The TUF 26 TUFtermath
After a week’s delay for baseball playoffs, The Ultimate Fighter Season 26 is back with episode eight! Things finally hit the breaking point between Lauren Murphy and Eddie Alvarez, with the good of Team Alvarez hanging in the balance. Also, Team Gaethje‘s Emily Whitmire steps into the cage against Christina Marks of Team Alvarez in the final preliminary bout. All this, plus the coaches challenge! So, let’s get started
The Big Three
#1) You Better Swim – Head coaches Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez squared off in this season’s coaching challenge, an 800-meter swim. While Gaethje took an early lead, he quickly gassed out, allowing Eddie Alvarez to come from behind and take the victory, $10,000 for himself, and an additional $1700 for each of his team members.
#2) It All Comes to a Head – While Eddie Alvarez focuses on preparing his team members for their bouts, his failure to connect with Lauren Murphy has created a toxic situation. It all came to a head this episode when Murphy made it known to her team, and to Alvarez, that she wanted to spend the rest of her time on the show training with Team Gaethje. Justin Gaethje was quite happy with this development. Eddie Alvarez, however, felt extremely disrespected. “I felt like a cancer was cut out,” he said, in the aftermath. How it affects the team will remain to be seen, but it does reduce drama in the short term
The Stock Report
Stock Up – Emily Whitmire: I don’t think anybody expected Whitmire, who came into this bout with a rib injury, to do quite as well as she did. It was an exceptionally dominant victory
The Fight
There wasn’t much to this fight. Emily Whitmire through a punch used it to conceal her takedown entry, and from there, Christina Marks didn’t really have a defense. Whitmire took Marks’ back over-enthusiastically, fell over the top, and landed by catching an armbar that would eventually gain her the submission victory at around the 40-second mark. With that, Emily Whitmire moves on to the quarterfinals.
Next episode, teammates will collide as Team Gaethje’s Roxanne Modafferi (#1) takes on Emily Whitmire (#8) in the week’s first fight, while Team Alvarez’ Sijara Eubanks (#12) throws down with DeAnna Bennet (#4). Keep it locked to MMASucka.com for more news, opinion, and the latest edition of the TUFtermath!
