The Ultimate Fighter - 5 ª Season

The sixteen lightweights enter the new Ultimate Fighter House with optimism and curiosity as they scope out where they'll be residing over the next six weeks. Dana then chimes in with his analysis of the demeanor of the 155 lb. class calling them crazy mother******s with chips on their shoulders. Dana then introduces the two coaches for this season Jens Pulver and BJ Penn. Dana explains that the coaches have fought before and have some bad blood between them. Dana also reveals that like every prior season the coaches will fight each other at the end of the series, but this year will be different. Jens and BJ will fight on the live finale of The Ultimate Fighter. Next are the fighter evaluations and Jens is up first. During the Team Pulver evaluations, Joe Lauzon mentions that he's impressed with Nate Diaz and compares him to his older brother Nick, who is also a fighter. Nate Diaz reveals that his brother Nick actually started his fight career in Jens' camp so being on his team would be a natural fit for him. Cole Miller talks about how impressive the 6'4" Corey Hill was during the evaluations. According to Cole "Corey looks like a killer." At Team Penn's evaluation, BJ enters the training center and notices that all of the fighters are physically exhausted from Pulver's evaluation. BJ feels that Jens purposely exhausted the fighters so he wouldn't be able to get a good look at their fighting skills. BJ cuts the evaluation short and sends them back to the house. Later on in the evening, the fighters head back to the training center for the team selection. All of the fighters assemble in the training center and Dana announces how the process will work. He first flips a coin and Jens wins. Jens decides to pick the first fight instead of the first fighter. BJ then steps up and then offers the fighters a proposition. He states that whoever wants to be on his team and have nothing to do with Jens Pulver's team they should raise their hand now. At the fighter selection, BJ waits for a show of hands to see who wants to be on his team. BJ talks about how he knew he was putting the fighters on the spot, but he didn't care because he wanted to know who wanted to train with him 100 per cent. Jens stands silent as ten of the sixteen fighters raise their hands to be on BJ's team. Finally, Dana tells everybody to be quiet and tells BJ to pick one guy. BJ then selects Gray Maynard as his first pick. Jens selects Corey Hill as his first pick. BJ brings up the subject allowing the fighters to raise their hands again and Jens says, "let them do it." Dana wants to hear none of this and tells everybody to shut up. After much deliberation, the teams are put in place. Team Penn is: Gray Maynard, Matt Winman, Gabe Ruediger, Joe Lauzon, Rob Emerson, Any Wang, Allen Berube, Noah Thomas. Team Pulver is: Corey Hill, Nate Diaz, Brandon Melendez, Marlon Sims, Manny Gamburyan, Cole Miller, Brian Geraghty, Wayne Weems. On the van ride back to the house, Team Pulver starts talking smack about Team Penn. Corey Hill is especially geared up to fight Gabe, who he doesn't particular care for. Team Pulver, pumped up and united, confronts Team Penn as they enter the house. Corey immediately gets in Gabe's face telling him that he wants to fight him. Gabe is confused with Corey's behavior and doesn't understand what he has against him. Corey starts barking like a dog in Gabe's face and Gabe leaves the room. Team Penn gets up at the crack of dawn for the their first training session. BJ throws them into the fire as soon as they enter the gym. His coaching philosophy is to make their weaknesses smaller and make their strengths stronger. BJ introduces his coaching team. The kick boxing coach is Rudy Valentino, grappling coach is Tony DeSouza, and his brother Reagan will focus on Jiu Jitsu. BJ states that it is very important for his team to train hard and win this thing. After the session, Gabe Ruediger weighs himself and is twenty pounds over the weight limit. He expresses his concern that if the other team finds out that he's over that much that they'll try to exploit it by selecting him to fight first. At Team Pulver's first training session, Jens talks about how he plans to guide his fighters to the finals. He also says he's not going to be a tyrant, but at the same time he's going to keep his fighters in line. He then introduces his coaching team. Matt Pena is his boxing coach, Ty Kikuchi is a fighter from his Militich Camp, and then there's Kirk White who's the wrestling coach. After the session, Jens gathers his team to discuss who should fight first. Manny, Corey, and Cole all want to fight first. Jens is leaning towards Nate Diaz or Corey Hill for the first fight and plans on attacking either Allen Berube or Gabe Ruediger from Team Penn. Back at the house, Team Penn speculates on who they might pick. Ruediger definitely feels that he is a target due to his weight. The next day at the Team Penn training session BJ reveals that Gabe is twenty-two pounds overweight and if Team Pulver picks him to fight