After two fights with Frank Trigg it appears Matt Hughes has learned a thing or two about trash talking and last night’s episode was no different. First, Hughes kicked things off by once again questioning Rich’s decision the previous week to fight his best wrestler (Joe Stevenson), which resulted in a loss for team Franklin. Next, the mental games with Jorge continued, claiming he’ll have to win another team challenge to call Jorge out as it doesn’t appear he’s interested in fighting. This week the heavyweights were up for elimination and with Matt brimming with all this confidence, could he possibly underestimate team Franklin’s representative?

As this weeks training session began Matt didn’t seem comfortable with any of his heavyweights due to the fact they were all nursing injuries, both Tom and Dave were bothered by a bad knee. However, it didn’t seem to slow any of them down at the team challenge, titled “rock ’em sock ’em”. This was the first challenge to take place inside the Octagon and the object of the game was for all the heavyweights to move around on their knees and try to remove their opponent’s socks. Randy mentioned this was an old college wrestling training exercise, no striking was allowed but you could team up on each other. As if Hughes needed any more reason to gloat, his team dominated and won 6-0. 

Team Hughes was once again able to decide their opponent and given Hughes seems very anxious to call out Jorge Gurgel, he’ll have to wait at least one more week. This week it’s the heavyweights and it was announced Tom Murphy (Hughes) vs. Rashad Evans (Franklin). Hughes and company picked Rashad as they felt he was small for a heavyweight and he had suffered a cut over his eye in training. Therefore, they were optimistic they could re-open it in the match and possibly get the fight stopped.

The game plan team Hughes had devised for Tom was to land elbows from any position, standing or in the guard and try to catch Rashad over the eye. In addition, Tom was hoping to get the fight to the ground where he could pull guard and keep the pressure off his sore knee. The strategy for Rashad was to keep the fight standing and put as much strain on Tom’s knee as possible by making him move and circle around. Reminiscent of season one when Leben fought Florian and Kenny Flo died the ’catsmashers’ hair red as a sign of respect, Rashad cut Tom’s hair the night before the fight. Tom seemed to be the prohibitive favorite going into the fight, yet Rich felt strongly Rashad would shock everyone in the Hughes camp.

The fight began with both fighters looking extremely tentative and not wanting to press the action. However, after about a minute Rashad was able to push Tom up against the cage and land a number of knees to the midsection. Later in the round, Rashad seemed to land the better strikes in the middle of the Octagon to close out a very uneventful first round.  The second round didn’t produce much action either, Tom was able to secure a guillotine, however Rashad was able to escape. The majority of the round was spent fighting in the clinch, and as the round came to a close Rashad was leading 2-0 going into the final round. The third round was similar to the second, except for the midway mark when it appeared as though Roy Jones Jr. was inserted into Rashad’s body and he began imitating a chicken dance. However, that was pretty much it for fireworks, Rashad won a unanimous decision.

Next Week: Matt confronts Rashad about his Octagon behavior (showboating), Matt’s mental attacks on Jorge continue and a challenge gets out of hand.