The tenth episode of The Ultimate Fighter 21 premiered on Wednesday night on Fox Sports 1 and the show began with the Blackzilians celebrating the win by Kamaru Usman during last week’s episode.
With three days before the next fight, the American Top Team goes through a training session and Hayder Hassan states what makes them the team there are is how they bounce back from defeats. Later that evening, Glenn Robinson takes out the Blackzilians to a dinner and the team talks about finishing the job with three fights left in the competition.
Back at the American Top Team gym, the team immediately points to Nathan Coy fighting for them next. Coach Ricardo Liborio mentions that Coy is a gamer and he knows he will be ready to fight in two days. This will be the second fight in the competition for Coy and his first fight was a defeat against Vicente Luque.
At the Blackzilian gym, Robinson and the coaches believe that American Top Team will go with Sabah Homasi and they decided that Valdir Araujo will fight for them next. Just like Coy, this will be his second fight of the competition and in his first fight, he defeated Steve Carl.
The official weigh-ins took place at the American Top Team gym and both fighters made weight. After the fighters made weight, Robinson accused Lambert of changing who was fighting for American Top Team after Araujo stepped forward. However, each team has to submit paperwork to the Florida Boxing Commission on the morning of the weigh-ins and state who will be fighting for them.
The fight between Coy and Araujo took place the next day at the Blackzilian gym and if Coy is unable to get the victory, the Blackzilians will win the competition. The fight opens with Coy pushing the pace and used his strikes to score a takedown. They would battle on the ground with Coy in top position and the referee warned Araujo about holding the cage. Coy would control the remember of the round on the ground and the fight moved into the second round.
Araujo was able to land early in the second round and landed a jumping kick. As Coy was going to the mat, Araujo went for a guillotine choke. Coy would survive the submission and Araujo would have the dominate position on the ground. Coy would end up reversing the position due to Araujo looking for another guillotine. Araujo would briefly get to his feet, but Coy scored a takedown. While on the ground, Araujo went for a leg lock and Coy would escape.
Coy would have top position on the ground and the referee continued to warn Araujo about holding the fence. Coy would land multiple strikes from the half guard position and the round would come to an end with Coy controlling the action. The referee informed both teams that there was a decision and Coy won by unanimous decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-18).
With the victory by Coy, American Top Team narrows the gap in the competition as the Blackzilians now have a 300-200 lead heading into next week’s eleventh fight, which will take place at the American Top Team gym.