The third episode of The Ultimate Fighter Nations started off with Team Australia’s Tyler Manawaroa waking up Team Canada with an obnoxious horn.
After an abrupt start, we got a closer look at Chad Laprise, who fought Australia’s Chris Indich later in the show. One of the big influences in Laprise’s life is his religion. Throughout the show, Laprise quotes bible verses in his interviews.
Drama followed the profile on Laprise as Kyle Noke brought in his strength and conditioning coach Jon Chaimberg, a Canadian, to help out his team. The drama was that Chaimberg also coaches Laprise and Nordine Taleb from Team Canada outside of the show, and the Canadians feel bitter towards Chaimberg since helped out the rival squad.
After the Australians finished their grueling workout with Chaimberg, they decided to get at the Canadians by messing with the mouse that is mounted in the house. The Aussies disparage the poor moose by tying tampons to it. The only issue I had with the whole thing is that I’m still wondering why Team Australia had tampons.
Nevertheless, Team Canada promptly removed the tampon, and Taleb, who is quickly becoming the face of the team, was not too happy.
We then got a closer at both Laprise and Indich in the lead-up to their fight.
Laprise talked about how he plans to keep the fight standing against Indich, who has built a reputation as a grappler. Chad also said that he was injury free heading into the bout. Indich is hyped up as an under the radar fighter that is much more talented and battle-tested than his inexperience record suggests.
A juxtaposition between the two teams was shown as Team Canada was shown as a unit that was having chemistry and constantly having productive training sessions, whereas Australia’s recent practices where rather lackadaisical.
Manawaroa was highlighted as one of the primary fighters that struggled to maintain any significant intensity lately because he was recuperating from a thumb injury. Aside from lackluster training, Manawaroa also had some trouble with his weight, so he decides to abstain from eating anything that will hinder his ability to make the cut 185 pounds.
Both, Laprise and Indich, made weight for the fight with no issues. After Indich talked about how he gets into the “zone” for his fights, the welterweight bout between the two took place.
Laprise got his hand raised after soundly controlling Indich on the feet for two rounds. While Indich provided enough combinations to make the fight exciting, Laprise was always in control. The Canadian did a fantastic job of sticking his jab, cutting angles, and landing accurate punches.
With Team Canada improving to 3-0, Cote announced the next fight which will be a heated contest between Canada’s Taleb and Australia’s Manawaroa.