The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 – Brock SMASH but then his insides fell out…
This was the season where Brock was supposed to fight Junior Dos Santos at the end but then Brock’s insides rotted out from years of only eating raw elk and sabertooth tigers.
Season Premier: March 30, 2011
This season would feature the “wild card” selections introduced in season 11. The initial cast was 14 fighters rather than the usual 16, 28 or 32 in recent seasons, all welterweights. Notables who turned up to the tryouts included Strikeforce veterans Karl Amoussou, Andre Galvao, and Zak Cummings, and former TUF contestants Frank Lester and Jeremiah Riggs.
The Teams
Team Lesnar: Len Bentley, Charlie Rader, Tony Ferguson, Clay Harvison, Chris Cope, Nordin Asrih, Myles Jury (Chuck O’Neil)*
*Jury was replaced by O’Neil due to injury.
Team dos Santos: Shamar Bailey, Ryan McGillivray, Javier Torres, Ramsey Nijem, Zachary Davis, Michael “Mick” Bowman, Keon Caldwell (Justin Edwards)*
*Caldwell quit the show and was replaced by Edwards.
Highlights
- Keon Caldwell struggled during an intense Team dos Santos training session and vomited. He told dos Santos that it was hard for him to be away from his family. What a bitch. He then quit the show.
- Lesnar’s “making chicken salad out of chicken shit” comment confused his team. Not exactly talking to a group of young aspiring scientists, but still, you can’t understand that analogy?
- Shogun showed up as a friend of JDS.
- Lesnar countered by bringing in Matt Hughes.
- Someone wrote “Chris Cope Double Agent” in the sand in the zen garden.
- Dos Santos beats Lesnar in the Coaches’ Challenge which involved football drills. Must have been embarrassing for him. After winning, dos Santos gave his share of the cash prize with members of the green team excluding Lesnar himself. Hey fuck it, he’s rich already.
- Chuck O’Neil tried to share the $5000 he earned in his finish bonus with his friend Charlie Rader. It is revealed that Rader owes child support and had not seen his child in over a year.
- Following the conclusion episode 10, Lesnar phoned White to tell him that he had to pull out of his bout with dos Santos at UFC 131. White went on to say that Lesnar would be replaced by Shane Carwin. Big dumb white guy for big dumb white guy. Seems fair to me.
The Finale’
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Lesnar vs. Team dos Santos Finale (also known as The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale) was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on June 4, 2011 at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tony Ferguson def. Ramsey Nijem KO (punches) at 3:54 to win the season.
Clay Guida def. Anthony Pettis Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27) in the other main event. This was Pettis’ first fight in the UFC after becoming “Showtime” and having that awesome match with Bendo. That loss really took a lot of steam off Pettis and it took a while for him to find his greatness again. Unfortunately, after he achieved the championship at 155, he quickly lost the title to boring as hell Raphael Dos Anjos. Since then, he has lost 3 in a row.
Bonus awards: Fighters were awarded $40,000 bonuses.
Fight of the Night: Kyle Kingsbury vs. Fabio Maldonado
Knockout of the Night: Tony Ferguson
Submission of the Night: Reuben Duran
Where are they now?
Tony Ferguson has been on a terror winning his last 7 in a row and 10 of his 11 UFC fights, most recently submitting bad ass fighter Eddie Barboza in December of 2015. He’s primed to be in contention for the 155 lb title as soon as the clusterfuck in that division settles.
Summary: Watching Brock attempt to be a normal human being as he tries to interact with his team as a role model is hilarious. However, this season was rather boring. Of all the seasons you could possibly watch, feel free to skip this one. Tony Ferguson and Ramsey Nijem made themselves into stars and have had pretty good careers thus far. Ironically, JDS is about done with his career, Brock is in the WWE, and Shane Carwin is dead, as far as I’m concerned.
