With this season of The Ultimate Fighter winding down, one would be inclined to think that the show would start picking up the pace. A season this dull really deserves to end on a bang, and hopefully the upcoming Middleweight Semi finals deliver on that.

With this season of The Ultimate Fighter winding down, one would be inclined to think that the show would start picking up the pace. A season this dull really deserves to end on a bang, and hopefully the upcoming Middleweight Semi finals deliver on that. This week is the first part of that series, with Pete “Drago” Sell taking on the man who denied me an interview, tough as nails Travis Lutter. Unfortunately, this week’s bout didn’t turn out as well as the execs at Spike would have hoped. Before I get to that we need to review something equally important: sanity. Yes you read that right, I wrote the word “sanity”.

There really isn’t an eloquent way for me to put this. The guys in the house are going insane. Being cooped up with a bunch of supplement-fed dudes for too long is a topic of great discussion, at least when referring to this show. During this season’s golden home stretch, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that countless more discussions will occur. Gideon Ray is about to KO Captain Miserable over some soy milk, Mikey Burnette is playing football with the wall, and now the guys are playing “war games.” They’re picking teams, making forts, and obviously getting a pretty nasty dose of cabin fever. It all starts with Shonie Carter throwing playing cards at guys, which slowly progresses into food fighting, followed by random household objects being used as ammo. What started out as a harmless activity exploded into an all out war, complete with Rich Clementi walking around with a makeshift shield made from poster board and tape. Mikey Burnette even sports a cardboard helmet for good measure. Too bad he didn’t think of that when he was slamming into the wall the night before.

Probably one of the last “serious” people left in the house, Pete Sell spends his time training with Chuck Liddell. Dana states that Sell made a bad decision in choosing to fight Lutter, even if Drago did it for his friend Patrick Cote. Conversely, Travis Lutter has it rough in terms of training partners. With hardly any time left in the show, nobody else from his team is training. Apparently the hot thing to do is participate in ridiculously over dramatized food fights and such. Travis Lutter is left to prepare for his upcoming fight with Coach Mark Dellagrotte. Will either of these scenarios make a difference come fight time? Why don’t you get back to me on that after you watch the fight. Recently I’ve been criticized for being too kind in my reviews and recaps. I’m just gonna get this out of the way so we can move on. Lutter vs. Sell is hands down one of the most boring fights so far this season. Everyone expecting to see a heated battle is going to be let down by this one. In fact, they are going to be so bummed out that someone’s gonna call up Conor Oberst from “Bright Eyes” to write a frickin’ song about it. Btw, if you (fortunately) don’t know who Conor Oberst is, my suggestion would be to get off the internet and get a girlfriend. She would no doubt have far more knowledge about the Emo boy-wonder. Okay, I’m done ranting now.

That said, round one began with a nice jab from Lutter, followed by a clinch after a little exchange. Lutter maneuvered Drago over to the cage, sans resistance. With his back to the cage, Drago did a great job of using his lone right under hook to fend off the takedown. Unfortunately for Sell, Lutter was able to persevere on with the takedown, and proceeded to grind away from inside half guard. The rest of round 1 was spent on the ground, with Lutter on top pounding away with short punches and elbows. Pete tried to work his game, but unfortunately his jujitsu looked to be outclassed by Lutter’s black belt in the gentle art. To his credit, Sell managed to avoid every kimura, Americana, and armbar attempt thrown his way. However, Drago didn’t get a chance to work his submission game, and he didn’t stand enough to work his striking. With thirty seconds left in the round, Lutter grinded out a cut over Sell’s right eye with a series of short elbows. He finished off the round by seemingly working the cut with his fingers, reminiscent of Matt Hamill’s tactics in the Petruzelli fight. It wasn’t quite as blatant, and may have even been accidental in Lutter’s case. Either way, that shit’s not cool.

The early portions of round two saw Drago reach the peak of his effectiveness in the entire fight. Drago managed to clip his opponent with a series of right uppercut-left hook combinations, but Lutter still managed to get the takedown to half guard. From here it looked eerily similar to the first round, with Sell eating elbows and avoiding arm locks from Lutter. I’d like to say that round 3 was a different story, but sadly even with a stand up from Big John McCarthy the last stanza could not be saved. During the rest period, Matt Serra informed Drago that they should at least go out with a bang. Granted Drago never gave up in this fight, but he didn’t exactly fulfill Serra’s wish. He managed to secure the neck for a guillotine choke, but didn’t come very close to finishing the hold. Other than that, Lutter repeatedly took Sell down and pounded him with elbows, winning a lopsided unanimous decision in the process. Hey, at least there wasn’t any controversy in the verdict.

After the fight, Randy Couture recalls how “Travis rode him like a cheap suit.” Wait what did he just say? Although I’m not sure how someone can “ride” a cheap suit, Randy is pretty right on with his assertion. Pete Sell is crushed, and extremely teary eyed. Serra attempts to give his fallen comrade some solace, lifting Pete up by complimenting him on his big heart. Sell is still devastated, remarking that he makes fun of the guys that cry after fights. Unfortunately for him, about 200 different forum threads were just created about him being a cry baby. Just on a side note, I would pay a lot of money to see all the 13 year old forum kids line up and get KO’d one at a time by Sell. Back to the topic at hand, Lutter is elated to be in the finals, even after boring everyone to death on a hit TV show. For some reason he sports a bandage across his forehead. Maybe those hooks and uppercuts did more damage that I initially though? Regardless, I’m hoping that somebody gets knocked out in the next semi final match up, a possible slugfest between Patrick Cote and Edwin Dewees. One more week until the final episode of….THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER.