game, by really focusing on who you can pick off in the opposing team. Dana is advocating that the winning teams find the weakest link and exploit it.

Marcus, the best striker on Team Franklin, will be matched up against Joe. Joe is the best grappler on Team Hughes. We later find out that Joe’s background also includes boxing. My prediction prior to the fight was for the short, compact Joe to be able bring the fight to the ground and win a decision or submission. However, don’t count Marcus out, he claims to have held back his skills as a strategic move and hasn’t shown his grappling skills. Either way, the fight promises to be a quality, good old classic matchup of the strikre vs the grappler.

Watching Marcus walk into the ring in his kilt reminds me of a scene from the movie, The Great White Hype. Both fighters come out of their corners tentative and get involved in a long feeling out process. Joe initiates the first single leg shoot and picks up Marcus for a spectacular slam. Marcus emerges in a half guard but Joe quickly improves his position to a side mount and starts dealing elbows. Marcus tried very hard to create space to possibly escape the side mount but was simply outmatched on the ground by Joe’s experience. With on hand trapped between Joe’s legs, Marcus was unable to intelligently defend against the barrage of elbows and the referee had to stop the fight.

So there you have at, Marcus’s involvement in the alliance is short-lived and we see an impressive take down match from Joe Stevenson. Look forward to more on-going mind games between Matt Hughes and Jorge. But am I the only one not looking forward to seeing the fighters prance around in the next episode (courtesy of the previews) in their tighty-whitey undies? Urrgh.

Also at BlogCritics

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