If the preview is for the latest episode of Ultimate Warrior 31 Hinting at some kind of drama between Brad Katona and his cast, what happened was less tense.
We’re recapping every episode of TUF 31 this season – come back now if you’re not familiar with the show and want to avoid spoilers!
With McGregor’s team losing 0-4 on the show, the episode opened with the usual training montage. Katona tells trainer Michael Chandler that he wants to do some wrestling practice, and “get another kind of work.” As he points out to Chandler, with his fight fast approaching, it’s not like he can just implement an entirely new defensive technique, and he wants plenty of time to work on improving as much as possible, rather than focusing on the areas he’s already good at.
Katona knows he can come off like a diva. “the climax A fighter is a pressure cooker,” notes Al-Kindi.
Carlos Vera is excited to represent Ecuador, having arrived in America at the age of four. However, there is one problem: since Katona trained at SBG Ireland under John Kavanagh, McGregor’s head coach stated he would back out of this fight. Which means Vera doesn’t have one of the best minds in the show for this show.
“It is what it is. Fighting for me is not personal,” McGregor says of his teammate fighting for Michael Chandler. After choosing the veterans, Chandler chose the veterans himself, choosing first to start the season, to coach the newcomers.
“I can’t promise victory, but I can promise you that I will go out to give my best performance,” Vera later tells the camera.
The fourth fight of the season begins with Karona driving Vera to the fence and, just under two minutes later, brings his hands together and lands a two-footer. However, Vera quickly got back on his feet. He gets two punches, avoids a trip, and puts Vera back down. Vera tries to bring it up, but she can’t. Instead, Katona ends up up front, on guard. Vera makes it out, and they finish the first five minutes on the feet.
In the second round he sees Vera working from the outside, mixing up his blows and adding in a spinning back kick. However, in the first minute, Katuna lost the fight. Fira gives up on his back trying to escape, and Katuna takes advantage. He ends up with a closed body triangle, looking for a naked smother from behind. Vera fights hands, and manages to reverse it! That’s huge, with over three minutes left. The ref briefly halts the process of retrieving Vera’s fallen tongue; On restart it almost loses position, but regains supreme control. When Katona gets up, Vera knocks him several times.
Katona picked up the fight later in the round, getting some time for himself. After sounding the horn, McGregor calls a third round. He didn’t get it. McGregor is furious, stating that the fight for the world title consists of five rounds. “Let them have three rounds, judges.” As it turned out, the judges made their decision – Katona’s unanimous decision.
It is likely that McGregor is making the decision to pick the newcomers at this point. Brad Katona, Conor’s teammate, has already won The ultimate fighter Once. The fact that it was McGregor’s own teammate who put him through another fight at TUF 31 is an oddly poetic reality. McGregor’s team has a few more chances to get on the board, but it looks suspicious.