he's in big trouble. Gabe talks about how his weight isn't going down, instead it's going up a pound a day and he can't figure out why. After the training session, Gabe gets frustrated and emotional about the weight issue. Coach Rudy tries to calm him down, but Gabe is having a hard time holding back the tears. Rob Emerson isn't impressed with Gabe and calls him a pussy for crying. Later that day, all of the fighters assemble at the training center for the fight selection. Dana, the master of ceremonies, kicks things off by telling the fighters that this season they will have to fight three times in order to make it to the finals. He then asks Pulver what their first fight match up is. Jens walks to the center of the mat and points to Cole Miller who casually walks up to Allen Berube and calls him out. The next day, Team Pulver prepares Cole Miller for his fight with Allen Berube. Cole reveals some things about his background and how he thought it would take eight to ten years to make it in the UFC; and three years later, he's already here. Cole starts talking about how confident he is in his ability as a fighter and that he's on the show to put people away. He thinks Allen is here to be on TV and promote his restaurant, the Monster Lobster. Later on at Team Penn's training session, BJ prepares Berube for his fight. BJ talks about how Cole is one of the top prospects and it's going to be a hard fight for Berube. His plan is to teach Berube how to stay out of submissions and concentrate on his punching power. Berube reveals that he's only been training in MMA for a year and a half. He originally started to fight to help promote his restaurant and never dreamed that he end up on the show. The stage is set for the first preliminary fight for The Ultimate Fighter 5. Cole Miller stands across Allen Berube. The winner goes on to the quarterfinals. Round one starts off with Berube pushing the pace of the fight and Cole countering all of his moves. About a minute into the first round, Berube secures a take down, but almost gets caught in a guillotine choke. After escaping the choke Berube secures the top position, but then gets caught in a triangle choke which ends the fight. During the fight recap, Jens explains that he felt it was a good technical fight. BJ thought that Berube did the best that he could with the tools that he had to work with. He goes on to say that Cole performed a slick submission on Berube and Berube would've passed out if he didn't tap out. After the official announcement of his victory, Cole tells the viewers that he did exactly what he said he was going to do, no more, no less. As Berube prepares to leave the show, he talks about how he only got beat by a technique. It was a rookie mistake and he doesn't feel beat. Only his heart feels beat.

Fighters recap the first preliminary fight between Allen Berube and Cole Miller. They explain how Allen quickly took Cole down, but Cole was able to quickly get Allen in a triangle from his back. Allen tried to knock Cole out with hammer fists but Cole tightened the triangle and got Allen to tap-out. After winning, Cole ran out of the octagon crying. He was emotional because he expected his journey to get into the UFC to take much longer than it did. In Cole's dressing room, Manny presents Cole with a homemade UFC belt that he wants each of his teammates to wear after winning their fight. Jens is excited about the win. For one, it gives his team the winning momentum, but more importantly, also gives them control of the next fight pick. That night at the house, Allen Berube shows up to announce that despite his loss, he will be staying in the house to help the guys train and in case someone gets injured and a replacement is needed. The next morning the fighters are in the game room getting massages when Gabe Ruediger comes in and starts telling Matt Wiman how much he dislikes him. Matt thinks Gabe is an overweight pig who is a poor reflection of the team. When Matt leaves the room, Gabe talks trash about Matt to members of Team Pulver. Brian Geraghty makes the observation that Team Penn is going to beat themselves before they even get a chance to fight. Later, Matt confronts Gabe about bad mouthing him behind his back. Matt tries to explain to him that his behavior makes the team look bad but Gabe doesn't agree and the conflict ends in a tenuous truce. The fighters arrive at the gym for the fight announcement. BJ has come up with a plan to get control of the fight pick. He pulls Rob Emerson aside and hands him a note. Written on the note are the words BJ would like Emerson to use to call out Corey Hill. If Corey steps up and takes the bait, Team Penn will get the match up that they want. Just before Jens Pulver has a chance to call out the match up, Emerson steps out of line and calls out Corey Hill. Jens refuses to get ensnared in BJ's plan. He takes control of the fight announcement and has Manny Gamburyan call out Noah Thomas. Manny wants to prove that Noah is the weakest link. Even though Manny is a tough fighter, BJ thinks Noah can hold is