Brock Lesnar TUF 13 gif” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DbStNwnCzzo/TaZX0jCUioI/AAAAAAAACW4/r8LTu0nAv7U/s1600/lol.gif” alt=” width=”320″ height=”180″ />
(Brock Lesnar: Just chewing some cud. No biggie. / Props: IronForgesIron.com)

Like many of us, Team Lesnar newbie Chuck O’Neil is weirded out by the “chicken shit into chicken salad” thing. “Is that [*expletive, meaning Brock*] calling me chicken shit?” he asks. “What the hell?” He’s not the only one. Len Bentley has also been carrying around an attitude lately, and Tony Ferguson makes it very clear that he ain’t no chicken shit. Dudes, it’s just a redneck figure of speech, okay? Brock calls for a team meeting. “I need to clarify this ‘chicken shit to chicken salad’ issue…” he says. Of course, it sounds less graceful when you have to explain it, but the sentiment is a positive one — you were nothing when you came here, and you have an opportunity to be something. So seize the damn moment.

Justin Edwards comes in as a replacement for the departed Keon Caldwell. He gets mistaken for Randy Couture a lot. “Small Randy!” Junior Dos Santos agrees.

Lew Polley thinks JDS is being too nice, treating his fighters like boys, not men. Polley gets tough on the guys during training, yelling at them and putting them through an intense wrestling workout. Shamar Bailey gets a nasty cut. Ramsey Nijem says there’s a fine line between training hard and overtraining, and they’ve crossed it. Junior doesn’t appreciate verbal abuse with his coaching. He tries to lift his team’s spirits after Lew beat them down: “Train hard, do your best. And be nice.”

With control of the matchups in his hands for the first time, Brock decides that send his #1 pick Len Bentley against Ryan McGillivray, Team Dos Santos’s #2 selection. Brock picked Len because of his recent edginess. “If we held him back another week, we might lose him,” he explains.

Every season, there seems to be one guy that all the other fighters are paranoid about, and this season it’s Team Lesnar’s Chris Cope. Chris spends a lot of time hanging with members of Team Dos Santos, and his own teammates start to characterize him as a potential snitch, and an “investigator.” Chuck gives him a heads-up about the situation, but Chris doesn’t seem to take it very seriously.

During a sparring session, Len becomes very nervous about Chris watching him train. Will he feed inside information to the rival team? Len tries to get Coach Lesnar to intervene. Lesnar tells him to relax and not get caught up in the bullshit, which it is.

Things have come to a head with Lew Polley. Team Dos Santos assistant coach Billy Scheibe tells JDS that Polley is basically ordering the other coaches around and trying to run practices on his own. Junior calls him in and explains that he’s the coach, and their success comes from the group, not anybody’s individual efforts. Lew seems to get the message.

Ryan is walking at about 180 pounds before the fight, but luckily Lew is a weight-cutting expert and amateur chemist; he just needs some rubbing alcohol, epsom salts, and a bathtub, and he helps Ryan suck out 10 pounds in 40 minutes, no problem.

Brock has a personal issue that he has to attend to, and won’t be around for Len’s fight. Usually that’s the kiss of death for a fighter on TUF. “My personal life comes first, and everybody knows that,” Brock says. And he straight bounces. (See gif at top of post.)

Ryan is missing his daughter’s second birthday to compete on the show, but he keeps a picture of her close by to inspire him. Dana White brings Shogun Rua in to watch the fight. Brock gives Len one last pep-talk over the phone. Junior tells his fighter, “Show them who is Ryan McGillerd.” Close enough!

Round 1: Len moves forward aggressively. Ryan lands a jab, then a counter-punch. Len with a body kick. Len floors Ryan with a left hook, then connects with a pair of big follow-up shots on the ground. Len gets to mount. Ryan rolls to his side, then establishes half guard. Len with some elbows from the top as Ryan grabs onto his leg, looking for an escape. Sharp elbow from the top from Len. Len decides to let him up. Bad move. Ryan score with a counter left. He snaps Len’s head back with a right cross, then drops him with a left. Ryan jumps on and scoots him to the fence. Len rolls for an armbar, and extends it, but Ryan manages to defend, and slickly transtions to a brief crucifix. Len escapes to his knees. Ryan tries for a guillotine as the round ends. Fantastic round, but hard to score.

Round 2: They trade jabs. A left hook from Ryan, followed by a stiff jab. Another jab that connects. Len lands one of his own. Body kick Len. Len tries a spinning backfist, but misses. Ryan rushes forward with punches, swarming on Len, and tries a takedown against the fence. He finally succeeds after struggling with Len for a bit, but Len is back up with the quickness, and they’re clinching. Knee from Len, Ryan returns one of his own, and they separate. Len tries the backfist again, unsuccessfully. They brawl it out, both looking gassed. Ryan jabbing. Len whiffs the backfist. Ryan lands a jab and a flurry of punches at the horn.

After two rounds, Ryan McGillivray wins by majority decision (19-19, 18-20 x 2). The missing coach curse continues. Dana approaches Len after the fight and tells him he has nothing to be bummed about. “That was the best fight yet,” he says. At this point, Len is an easy frontrunner to return in the wild card match.

On the next episode: Ramsey does a naked dance (or does he?), and Matt Hughes drops by to run Brock’s guys through a wrestling practice.