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I can understand and appreciate the fact that there were countless hours of film created during this season’s run, and that only a certain amount of it will ever be aired. I also understand that the editing process can influence how the individuals and how the events are portrayed: for example, although I think Ken Shamrock is not the best of coaches, no amount of editing could ever convince me that he is a total heel. His fighters may not love him particularly, but to think that he is a compelte jerk is just silly. That being said, I think no amount of editing could ever convince me at this point that Michael Bisping is anything other than a whining baby. Right off the bat in this episode, Michael wastes no camera time at all making his opinions known: anytime he is training, talking to the camera or living in the house he is complaining about something or someone. It is really getting stale. There is no doubt that there is already some bad blood between Michael Bisping and Tito Ortiz golden boy Matt Hamill. During training, Bisping complains that Matt is training too hard and not letting up when told to. Part of this may be Matt’s nature and part of it may be that he is totally deaf. At one point, tempers flare and both fighters have to be told to chill out and work together. During an armbar escape drill, Matt refuses to tap as Michael turns up the pressure on his arm, resulting in Matt’s arm being hyper-extended. This causes a problem as Matt is soon to face Team Shamrock member Mike Nickels in the Octagon.

Just prior to fight day, Matt announces that he is going to keep the fight standing as he doesn’t want to attempt takedowns with an injured arm. This is an obvious contradiction to what Matt is truly skilled at, wrestling. Again, no amount of editing on the show can hide the fact that Matt is a beast. He has shown little difficulty for controlling his teammates on the ground all throughout training. Team Ortiz tries to talk Matt out of keeping the fight standing but in the end allowed him to fight the fight as he sees fit. The result was a mixture of failure and success. Mike Nickels came into this fights knowing what a superior wrestler Matt was; as a result Mike spent most of the match looking tentative on his feet and trying to avoid the shoot from Matt that never came. That is a plus for Matt as he was able to land a steady stream of strikes as Mike was “thinking downward”. Matt looked anything but sharp on his feet, keeping his hands low and landing sloppy (but effective) strikes on Mike throughout the two rounds. Matt also took a few solid shots and at one point backed up, dazed. The few times when the fight did go to the ground Matt controlled his opponent easily but showed an inability to finish the fight at any point. Mike was close to defeat more than once throughout the match and Matt seemed as if he didn’t know how to put it all togther in the cage. Matt won the fight in the second round via unanimous decision. There was no ambiguity about the decision. After the fight was over, Matt was unable to walk, refused to answer questions and didn’t really speak to anyone. He showed classic signs of exhaustion and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. Despite the drama associated with the incident Matt is going to be fine as the following week’s preview already showed him back in training.

Matt Hamill is still consdered by many to be the frontrunner in this competition. Tito Ortiz considers him to be champion-caliber. The bottom line, however, is that if he is to make a mark in the MMA world he will need to expand his base. He showed an inability to finish the fight last night and looked sloppy on his feet (as did Mike Nickels, to be fair). The days of one-dimensional fighters being successful in the UFC (fighters like Royce Gracie and Mark Coleman) are over. I hope Matt returns to the drawing board and comes out with a more polished game plan and skill set. After making his much-awaited debut last night, Matt has left a good portion of MMA fanatics scratching our heads about the future of The Ultimate Fighter as this third season heads into the semi-finals.