own and is happy with this match up. BJ prepares Noah for his fight. Noah was born in Colorado but he says he grew up in the Marine Corps. He knows he's the underdog despite the fact that he's had over 40 fights in the last two years. While Gabe, Allen, Noah and Rob are lying around in the backyard, Rob notices two girls riding on horseback. They convince the girls to come around the front of the house. Unfortunately, the surface of the driveway proves to be a too slippery for the horses and one of them takes a fall. All the fighters at the house come to the rescue and rush out with floor rugs to help the horse get back on its feet. In the van, as Team Penn heads back to the gym, Matt and Gabe start to go at it again. Their teammates are really starting to take serious notice of this ongoing conflict and its negative effect on the team. Joe Lauzon says it's time to talk to BJ and see if he can't bring an end to it. BJ holds a team meeting inside the octagon to try and put an end to the conflict between Matt and Gabe. He explains to the fighters that this problem needs to be dealt with now. Matt explains that his vision is beyond Gabe and says that if BJ wants, he'll fight Gabe right now and smash him. BJ says they're wasting their team's time and they better get their act together before he gets completely fed up with this distraction. BJ asks Matt and Gabe to put their differences aside. He knows they need to be focusing on getting Noah ready for his fight not bickering with each other. It's Manny's turn to train. Manny was born in Armenia but has been in the United States for 15 years now. He says he was a really bad kid growing up and has been fighting his whole life. When he came to the U.S. he decided to become a fighter and has been happy ever since. He's been training with his cousin Karo Parisyan for the last 15 years so they share the same style of fighting. He injured his shoulder two years ago while practicing his judo and hasn't fought since so he's hungry for this fight. Jens Pulver says Noah better have a legitimate stand up game because Manny is a tank that will not stop except if you knock him out. As Noah gets ready to head to the weigh-in, he talks about how he spent six years in the Marines. He was a sniper, which required extensive training. He thinks the Marine Corps has made him more tenacious than the average bloke and no one in the house will be able to break him. At the gym, Noah weighs-in while eating a sandwich. Dana explains that Noah's had 40 fights during the time that Manny has been taking time off for his injury. He says that Noah has a puncher's chance of winning if he can keep this fight standing. Next, Team Penn starts writing on the wall in the living room. They write Team Penn supports the troops as a tribute to Matt's brother in Special Forces and Andy's brother, who's also in the military. Meanwhile, Rob is in the game room and decides to do a little doodling of his own and writes, "Suck it Team Pulver." When Team Pulver comes home, they first notice the writing on the wall in the house, but then Nate goes out to the game room and discovers the writing on the wall and all hell breaks loose. He takes offense to this and is ready to throw down with Rob right in the living room for the insult against his team. Things get heated as Rob tries to apologize for writing something he never meant to be taken offensively. No one on Team Pulver is buying the fact that Rob didn't do it to offend them. As Rob walks out to remove offensive writing, Manny snaps and becomes enraged with the idea that his team has been insulted. He starts screaming out that he'll fight anybody who is disrespecting him. Manny is so vocal about this that even Nate has decided to back off of the situation. Manny threatens to leave the show and says that he'll fight everyone in the house. Corey finally takes Manny out by the pool and talks him down from his emotional ledge. It's fight day and Brandon speculates that his teammate Manny is probably exhausted from all the energy he expended during his emotional rant. Gabe gives Noah a pep talk and they head to the gym. Noah says his team is behind this match up. Manny says that even thought BJ Penn says this is a good match up, he'll prove this it's a horrible match up for Noah. He has spent many years preparing for the UFC and has to do well. He says Noah is only his first victim. Round one. They come out and circle then Manny catches Noah with an overhead right. Noah gets rocked but comes back quickly. Noah stuffs Manny's take down attempt but then Manny gets Noah into a clinch against the fence. Manny picks Noah up and body slams him down. Noah tries to fend off the attack but Manny comes in with punches. Manny passes Noah's guard and then uses his strength to secure a Kimura, forcing Noah to tap. Dana is blown away by Manny's performance especially since he hasn't fought in two years. Back in his dressing room, Noah says he's disappointed with himself. He worked hard to get to the UFC and now he's been set back. He's not sure where to go from here.

