Read on to find out who won the middleweight bout between in-house rivals Mike King and Eddie Gordon!
We immediately get down to business and examine this week’s fight between Mike King and Eddie Gordon. Never one to mince words, Eddie tells the production staff to, “Bring out the body bags.” He says that the fight will be a one sided whooping, and he plans on dominating from start to finish. Mike is a bit more measured in his assessment. He admits that Eddie does have the physical advantage, but feels that his technical prowess will give him the victory.
> Watch: Mike King Film Session
Besides worrying about Eddie’s power, back at the house Mike also worries about Eddie’s dirty dishes. He calls Eddie and the rest of Team Edgar “children” for the way that they throw their dirty dishes all over the place. He’s visibly upset at the mess and Josh Clark explains the anger by telling us that Mike is the team chef and hates working in a dirty kitchen. Eddie responds that Mike should clean the dishes because that’s the job for the “woman of the house.”
Besides revealing his inner pre-WWII gender ideals, we learn some more from Gordon. A former
college football player, his road to MMA started at UFC 101. While watching one of the fights, he thought, “I could do that.” Along with some help from friend Chris Weidman, he began training and never looked back. In order to deliver the one sided beating he promised, he’ll have to avoid the takedown. To prevent that, Frankie has Eddie drill defense and counter attacks off the fence. Not only will this negate the takedown, it will also limit Mike’s clinch attacks.
> Watch: Eddie Gordon Film Session
We then switch gears and focus on Team Penn’s Mike King. He discusses meeting his longtime girlfriend and how she saved him from a difficult time in his life. Another ex-football player, he clashes with the coaches with regards to strategy. Mike wants to move on the feet a lot and wear down Eddie before taking him out. BJ Penn, Mark Coleman and the rest of the coaching staff have different ideas. They want Mike to take the fight to the ground. BJ tells us, “[Mike] told me he wanted to knock Eddie Gordon out and I strongly advise against that.” Penn’s reasoning is basically Eddie can knock Mike out and Mike can’t do the same. The coaches debate whether or not to push Mike harder follow their plan, but they decide against it. Ultimately, they believe that Mike will do the right thing when fight time comes.
We’ll have to hold off to see if Team Penn’s faith in Mike is misplaced because next up is the coach’s challenge. As BJ and Frankie walk up, they see two kayaks sitting in the water. Frankie isn’t too happy to see that he has to compete in a water sport with a Hawaiian, but the $10,000 cash reward gives a little extra incentive to win. The two coaches will have to navigate a number of buoys and the first one to cross wins.
BJ takes an early lead, but the start is sloppy for both of them. Once they get situated, Frankie takes off and pulls ahead. He has some troubles navigating around the buoys, though, and BJ uses that opening to take the lead. It’s a lead he doesn’t relinquish and the Prodigy pulls ahead to win the cash prize and bragging rights. BJ applauds Frankie for being a tough competitor and tells him not to feel bad for losing a kayak race because, “This is how my ancestors got to Hawaii.” There’s not enough time to go to ancestry.com and verify. It’s fight time!
ROUND ONE
Eddie hit a jab to start the round. Mike kicks, and Eddie answers back with a stiff right hand.
Eddie attacks the body and head with his punches while Mike struggles to find his range. He tries to switch things up with a jump knee, but Eddie grabs it and blocks the offensive attack. They brake apart and Mike tries to force the clinch. Eddie avoids the attack and circle back to the middle just like they drilled. With two minutes remaining, Mike finally kicks it into another gear and finds his mark. He closes the range, connects with a flurry and dives for a single leg. Eddie defends and takes the middle. Mike won’t be denied and rushes right back in and locks up the clinch. He connects with a few knees and they break apart again. As time runs out, Eddie swings a huge haymaker that misses.
ROUND TWO
Eddie’s jab finds its mark in the opening moments. He continues to avoid the clinch, control the middle of the Octagon and beat the Mike to the punch. Mike finally lands a solid strike, but it’s a low blow. They restart, but there’s another foul less than a minute later when Eddie pokes Mike in the eye. It’s a deep gouge that eventually closes Mike’s eye, but Mike decides to continue. With only one working eye, Mike is eager to bring the fight to the ground. He shoots repeatedly, but Eddie sprawls and refuses to go down. Mike eventually gets Eddie down with a belly to belly suplex. Unfortunately the success is only momentary as Eddie gets back to his feet. Mike’s sense of urgency is evident and he continues to rush in for the takedown. With less than 10 seconds left, Eddie drops for a guillotine and time expires.
The corners look to the judges table and it looks like we’re heading to a sudden victory round!
ROUND THREE
After spending the first minute circling around searching for an opening, Mike shoots in again. Eddie defends, but Mike pushes the fight to the cage. They break apart, and Mike shoots in again, Eddie grabs a font headlock and scores a couple solid knees. After another eye poke stoppage (this time it was Mike’s fault), Mike appears to have drastically slowed down. Every takedown attempt has been stifled and Eddie continues to land punches. In the closing moments of the round, Mike starts swinging big and busts out another flying knee. The scorecards come back and Eddie takes it by unanimous decision. Frankie calls it an evenly matched fight, but Dana says, “I saw nothing from either guy that they can take it to the next level.” On the bright side, he does give Mike credit for pushing through the nasty eye poke. Inside the Team Penn locker room, Mark Coleman gives Mike the same kudos. “Way to suck it up,” he tells his fighter. Mike just smiles and says, “Yeah, [expletive] it.”
> Check Out Behind-the-Scenes Photos from King vs. Gordon
We cut to the fight announcement and it will be the grudge match between Chris Fields and Matt Van Buren. Will they finally settle their differences in the Octagon? Can Team Penn get some momentum back? Do Hawaiian historians confront BJ Penn? Find out this and more next week on The Ultimate Fighter!
