We’re now entering the quarter finals of of Bellator FC’s Fight Master reality TV show. With the round of 16 done, it’s time for the coaches to re-seed the brackets and determine who gets to choose their own fate. Frank Shamrock was most successful, bringing 3 fighters into the next round, with Teams Couture & Jackson each taking two along, and Team Warren only one. Now, we hit the reset button, so to speak, and see who will move the most fighters along to the semi-finals.

Bellator Fight Master episode 8 recap

At the seeding meeting, all the coaches agreed that Joe Riggs should remain the top seed. Controversy arose soon after though, when coach Joe Warren declared that his lone remaining pupil, Evan Cutts, should be the second seed. Randy Couture, who coached the man Cutts beat to make it into the quarterfinals, would have none of it, declaring that Cutts had “got lucky” and “looked like a bobblehead” during the fight. Warren then ran up to the board and placed his charge into the #2 spot, while the other coaches either openly chuckled or derided the self-proclaimed “Baddest Man on the Planet” for his actions. Warren ranted on in animated fashion that “The Butcher” should be able to pick his own destiny, only to be told by Frank Shamrock that, “Nobody cares what you want.” Coach Couture eventually went up and finished seeding everything himself, placing Cole Williams #2, Nick Barnes #3, Chriz Lozano at #4, Evan Cutts #5, Eric Matthews #6, Joe Williams #7, and Mike Bronzoulis at #8. Randy and Frank then start debating the placement of Williams and Barnes, with each man believing that their fighter should be second seed, but eventually the brackets were set as “The Natural” had placed them. With that, Joe Riggs will be able to decide who he fights first, but due to Bellator’s reliance on Big Brother-esque twists, the first man to fight will be Cole Williams.

Fight #1: Cole Williams (Team Couture) vs. Nick Barnes (Team Shamrock)

Before picking his opponent, Williams noted that there were not really any easy match-ups in the quarter-finals. With that said, he marched right into Team Shamrock’s warm-up area and challenged Nick “The Phoenix” Barnes, the #3 seed in the Elite 8. This led to Coach Randy Couture, in a talking-head segment, discussing how he wasn’t sure his pupil realized how the seeding went. and that Williams vs. Barnes will be an interesting fight. “The Spartan” talks about how he feels “The Phoenix” is a good fighter, but that there are holes in his striking that can be exploited. Frank Shamrock, on the other hand, feels that Cole is underestimating his charge’s power and versatility, but notes that the Team Couture member has the wrestling advantage.

In the training sessions, Shamrock is focusing on a kickboxing-based gameplan, attacking Williams’ outside leg to take the power off his shots, and then eventually moving to the body. He also feels that – like any of his three team members – “The Phoenix” can go all the way in this competion. Couture works “worst case scenarios” in training, focusing on helping his charge survive in the event that Barnes ends up on his back. Coach Randy also praises “The Spartan’s” coachability, saying the he’s like “a big sponge.”

On fight day, Barnes talks about refusing to let Williams overlook him, but will not let himself be run over. Frank Shamrock talks about how Couture is mostly a wrestling coach, and that he doesn’t really have a “mixed martial arts style.” Cole talks about this competition allowing him a path to support his family, while “The Natural” talks about helping his pupil to realize that “he’s pretty damn good.” Before the fight itself starts, we’re shown members of the U.S. National Guard who will be watching from cageside.

Round 1 starts with both men touching gloves, then Nick Barnes hitting a kick to the body as Cole Williams floors him with a right straight. Barnes goes down, and Williams swarms on him with a barrage of punches. “The Phoenix” gets to his feet, but Cole doesn’t stop, a flurry of uppercuts sending his opponent back down to the ground. This repeats again before the referee stops the fight in what is a contender for one of Bellator’s worst late stoppages to date – and that’s saying something.

Post-fight, Cole asks his coach how long the fight went, with Couture telling him it was about 20 seconds. Williams then said he was glad he was able to get the finish he wanted, but wished the ref had stopped the fight sooner so he didn’t have to dole out extra damage to a friend. Nick was feeling quite disappointed and upset, as this was his first loss, and he feels like he let down his family.

Cole “The Spartan” Williams def. Nick “The Phoenix” Barnes by TKO (Punches), 0:22 R1.

Fight 2: Mike Bronzoulis (Team Couture) vs. Chris Lozano (Team Shamrock)

We start off on Fight Day, with both Bronzoulis and “The Natural” talking about how they will find a way to beat Shamrock and his #4 seed, Lozano. “The Assassin” talks about how he will not allow himself to be bullied, and that he will bring the hurt to “Bronzoulis.” Frank, however, discusses his competitiveness, and how at the end of the day, Lozano will be knocking people out.

On the day he picked his fight, Chris Lozano examined his options: Fighting a teammate, fighting a high-level NCAA wrestler, or fighting Mike “The Greek” Bronzoulis. Wisely, he chose Bronzoulis, which left his opponent feeling slightly betrayed. Mike talked about how he thought “The Assassin was “his boy,” and how he had shared stuff with him, and now he has to fight him next week. Both coaches are happy with this, for different reasons. Couture feels that Lozano tires, while Shamrock feels that Bronzoulis’ skills don’t match up to his pupil’s.

