Josh Burkman paid a steep price for his victory over Melvin Guillard last week. After the fight he revealed his left arm was sore and needed to get it checked out at the hospital. The arm was examined and Josh’s worst fear was confirmed, his arm was broken, which likely occurred when he blocked one of Melvin’s kicks. The good news was he wouldn’t need surgery but the recovery time will be between 6-8 weeks. However, just when Josh thought things couldn’t get any worse, Dana had a surprise announcement to make.

A team meeting was called and the fighters all reported to the training centre, most of them expected the news would be about Josh’s status. Dana mentioned that fighters on both teams had expressed interest in Josh staying in the house, they felt he was a positive influence. Unfortunately, Dana advised Josh that the injury he suffered would obviously prevent him from competing on the show and he was therefore sent home. Dana certainly loses points on this decision for inconsistency, last year Nate Quarry suffered an injury that didn’t allow him to compete on the show but was allowed to stay in the house. Josh can take some comfort in the fact he’s the only fighter in the history of the show to go home 1-0.

The heavyweights were featured in this week’s team challenge, titled “keep your head up”. This challenge took place in a pool and each participant needed to tread water while holding their team flag above the water. Randy advised the heavyweights that one of the teams would lose if they lost a hand on the flag or the flag went into the water. After a couple of minutes Rashad lost his grip and the team Franklin flag fell into the water, giving team Hughes their second challenge victory.

Team Hughes was once again in the enviable position of choosing their opponent, they decided on Rob MacDonald vs. Brad Imes. After the announcement about who would be fighting on this episode, Josh’s replacement showed up at the house. Jason Von Flue who works out with Chuck Liddell’s camp was introduced as the new welterweight on team Hughes. After sizing Jason up, Jorge Gurgel didn’t think much of him and said if he wins the next challenge he’ll pick Jason to get him out of the house. Matt put Jason through the paces and after all the training was complete thought he lacked heart.

Many of the fighters in the house were beginning to lose patience with Rob even before it was announced he would be fighting. He had a shoulder tear but continually complained about it to anyone who would listen. Matt Hughes was even starting to get annoyed and informed Rob that all fighters experience injuries while training for a fight, he needed to suck it up and concentrate on getting ready for his match. Team Hughes selected Brad as the opponent because he too was injured, bothered by a sore knee. In preparing for the fight Rob felt Brad’s chin and his inability to stop throws were his weaknesses, yet before the fight he met with Matt and once again said his shoulder was causing him difficulty and he was even scared to fight.

After Matt’s pep talk it was finally time for the heavyweight showdown and the fight began with Rob throwing a few punches to work into the clinch and then he took Brad down. While on the ground Rob was in north-south position and managed to throw a few body shots, but they didn’t do much damage. Both fighters got the fight back to there feet and Brad took Rob down but in the process he got caught in a guillotine. Unfortunately, Rob was trying to secure the submission with his bad arm, so it likely affected how tight he could lock it in. Brad was successful in escaping the guillotine attempt and he worked some GnP from Rob’s guard. However, Rob was successful in sweeping out from underneath Brad and got top position but while in Brad’s guard, Rob got locked into a triangle choke. It appeared as though Brad was quite slow in setting up the triangle, but for some reason Rob wasn’t able to avoid getting caught and tapped out.

Next Week – A secret alliance is formed, Matt plays mind games with Jorge Gurgel and 2 welterweights square off.