The Ultimate Fighter Season 25‘s seventh episode saw the final bout of the preliminaries take place. The clash pit Joe “Daddy” Stevenson of Team Killashaw against Team No Love‘s Justin “Fast Eddie” Edwards. It also featured the wild card selections, which of course left one Cody Garbrandt seething. So, let’s break it down now.
The TUFtermath – Episode 7
The Big Three
1) Joe Stevenson has the Coolest Day Job – For those who didn’t already know, Joe Stevenson is probably doing the best out of all the other fighters in the house in terms of day job. Joe “Daddy” is a technical advisor, fight choreographer, and recurring actor on the television show Kingdom. This means he’s on TV, has a fairly stable job with the prospect of more in the future, and will get residuals after the show ends and goes into syndication. That’s pretty awesome.
2) The Streak Ends – Since this is not strictly a recap column, I have no problems spoiling the results this early. Justin Edwards was able to take a two round decision victory over Joe Stevenson. That means that Cody Garbrandt and Team No Love were able to avoid getting shut out of the initial seven preliminary fights.
3) Snakebitten – One of TJ Dillashaw‘s criticisms of Cody Garbrandt is that the current UFC Bantamweight Champion has trouble articulating himself verbally. Nowhere was this more clear than in their video conference with Dana White to select the competitors for the wild card fight. While editing could very well have been in play here, it seemed like “No Love” was unable to voice his concerns when it mattered. This resulted in both of Dillashaw’s picks, Joe Stevenson and Hayder Hassan, being slotted into the wild card bout. It also gave us Team No Love kvetching about Dillashaw having too much control.
The Stock Report
Stock Up – Justin Edwards. Honestly, I don’t remember Edwards ever looking that good in the UFC. He caught Stevenson with some solid spin kicks and had a couple of really solid guillotine chokes. Also, being the only fighter so far to win for his team definitely helps.
Stock Down – Joe Stevenson. It’s hard to say, but Stevenson’s miles really showed in this fight. He also looked undersized at welterweight, struggling to lift Edwards for takedowns in the first round. While his performance was gutsy, it seems like time may have passed Joe “Daddy” by.
The Fight
The two round affair started off back and forth. Both Joe Stevenson and Justin Edwards exchanged hard strikes, while Joe “Daddy” worked to try and get the fight to the ground. When he was able to get on top, Stevenson had some success, but the effort it took to get the fight there took a lot out of him. Those takedown attempts also led to some deep guillotine chokes from Edwards. The second round saw Edwards really take control with his striking, negating any points Stevenson scored with a takedown and clinching the victory.
Next week, Stevenson will return to the cage against Hayder Hassan in the wild card bout, and the first of the semi-final bouts goes down. Keep it locked to MMASucka.com for the next TUFtermath and all the latest MMA news!
