TUF weekly recap by NOS® Energy Drink

American Top Team is back in the thick of things!

Entering episode 8 of season 21 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which is pairing two gyms against each other, American Top Team had lost six of seven fights to the Blackzilians and trailed 200-50 points. The Blackzilians had not yet fought Felipe Portela, so ATT correctly predicted that he would get the nod. They countered by throwing Hayder Hassan back out there, which was an advantage in two ways: Hassan had already beaten Portela by knockout prior to the competition, and the dangerous striker had already won his first fight on TUF to give his team its 50 points.

Hassan was confident in his ability to win for a second time.

“Greatness is coming. I’m going to knock everyone out. I’m going to knock that confidence out of their head,” Hassan said. “I will break him, I will fold him, I will pack him in.”

Meanwhile, ATT’s Dan Lambert recognized they could not afford to lose another fight, which is why he chose Hassan to represent them.

“We’re desperate and he’s the horse and we’re going to ride him. We’re really getting sick of [the Blackzilians’ gym]. We want it to be the last time in their gym,” the ATT owner said.

Even though he had lost to Hassan before, Portela believed the second time around would be different.

“I’m ready to bring it. I’m going to win. That’s my goal. I’m going to give him his worst fight ever. I’m going to beat his a–,” said Portela.

Blackzilians owner Glenn Robinson also acknowledged seeing improvement in Portela’s game.

“He’s got a great ground game and his standup has come a long way and we’re expecting him to really shock a lot of people,” Robinson said of Portela.

The Blackzilians recognized that ATT was against the ropes trailing 6-1 and down 200-50 points, so they really wanted to finish things. Would Portela be able to continue the team’s momentum?

The Brazilian fighter seemed to be fearful of Hassan when they stepped into the cage and immediately went for a takedown, which seemed to catch Hassan off guard. He got the takedown, but Hayder stood the fight back up after a few seconds. Portela again went for another takedown, but Hassan was able to stand it back up a second time. After that, he was able to start trading strikes from his standup, which was his goal.

Conversely, Portela was throwing lots of kicks in order to keep some distance between him and Hayder, while Hassan was going in for several punches. Hassan had Portela up against the cage and hit him with several combinations. He did a lot of damage and landed some big blows, which probably led most of the judges to give him the round.

After the first round resulted in some damage to Portela, his corner advised a change in strategy.

Entering the fight, the Blackzilians told Portela to move forward and have Hassan going backwards because that would limit the dangerous striker’s ability to punch with power. They reiterated that between rounds and told Portela to stop going backwards and to trade with Hassan.

Though Portela stood with Hassan in the second round, he was very careful. He almost looked gassed and he was definitely afraid to initiate contact at times.

A few minutes into the round, a cut opened up by Portela’s left eye and it began bleeding, indicating that Hassan was landing his punches. Though Portela got a very good takedown in the final 15 seconds of the round, Hassan likely won it. That’s also how the judges felt.

After two rounds, some may have expected the fight to go to a deciding third, but there was a majority decision that led the fight to be called. Two judges had it 20-18 and a third had it 19-19 after two rounds, giving the fight to Hassan.

With the win, the Blackzilians were up 6-2, with both of ATT’s wins being posted by Hassan. Since both of his fights were 50-pointers, he accounted for all 100 of his team’s points, and the score is 200-100 with the fights headed back to ATT’s gym.

Robinson, the Blackzilians owner, was not happy about the outcome. He felt like the fight should have gone to a third round and that the referees missed Hassan grabbing the cage twice when Portela went for takedowns. He felt like that changed the complexion of the fight and that there should have been more than one warning.

The bottom line is Hassan is a dangerous striker who landed plenty of big, heavy punches that hurt Portela. Portela even admitted he was a little afraid after being knocked out in their previous fight, which is why he went for the takedowns so early in the fight.

I had the fight 2-0 in favor of Hassan, so I believe it was a good ruling by the judges.

After the fight, Hassan said on “TUF Talk” that the cage grab was not intentional and it was just a reaction. He also pointed out that Portela kneed him in the groin moments earlier.

Portela was angling for a third fight with Hassan and asked him over Twitter for another shot. Hassan was willing to grant one.