The episode begins recounting Manny Gamburyan's decisive victory over Noah Thomas. Dana talks about how Jens Pulver has two wins over Team Penn and that it's driving BJ nuts. Jens still controls the fight selection and BJ feels that Gabe Ruediger could be picked next due to his weight issues. With this in mind, Gabe asks BJ to arrange a colonic for him. Back at the house, Team Pulver returns and awards Manny the house UFC Belt for his win over Noah. Later that evening, Nate Diaz sits around the fire pit with some of his teammates and stews about needing to fight as soon as possible. The next day at the Team Penn training session BJ calls a meeting to give Gabe some tough love for being so unfocused. Next at Team Pulver's training session, Corey Hill reveals that he can be a little psychotic when it comes to fighting. Jens then enters the gym and gathers the fighters to announce a surprise coach for their team. Jens brings in Jeremy Horn as a special guest coach for Team Pulver. Nate Diaz is excited to see Horn there, having been a big fan of his for years. New to the world of fighting, Corey Hill has no idea who Jeremy Horn is. Gabe heads to the "Healing Waters" clinic for his colonic. A very enthusiastic technician, who thoroughly enjoys her work, greets Gabe and after a good cleansing, he heads back to work out with his team. At the gym, Gray Maynard gives his opinion on Gabe and his colonic. Gray states that he's cut weight many times and he's never shoved a tube up his butt. Back at the house, a few of the fighters blow off some steam by dressing up in thongs to see who's the biggest homophobe. Nate can't believe what they're doing and is visibly uncomfortable with the parade of fabulous thongs. The next day both teams assemble at the UFC Training Center for the fight announcement. Cole Miller and Manny Gamburyan move on to the quarterfinals. Dana then asks Jens who's going to fight next. Back at the fight announcement, Jens Pulver motions for Nate Diaz to step out. Nate immediately walks up to Rob Emerson and calls him out. Back at the house, Nate draws with a magic marker, writing "209" on the walls and doors. This is Nate's hometown area code in Stockton, California. He then talks about how his brother got him into fighting and that he loves to fight. On the other side of the house, Emerson is also tagging the walls with his own designs. Emerson talks about being from Orange County, California and that he likes to train hard and party harder. The next day at the official weigh in, Emerson and Diaz step up to the scale. Dana handicaps the fight saying that this fight could go either way. At the Team Penn training session, Rob Emerson prepares for his fight with Nate Diaz. Emerson wants to win this for his team and get the hammer back, but most importantly he wants to put on a good show. During Team Pulver's training session, Nate gets ready for his fight with Emerson. He reveals that no one on his team wanted to fight Emerson because he is one of the tougher fighters. The next day is Fight Day. At the house, both Emerson and Nate get ready to leave for the gym. Nate says he picked Emerson because he created tension with him by writing "Suck It Team Pulver" on the wall and now it's time to get rid of that tension. Emerson only wants to fight the toughest guys and he feels Nate is the toughest. Entering Octagon, Emerson predicts that there's going to be blood, sweat, and maybe even some broken bones. Nate tells Emerson that he better keep his chin down because anything can happen in this fight and he's here to win it. Nate Diaz vs. Rob Emerson: Round One. The first round starts out with both fighters circling each other and measuring their punches. About a minute into the round they go to the clinch and both fighters work for position. After they break Emerson presses the action. Nate catches him with a few jabs and they go to the clinch again. Two minutes into the round, Nate attempts a sweep, but Emerson manages to get out of it. Back on their feet Nate moves in with his jab and some roundhouse kicks. Nate tries a takedown, but Emerson defends it well and follows up with some punches to Nate's face. Nate Diaz vs. Rob Emerson: Round Two. Nate immediately pushes the pace forcing Emerson into the cage. Nate works punches and elbows on Emerson. Nate then finally takes down Emerson and squeezes him against the cage. Emerson looks gassed as he tries to defend Nate's onslaught of punches and submission attempts. With a minute left in the round Nate secures an arm bar, but Emerson manages to escape it. Nate then gets a full mounted position and just unloads punch after punch on Emerson's head. Emerson then flips over on to his stomach to avoid the blows and exposes his neck to Nate. Nate quickly slides in a rear naked choke and ends the fight. In the aftermath of the fight, everyone was in consensus that it was one of the best fights of the season. In Emerson's dressing room he talks about how this was the first time he was ever finished in a fight, but it will not keep him from fighting again. He will be back.

