In the 7th episode of The Ultimate Fighter Season 31, Team McGregor prospect Landon Quinones looked to pick up the prospects first win of the season as he squared off against battle tested veteran Jason Knight for Team Chandler.
Landon was a Florida native who trained at least part time at Kill Cliff FC, where Michael Chandler and a couple of our coaches came from. Despite the link between them, it never seemed like Chandler or any of the Kill Cliff coaches who participated this season had a problem coaching against Landon. Big gyms like Kill Cliff are full of fighters who all have different schedules so it didn’t seem like any of the coaches had spent a considerable amount of time with Landon in the gym. When the show started, Landon rubbed a lot of the veterans in the house the wrong way. He was loud, seemed a bit cocky, and said some things that didn’t sit well with several of the veteran fighters. As the season went on, however, Landon admittingly matured quite a bit and a lot of the animosity that existed early on faded away.Jason Knight was the most experienced fighter in the house. He had a lengthy UFC career that saw him beat some very credible fighters, but a skid of losses ended his UFC tenure. Knight, the fighter that he is, found himself in bare knuckle fighting after his time in the UFC and had two fights with Connor McGregor’s former friend and right hand man Artem Lobov that were some of the biggest fights in Bare Knuckle history. When I saw his first fight with Artem, I remember thinking to myself, “Nah, I’m good on this bareknuckle stuff.” The fight was one of the bloodiest scraps I’ve ever seen. Both men lost some time off their lives in that one. Jason beat Artem fairly easily in their rematch and had gained quite a bit of traction and following as a result of his personality and fighting style. He was about as backwoods as you could imagine a fighter coming out of Mississippi might be. He was also a featherweight who was the smallest lightweight contestant in the house. He didn’t have to cut weight to make 155’s so he was continuously cooking and eating whatever and however much he wanted throughout the show. He was also extremely funny and had a really good heart and so he quickly became a very likable character in the house.
Part of the episode dived into the cut Jason got during training before his fight. He had so much scar tissue that it probably happens to him pretty regularly. Despite the handicap, it didn’t stop Jason from fighting and putting on a show. Landon talked about his fight IQ in the lead up to the fight, but after he ate a few good shots from Jason quickly went in for a takedown and found himself in probably the most dangerous place he could have, Jason’s guard. I predicted that Jason would finish the fight by first round submission, and that is exactly what occurred. His rubber guard game is very good and Landon walked right into it.
Another part of the episode revealed the MCL tear I suffered in my fight with Mando. When it happened, I remember thinking that it was probably just a bruised knee. I was confident when I went and got an MRI that the results would be fine. As you saw on this episode, however, the UFC doctor revealed to me that I had a grade two tear in my MCL. I’ll save the details of the injury and what happened afterwards for a later blog once the show continues, but I will say that the injury completely altered what I was able to do in training for the remainder of the show. Ryan Bader was a really big help when it came to providing me with workouts I could do on the assault bike to keep my cardio up and weight down. But to say I was frustrated that I couldn’t train alongside my teammates as the show continued would be an understatement.
Next week, we get to see the final quarter final fight of the season. Team McGregor hopeful Rico DiSciullo squared off against my roommate and the guy who became my best friend in the house Hunter Azure. I’m interested to see how the episode comes together and what is shown of the aftermath of the fight. I’ll save details for later but, depending on what is shown, should prove to be an explosive episode next week. As always, thanks for reading along and following this journey with me. Until next time,
Cody “The Renegade” Gibson.
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