The coaching staff of Team Rousey comes to The Ultimate Fighter house and grappling coach Manny Gamburyan makes Armenian food for both Team Rousey and members of Team Tate. While upcoming opponents David Grant and Anthony Gutierrez do enjoy some of the Armenian food, they vastly vary to the degree of enjoyment.
Grant is smart in that he only has a small portion to savor. Gutierrez on the other hand takes a large portion against advice. In the process he draws criticism from many of his teammates.
In order to avoid favoritism, head coach Ronda Rousey and head trainer Edmond Tarverdyan make the decision not to corner either fighter. They offer both fighters the option to choose teammates to help corner them while they will teach basic techniques.
However, they do offer the fighters training. At the same time they make it clear that helping the fighters develop individual game plans is not an option. Another thing that Rousey does is give Gutierrez advice about watching what he eats in preparation for the upcoming fight.
Finally the season’s coaches challenge takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events center. The challenge is a giant climbing wall where the first women to reach the top and ring a bell is the winner. The winning coach would receive $100,000 while the rest of the team would receive $1,500 per individual fighter.
Dana White comments that with both coaches hating each other, neither one wants to lose in a competition. It is close during the climb up to the top however in the last part of the climb Rousey pulls ahead, rings the bell, and flips off Meisha Tate to rub it in.
The night before the weigh-ins Grant and Gutierrez are doing their individual weight cuts and Grant appears to be more on track whereas Gutierrez is more questionable. The next day Gutierrez wakes up at 145 pounds and begins his weight cut. Despite all the efforts he makes, by the time of weigh-ins Gutierrez tips the scales at 140lbs and is given an hour to lose the weight.
Initially Rousey and Tarverdyan take him back into the sauna but Gutierrez finally breaks mentally and stops attempting to make weight. White dismisses Gutierrez from the show with a simple “Leave!” and advances Grant to the finals, also telling Rousey it is not her fault for the missed weigh-in despite Rousey’s statements.
What do you think of this bizarre sequence of events where two fighters didn’t make weight? Leave a comment!