In the training sessions, Couture focuses on putting pressure on Lozano to tire him out. This is emphasized by assistant coach Frank Trigg showing “The Greek” some techniques for avoiding takedowns while pinning an opponent against the cage. For “The Assassin,” Coach Shamrock focuses on movement and angles, as well as staying off the cage. He also wants Lozano to hit the takedown when it becomes available, to get a finish off of ground and pound.

Randy then talks about how “The Greek” needs to stay on his opponent, drive forward against him, and muscle him up against the cage. However, “The Assasin” feels that if he properly uses his calm attitude, wrestling and his footwork, he’ll be able to make short work of his emotional foe and get Team Shamrock into the semi-finals. In the house, Bronzoulis and Lozano discuss whether or not they can be friends after this fight, with Lozano taking the more mature route. That didn’t last long though, as Eric Scallan talks about being woken up from a nap by Mike and Chris yelling back and forth, with Bronzoulis calling the Team Shamrock member a “fake,” “not real,” and most absurdly of all, a “perpetrator.” Lozano’s response was to call Mike “a little bitch” before walking away. This allowed the Team Couture member the last word, claiming that he was going to leave Lozano “crying in the cage with a broken heart and a broken face.”

King Mo came out to watch the fight with members of the National Guard as both coaches prepped their fighters.

Round 1 started with a sloppy leg kick from Mike Bronzoulis, followed up by an attempted overhand right that saw Chris Lozano duck, shoot for the single leg, and then turn that into a back-take up against the cage. After controlling “The Greek” for about 30 seconds, Lozano began to cross-face his opponent, grinding down on him with his forearm in an effort to open up an opportunity for a rear naked choke. After another minute, Bronzoulis is able to reverse position and get on top, going for a can opener from guard before “The Assassin” got back to his feet. The Team Couture member went into the wall’n’stall tactics his coaches went over with him in training. Lozano managed to circle out with under two minutes left in the round, moving back to avoid the lunging Bronzoulis before finding his back against the opposite end of the cage and “The Greek’s” fists up against his face. The Team Shamrock fighter then responded by catching a double-collar tie clinch and hitting some knees, but not before taking some shots from his Team Couture counterpart. “The Assassin” with a single-leg attempt against the cage, but he’s not getting it. Bronzoulis escaped, pressed Lozano back up against the cage, and started peppering him with shots. Lozano broke free with 30 seconds left, but not for long, as he was pressed up against the cage again to end the round. Tough round to score, but I could see the judges giving it to the Bronzoulis for controlling against the cage.

The second round started out as a firefight, with both men going for the knockout before “The Greek” got back into his gameplan and bullied Lozano up against the fence and took his back. After eating repeated knees to the thigh, “The Asasssin rolled for a kneebar, but was too close to the cage for it to be effective and ended up with Bronzoulis on his back again. After breaking free, both men began to stand and trade, with Lozano appearing to get the edge before getting bullied back into the cage with knees and clinchwork from the Team Couture fighter. Chris drops for a takedown, but gets stuffed and hauled back up to his feet. Lozano makes another attempt up against the cage wall, but Bronzoulis is not having it, and starts landing short hammerfists and punches. Once they seperated again, with around 2 minutes left, Lozano went into desperation mode, throwing any strike he could, including attempting a spinning wheel kick with nowhere near the necessary distance to properly connect. Still, “The Greek” was able to get this back against the cage. Every time Chris was able to get off the cage and exchange some strikes, Mike put him right back up against it. With less than 30 seconds left, Lozano went for one final takedown and managed to hit it. However, he couldn’t do a thing with it as he was gassed out from spending so much time held against the cage. Bronzoulis popped back up to his feet, only to get taken down again, and almost immediately regained his vertical base to close out the round. While Lozano finished the round with control of Bronzoulis’ back to end the round, the judges likely scored this one for “The Greek” due to the cage control he exhibited in his wall’n’stall.

The judges declared it a draw, and we now go into the sudden-victory 3rd round. Both men are visibly tired, but Bronzoulis continues to show more aggression, pressing Lozano up against the cage again. Even when Chris was able to push off and move back towards the center of the cage, “The Greek” was still more aggressive, chasing him with jabs and low kicks. With more than two minutes down in the round, after being stalked by Bronzoulis the whole time, “The Assassin” finally landed a solid combo, only to get pushed backwards again by Mike’s jab. At about 2:30 left in the round, Chris attempted a low kick, only to have it caught and be dumped on his back. Bronzoulis jumped on top and began raining down strikes, only for Lozano to get back to his feet. This didn’t faze the Team Couture member, who just pressed his opponent back against the cage again. With about two minutes left, both men stood near the center of the Bellator cage and began exchanging strikes. Both men were gassed, but Lozano was clearly the worse off, stumbling as he moved. With 35 seconds left in the round, Lozano was finally able to score on another takedown attempt, but again couldn’t keep his opponent down. Bronzoulis again broke loose and finished the round looking stronger. Round 3 goes to Mike Bronzoulis.

After the fight, Lozano talked about never feeling the kind of low he’s feeling after a loss, while Bronzoulis talks about how happy he is to have won for his family, saying it was “the best moment of his life.”

Mike “The Greek” Bronzoulis def. Chris “The Assasin Lozano, Unanimous Decision

So with that, Team Couture moves two fighters into the semi-finals, while Team Shamrock is putting their last hope in Joe Williams. Standings have been updated to include quarterfinal wins and losses per team.

Team Couture (2-2, 2-0)