The Ultimate Fighter 4: Luter vs Sell

by: DarthMolen October 27 2006

This weeks episode was really fun. The fighters are going house crazy and the fighting action was a dominant ground display.

The episode starts with a recap of the Serra / Carter fight and I still marvel that Shonie got that spinning backfist in. He rocked Serra even though he missed and hit him with the forearm. If he had hit with the fist, it would have been lights out for Serra.

After the highlights from the last show, the program quickly transitions to the house. The fighters have been cooped up way too long and are literally going stir crazy.

Pete Spratt is talking about running through a wall but Mikey Burnett beats him to the punch. He puts on some swimming goggles, gets a football, then proceeds to bludgeon the wall with his body. This would be an impossible wall to run through because it is a wall in the living room that is an external wall but he keeps taking running slams against it.

The first time, he makes a good dent where his legs hit. The second time he hits a stud and bounces off the wall. There is blood on the wall now yet an impression is left where his arms hit. The third time he about knocks himself silly. Every time he gets up, he keeps alluding to football. Fourth down, Mikey is wobbly but takes a HUGE running start and hits the wall hard. You can see insulation now. Mikey claims afterwards that he thinks he broke the plane of the goal line and therefore won. I think the wall won personally because there is no way Mikey could have gone through it

After Mikey's futilistic display of masochism, they then cut to Dana White summing up the matches. He is still banging on Pete Sell taking the harder fight because he is friends with Patrick Cote. Travis is darn good but you have to admire a person who sticks by his principles despite the money involved.

Another example of the stir crazy attitudes of the fighters then ensues. Shonie starts the whole thing off by flicking cards across a room. He's really good at it so others start getting decks of cards and trying to flick them at him. Shonie actually cuts Gideon Ray's nose with a card flick and he gets ticked. So they escalate the action by throwing disposable plates, follow by poker chips, and then food gets involved. The couches are tipped to be used as forts and all hell breaks loose. They even tape a box to Mikey's head to use as his "helmet" and the big items get involved. Water bottles start flying and somebody even gets ice cream and start to sling it. The whole living room is trashed. Chairs are broken, food is everywhere, and the fighters are having a rip roaring time. Who doesn't like to destroy somebody elses property

They don't show any montages for the fighters because those have already been done but they do show Travis training. His whole team "No Love" is living up to it's name. They have stopped training and have left Travis to fend for himself which he does successfully. Delagrotte, a coach, trains him and tries to get Travis to think more about Ground-N-Pound with his Jiu-Jitsu game. The interesting thing is, they don't show much of Pete working out which means that the fight is going the full three rounds.

The fight is next and it ends up being a ground clinic. If you don't like BJJ then this fight wasn't for you.

Round 1 starts of with the two feeling each other out. Travis shoots in as expected and Pete wards him off for a little bit but doesn't watch where he is backing up to and gets pushed against the fence. Travis gets the single leg and pulls him down to the ground and gets guard. Travis then passes guard to half guard, then side mount, and ends up in full mount. He is using the foot pry really successfully throughout the whole match to pass half guard. Sell spins out of the mount but Luter maintains control. Travis then tries for a straight arm bar from the side mount unsuccessfully. Luter then opens up some elbows which cuts Pete right at the eyebrow. Pete has no answer for Luter's ground game. Luter wins the round.

Round 2 starts with Pete on his bicycle desperately trying to keep Travis at distance where he can throw punches. He tries some good uppercuts and a couple straights but eventually gets driven against the cage. Travis grabs the right leg of Sell and drags him to the ground in a half guard. Sell again has no answer for Travis on the ground. He can't get up and he knows just enough Jiu-Jitsu to avoid the submissions that Travis keeps trying. Sell tries to push Travis off him with his feet but is unsuccessful. He then tries butterfly guard but doesn't move his hips enough. Travis gets half-guard again and throws some nice elbows to the head followed by another straight armbar try that is barely unsuccessful. Sell tries some hooks to the head from the bottom but Luter is pressed up against him and too close. Travis gets side mount yet again and starts to rain more elbows. Luter goes for a double armbar and is unsuccessful. Luter wins the round by virtue of being on top. Travis is in his corner really really gassed from doing all the work.

Round 3 starts and Travis immediately drives Sell to the fence and gets a single leg to drag Pete down. Travis gets full mount and starts a GNP session that lasts about a minute and a half. The referee finally stands them up and Travis shoots straight in and gets a good double leg slam on Sell. The GNP continues with body shots and elbows coming in with Travis in full control from side mount the whole time. Travis picks up steam and tries for full mount but can't get it. Sell is helpless against Travis full Jiu-Jitsu attacks and Luter wins the 3rd round.

During the fight recap everybody states the obvious that Luter manhandled Sell from beginning to end. Pete couldn't stuff the take-down, couldn't stop the elbows, and couldn't reverse the dominant ground positions. Randy Couture said it best. "Travis dominated the fight and rode him like a cheap suit."

Travis wins by unanimous decision.

After the fight, Pete Sell cries his heart out. He acknowledges that he is a hypocrite because he made fun of the others that cried after their fight and explains that "everybody loses". Next week it will be Edwin "The Bleeder" Dewees and Patrick Cote's turn to fight it out.

Great episode all around. As a side note, I called Travis Luter getting to the finals at the beginning of the season and here it is coming true. I personally think that he is going to win it all. Mark your calendars because we will find out on Nov. 11th if my prediction is true.