The middleweight semi-finals are now in place, Kendall Grove will face Ed Herman, after Ed advanced with a victory over Rory Singer. Leading up to his fight with Ed, it was becoming quite apparent that Rory was viewed as public enemy #1 in the house. Most of the guys on both teams were somewhat annoyed with his neatness quirks, and Ed even decided to move out of the room he shared with Rory because how much he was getting on “short fuse’s” nerves.

As with most reality TV shows, there is always some type of idiotic behaviour that the producers want to ensure the public sees and TUF is no different. First, Rory’s groceries start getting marked with insulting comments, and then this same text begins appearing on his training gear. Rory assumes Josh and Ed were behind the stunt and decides to deface their training equipment, which led to them hiding Rory’s equipment – all this before the 1st recess. In the end, it turned out that Rory’s own teammate Kendall was actually the culprit, but this feud between Rory and Ed only served to create even more drama for their showdown.

To the surprise of most on team Ortiz, Matt Hamill makes a visit to the training centre and it’s like watching someone who has been in a coma for 2 weeks. Matt can’t remember anything about his fight, how he won, and for extra measure believes he’s still fighting in the semi-finals. Tito provides Matt with a dose of reality when he informs him that the doctor’s haven’t cleared him to fight, and Ross Pointon has taken his spot in the competition.

In training for his match it appeared as though Ed wasn’t mentally sharp so Ken felt he needed to fire him up. Therefore, he called up his coach and mentor Randy Couture, who came in and delivered a speech that got Ed motivated again. Actually, Ed looked as though it was the Messiah himself that had walked into the UFC’s training centre and given him his blessing.

Prior to Rory’s fight against Soloman (episode 5) he had doubts about his fighting ability and needed a pep talk from Dean Lister to convince him that he belonged on the show. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Ed is a decisive favourite in this bout, so Rory’s going to have to land some good strikes if he hopes to change up Ed’s game plan.

When the action begins, Ed gets into the clinch early in the 1st round but Rory does a nice job of getting under hooks and battling for position along the cage. Nonetheless, Ed was finally able to throw Rory to the ground, but Rory kept Ed in his closed guard, and was able to minimize the shots Ed landed. Later, with Ed pushing Rory up against the cage to be better positioned to ground and pound his opponent, Rory uses the cage as leverage to get back to his feet and was even able to take Ed down in the process. The round ends with Ed back on top, a somewhat lacklustre round that Ed easily wins based on control.

Ed was able to impose his will in the 2nd round as well, as he kept pushing forward until he secured a takedown. There wasn’t much action for the most part and Herb Dean could have probably stood both fighters back up. Later, Ed was able to up his ground and pound, which forced Rory to turn over and give up his back, and it wasn’t long before Ed locked in the rear naked choke and Rory tapped out. Afterwards, Rory admittedly stated he lost confidence in the fight and gave up, and believes he requires more mental preparation in the future.

Furthermore, Tito wanted to ensure his two remaining fighters (Michael Bisping and Josh Haynes) do not approach the mental aspect of the fight game like Rory did, and provided a little more inspiration by telling them how to prepare for their fights.