Another Monday means another episode of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 4. As always every Tuesday, here’s a recap of the latest from the TUF franchise.
What Happened:
Team Shogun’s Glaico Franca earned a spot in the lightweight semifinals by submitting Team Nog’s Nikolas Motta, and the next bantamweight quarterfinal, between Team Shogun’s Bruno Korea and Team Nog’s Leandro Higo.
The Fight:
In the second round, Glaico Franca (12-3) elicited a tape from Nikolas Motta (6-1) with a rear-naked choke to advance to the semi-finals of the lightweight bracket.
The first frame played out back-and-forth as Franca controlled the fight from grappling standpoint with takedowns and clinch-work, while Motta landed several nice combinations and strikes on the feet – including a well placed head kick that knocked Franca down.
Franca went back to the clinch in the second period, eventually working Motta down to the canvas. From there, Franca sunk in a rear-naked choke and got the win.
With the win, Team Shogun is now 4-0 against Team Nogueira. Franca joins teammate Nazareno Malegarie in the lightweight semifinals.
Next Fight:
Because Team Shogun won the octagon challenge earlier in the episode, Mauricio Rua made the next selection, pitting his own bantamweight Bruno Korea (4-0) against Team Nog’s Leandro Higo (13-2)
Other Notes:
– The fighters competed in another Octagon Challenge that ended with the winning team getting the ability to pick the next fight. Team Shogun ended up winning the challenge. The challenge featured eight fighters, four from each team, each attached to a ring, and the goal was for the fighters to grab four flags – but they could only grab a flag while holding on to the ring.
– The ring card girl for the fight was Jennifer Giacotto. She’s 23 and is an actress and a dancer.
– The storyline of the show continues to be the happiness among the successful Team Shogun, and the tension surrounding Team Nogueira, and it’s losing streak.
– Speaking of tension, Team Nog’s Fernando Bruno got in a mini-controversy with Team Shogun’s Glaico Franca when Franca was cutting weight at 1 A.M. Bruno quarreled with Franca about disturbing all the other fighters late at night but would later go on and apologize to Franca for being confrontational.