The finale episode of The Ultimate Fighter Nations kicked off with Olivier Aubin-Mercier taking in his victory over Australia’s Richard Walsh, a win that earned him a slot in the welterweight tournament finals against Chad Laprise.
Walsh, back at the house, talked about his loss to Sheldon Wescott and Laprise, two of Aubin-Mercier’s Canadian teammates. The Canadians consoled Walsh by telling him that Aubin-Mercier is an absolutely monster in training.
The big surprise of the episode took place next as former UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre abruptly showed up at the fighter house. The somewhat starstruck fighters welcomed St-Pierre into the house, and as the fighters gathered around the dinner table, St. Pierre gave them advice on fighting and life.
St. Pierre stressed about how important it is to pace oneself with training in order to increase the longevity of one’s career. He also gave the fighters a look into how he prepares for a fight. St-Pierre told them that he analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of both himself and his opponent before his training camp, comes up with a game-plan, and spend the entire training camp working on his game-plan and the specific attacks and counters that he plans on using.
When talking about the fight with Johny Hendricks, St-Pierre admitted that he wasn’t happy with the fight. He likes to know that his opponent knows that St. Pierre was the better fighter after the fight, but he didn’t get that sense from Hendricks.
As far as if he plans to actively compete once again, St-Pierre told the fighters that he’s taken a leave of absence to find out if he still has the fire to compete in MMA. After St. Pierre leaves, the episode’s direction turns towards the middleweight bout between Australia’s Vik Grujic and Canada’s Sheldon Westcott, the last fight of the season.
In the lead-up to the fight, Grujic talked about how hard it is to get to the UFC and how big of an opportunity this is for him. He had a tough training session with Team Australia coach Kyle Noke where he simulated the fight and ran sprints for conditioning.
Westcott talked about how he usually fighters for his family and friends, but this fight is strictly for him. The reason being is that he’s had a difficult time on the show because of injuries, but all he needs is this one opportunity.
At the Ultimate Fighter house, a man dressed as a yeti shows up at the house to scare the fighters, which is a fun idea, except this is a house full of professional fighters. Unfortunately for the yeti, he was promptly taken down and de-masked, and the yeti is identified as Team Canada coach Patrick Cote.
After that bit of fun, Vik Grujic and Sheldon Westcott both make weight for their middleweight fighter. The fight took place next. Sheldon Westcott immediately initiated a clinch with Grujic, pummeled, and took him down with a big double-leg slam. Westcott locked on an arm-triangle choke from half-guard and elicited a tap from Grujic in the first round.
With the victory for Westcott, it’s official that both the welterweight and middleweight finals will feature all Canadians. Olivier Aubin-Mercier will take on Chad Laprise in a welterweight bout, and Sheldon Westcott will meet Elias Theodorou in the middleweight finale.
As the show and season concluded, the fighters tell each other their farewells, sign memorabilia, and leave the house for the last time.