Photo by Ultimatefighter.com
At the end of last weeks episode James Vick’s win gave Team Cruz control to pick the next fight. After Cruz selected his number one pick Justin Lawrence, he threw Faber a curve ball and asked him to select who he wanted from his team to square off against Lawrence. You could tell Faber was thrown off by Cruz’s offer, and after a moment asked his team who was ready to go and take the next fight. Yet after several seconds of silence no one from Team Faber stood up.
Now I’m sure everyone from “Iaquinta Nation” knowing Al was expecting him to raise his hand, just because that’s the kind of person he is. We know Al as someone who never backs down from a challenge. What we all have to understand is this. This isn’t necessarily all about pride and this isn’t a bar fight. You have to treat this for what it is, a tournament. Just like a wrestling tournament you want to ideally have your number one seeded guy wrestle an unseeded, or lesser opponent to go deeper in the tournament. It’s the same concept here. You want to be able to get as deep as you can into the tournament, but have your tougher match ups your second or third fight in.
Justin Lawrence is considered one of the top fighters on the show. If Al or one of his teammates had stood up and fought him this week, the two could have had a tough fight possibly go to an extra round and then loose a close fight by decision. That’s not a risk you can take this early in the show. It’s a game that involves strategy and although your instincts tell you to stand up, sometimes you have to play the game. Read more about this topic HERE, a great article going deeper into this from UltimateFighter.com
-Matt Pellicane
Without a doubt the right call by Al. He’s in a great spot being the #1 pick by Faber and should use his positioning to his advantage to win this competition. A little ding to his pride will be quickly forgotten when he wins this UFC contract.
I am sure a handful of the fighters on Team Faber wanted to jump up and claim their fight, but they have a team to think about. Jumping up at that moment would have be an ill advised decision. As Falstaff said in Shakespeare’s Henry the Fourth, “discretion is the better part of valor”
Everyone there is talented, if Lawrence really is that good, a smart fighter will want to watch him fight first. A fool makes decisions based on pride. There is no room for that here, this tourney could very well dictate the rest of their lives. F the cameras and the audience, at the end of the day Al is Serra-Longo not Team Faber, the 13 weeks will be gone before we know it and it will be back to real life for all of them, they cant lose sight of that just because they’re on tv.
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