This is not the way BJ Penn's team envisioned it.
With Brandon Melendez's unanimous decision victory against Andy Wang featured on last night's episode of The Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV, Jens Pulver's team took a 4-0 lead against Team Penn.
"At first we had this attitude that we're the better team," Wang said. "Before the first fight we were like 'Yeah, they're all the guys that are leftovers'. After my fight, we're like 'Wow, what's going on here'. BJ and the coaches try to stay upbeat, but it was like 'this wasn't the way it's supposed to be'."
Melendez used his longer reach to his advantage. He outpunched and outpointed Wang in a fight that never made it to the ground, much to the dismay of Wang's coach, BJ Penn, who kept reminding the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt to go for a takedown.
"I'm learning at the highest level of the sport," Wang said. "You can't get away with any kind of lapses mentally or physically. I think I had a mental lapse. When Brandon knocked me down early in the first round, all the strategy in my head went out and the anger took over. At this level of the sport, you can't beat it like that. The best fighters in the world become champions because they master their emotions."
Here are the results after the first four shows:
Episode 1: Cole Miller caught Allen Berube with a triangle choke in the first round. (Team Pulver, 1-0)
Episode 2: Manny Gamburyan caught Noah Thomas with a kimura armlock in the first round. (Team Pulver, 2-0).
Episode 3: Nate Diaz defeated Rob Emerson via rear naked choke in the second round. (Team Pulver, 3-0).
Episode 4: Brandon Melendez defeated Andy Wang via unanimous decision. (Team Pulver, 4-0).
Comments (2)
champions stick to there game plan thats why they are champions
Wang was awful. It was foreshadowed prior to the bout, when another figher mentioned his experience in Wang's corner to BJ. He made no attempt to execute the fight plan.