The fifth episode of The Ultimate Fighter 21 premiered on Wednesday night on Fox Sports 1 and the show began with UFC light heavyweight Anthony Johnson coming to the fighter house to congratulate Carrington Banks on his win over Sabah Homasi in the last episode.
Banks talked to Johnson about the victory while enjoying a beer and Homasi discussed how he felt he truly won the fight against Bank. He said the lost killed him and he could not believe it. He revealed that he injured his foot in the fight and just wanted to heal up his injury.
UFC President Dana White reacted on this season’s fights so far and believes American Top Team needs to find a fighter that wants to fight and wants to finish somebody. Over at the Blackzilian gym, Tyrone Spong gave a speech to the team and told them they needed to keep their foot on the gas pedal and not let American Top Team back in the competition. Spong goes on to tell the team he wants the next fight to end with a knockout.
At the American Top Team gym, Dan Lambert and the coaches discuss who should fight for them next. They immediately bring up Hayder Hassan and all of the coaches agree that Hassan should fight for them next. Lambert and the coaches came to the house to inform Hassan that he will be fighting next and he promises to put on a show.
Over at the Blackzilian gym, Glenn Robinson and the coaches begin to discuss who should fight for them next. They decided to give Andrews Nakahara the next fight and inform the entire Blackzilian team that Nakahara will be next and Robinson admits to the team that he has no idea who will be fighting next for American Top Team. He mentions Nathan Coy, Marcelo Alfaya, and Hassan as potential opponents.
With two days before the next fight, Hassan and Jason Jackson get into an argument at the fighter house. Hassan asked Jackson if he called him a dirty fighter. Hassan defeated Jackson in 2013 by TKO at CFA 12 and Jackson explained why Hassan is a dirty fighter in his opinion, claiming Hassan pulled his hair in their fight. Hassan says “I did it once and I will do it again.” He went on to say that he is willing to fight everyone on the Blackzilian team and he will prove a point.
Later that night, Hassan, Michael Graves, and Homasi discuss outside who may be fighting next for the Blackzilians. They mention that Felipe Portela appears to be slimming down and they mention it could be Jackson as well. The next morning, fighters mention about how Graves was up all night and continued to sleep as the American Top Team fighters head to the Blackzilian gym for the weigh-ins.
In the locker room, Lambert and the team discuss Graves not coming with the team to the weigh-ins. They mention how he has been in a funk since losing his fight on the show and Lambert feels his talks with him are not getting through to him. Lambert mentions that Graves will not fight again on the show unless they see something different from him. Graves ends up showing up at the gym five minutes before the weigh-ins and admits to drinking some wine the previous night.
Both teams head out to the main area of the Blackzilian gym for the official weigh-in. At this point, Hassan and Nakahara step forward to announce they will be representing their teams in the fifth fight of the season. Both fighters made weight at 170 pounds and the fight became official for the next day. Robinson and Lambert discuss why their fighters will walk away with the victory and the fighters sat down with their teams to come up with a gameplan.
In the fight, Hassan came out as the aggressor and Nakahara countered the aggression with kicks. Hassan would continue to control the cage and landed a combination that dropped Nakahara and he finished the fight on the feet. This mark the first win by the American Top Team and this was the first fight that was worth 25 points. The Blackzilian lead is now 100-50 and next week’s sixth fight will come from the American Top Team gym.