The fighters recap the action packed fight between Rob Emerson and Nate Diaz, which ends in victory for Nate. Team Pulver goes into a training session where Jens Pulver can't help but notice that Wayne Weems is really behind the rest of his fighters. At Team Penn's training session, Gabe talks to BJ about wanting to fight Wayne Weems for his preliminary fight. Gabe says he's the obvious choice if you want to get to the next round, and that, someone has got to do it, so why not him. Unbeknownst to Gabe, Rob Emerson is in the corner of the gym, listening to the conversation. Back at the house, Rob confronts Gabe about wanting to fight Weems. Rob thinks by asking to fight Weems, Gabe is taking the coward's way out of not having to fight a tough fight. Rob thinks that if Gabe is going to talk the talk about being a tough fighter, then he should walk the walk. Team Pulver is back in the gym. Cole explains that Brandon Melendez wants to fight next but Jens has not decided if he will let him. He hasn't been training that hard and he is overweight. Brandon explains that he's been trying to take it easy on his injured foot. Jens tells him that because he's been babying his foot so much, he's not comfortable putting Brandon into the octagon to fight. Manny and Brian pull Jens aside to tell him that Brandon is struggling with his weight. Jens tells Corey that if Brandon can't cut the weight in time, he'll have him step up and fight in his place. That night, Marlon is on a roll, telling stories to the fighters about how he once fought five guys at once. Gabe thinks its ridiculous and calls shenanigans on him. From the reactions, it's clear that everyone listening thinks he's full of s**t. Marlon of course says that all of it is true. It's time for the fight announcement. Dana is away so Jens takes over the task. Brandon is on weight, so Jens is going to let him have this next fight. Brandon calls out Andy Wang who says, "Like is says in fortune cookies be careful for what you wish for." At the gym, Gabe explains to BJ that Andy is known for not listening to his corner. He says he has cornered for Andy before and the biggest problem with Andy's game is that he likes to throw down, sometimes with reckless abandon and even when he was told to take his opponent down, he kept the fight standing. BJ calls Andy over and asks him if he's going to take Brandon down. Andy says he's not just fighting for himself -- he's fighting for his team as well. Andy promises to listen to his corner. As Andy trains, he explains how he was born in Taiwan but came to the U.S. when he was young and he's living the American dream. Fighting for him is a way to honor his family and his grandfather who taught him Tai Chi when Andy was just a child. BJ says that Andy is a black belt in jiu jitsu. Therefore, it doesn't make any sense for him to get into a striking contest with Brandon. Brandon wears a very sexy thong at the weigh-in. He's made weight and Jens says it's time for him to get fired up and get to it. Andy weighs in with no problem. Team Pulver heads back to the gym where they are surprised to find former welterweight champion, Matt Hughes mopping the mats. Jens says he called in Matt Hughes to change things up a little bit to refresh his team. Matt says he's there for Jens and his team to help them succeed. Matt gets right to work with Team Pulver and helps prepare Brandon for his fight with Andy. It's fight day. Andy says he's here to show his warrior spirit and gain respect on the battlefield. Brandon respects Andy but he'll still be landing blows on his face. It's time to take care of business. The fight starts and 15 seconds into Round One, Brandon lands a big left punch on Andy's head. He goes down but gets up right away. They trade punches and continue to trade punches for most of the round. At one point Andy goes in and it looks like he's going to try and take Brandon down but he doesn't. The round ends, and when Andy goes back to his corner, BJ tells him to take Brandon down. Andy nods. As Round Two begins, another opportunity arises for Andy to take Brandon down but he doesn't take it. Instead, he continues to trade punches with Brandon. At one point he has Brandon pressed against the fence. Brandon then slips and goes down, but Andy doesn't pounce. Instead, he waits for Brandon to get up and then continues to exchange strikes. Despite all the screaming from his corner to take Brandon down, Andy keeps the fight standing, the entire two rounds. To no one's surprise, except maybe himself, Andy Wang loses the fight. Andy says that once Brandon landed that big left in the first round, he was convinced the only way he could win the fight was to knock him out. BJ says Andy was supposed to go out, punching a little bit, and then go for the takedown. He says that Andy lied. He should have just said he was not going to take him down. Andy says he knows he let his teammates down and starts crying like a baby. BJ makes fun of him and wonders how he can be sad after he ignored what everyone was telling him. He says Andy thought everyone was going to congratulate him for brawling like that, but it's done it's over. He lost. Everyone likes a winner -- no one likes a loser.

Team Pulver has racked up four wins in a row against Team Penn. Still struggling with his weight, Gabe Ruediger is the likely target for Team Pulver's winning machine.