Dana White bloody loves this type of fight.
The UFC president’s latest utterance of “this is the classic match-up” came on episode seven of The Ultimate Fighter as Taekwondo black belt Thanh Le was paired up with Jiu Jitsu expert Martin Svensson.
The gameplans were clear coming into the fight, with Team U.S.A. leading 3-2, as Team Europe coach Owen Roddy had detailed the perfect entry for Svensson to get the fight to the mat while TJ Dillashaw had outlined the kind of strikes he wanted out of Le to punish the Swede.
Psychological warfare was at play from the bleachers as Urijah Faber and his team had decided to dress like opposing coach Conor McGregor for the fight but The Notorious was nonplussed by the move, complimenting the lads on their appearance when he arrived.
The first round opened with Le looking dominant on the feet, throwing hard roundhouse kicks that, despite being mostly blocked, would have taken their toll on Svensson.
After a nice combination from Le, Svensson capitalised on a slip to grab a hold of a single leg and drag the fight to the mat.
Svensson was able to pass to side control but it was Le who looked the far most active off his back as he regained guard and threatened with a kimura midway through the round.
When Le tried to wall-walk back to his feet, Svensson saw the opening and threw his left hook over his opponents hip and started to punish from the back but Le did eventually get back to a standing position and separate with 30 seconds left on the clock.
Then came the most significant shot of the round when Le saw Svensson’s left hand drop as he jumped forward with a poor attempt at a teep. The American fighter landed a crisp right hand which rang Svensson’s bell and forced him to dive on a takedown but Le landed on top and stole the round with ground and pound.
With the knowledge that he could get the fight to the ground, Svensson again pounced on a single leg early on in the second round and transitioned to the back, despite the best attempts at Le to defend with a straight armbar.
Shouts of “patience” came from McGregor and Svensson began favouring superior position over rushing a submission as he was quite content to remain in half-guard after forcing Le to work hard to defend.
But the submission did come when Le got desperate, left an opening and Svensson forced his opponent to turn his back by landing a hard elbow from mount. Svensson sunk in his hooks, sneaked his forearm under Le’s chin and got the tap with just a minute remaining.
The win leaves the current competition standings at three wins apiece and McGregor opted for a close friend to keep his team’s momentum going in the seventh fight of the season as he selected SBG teammate Artem Lobov to take on James Jenkins.
Catch The Ultimate Fighter at 3am GMT every Thursday morning on BT Sport (part of the Setanta pack in Ireland). Repeated at 10pm GMT on Thursdays.
