Mitrione put down Junk a handful of times with punches in the first two minutes, forcing the Hawaiian to switch to diving for single-leg takedowns. Both heavyweights looked completely spent by the end of the round. Junk secured a takedown, got through with punches standing in the second and appeared to take the round. Still, only one judge called the fight a 19-19 draw; two others gave Mitrione a 20-18 nod. His team having now lost seven straight fights, Junk’s coach, Quinton Jackson, flew off the handle, completely destroying a door with kicks, elbows and punches.
The episode was mostly a character study of Mitrione, a man prone to outbursts. Teammate Jon Madsen threatened to slap him in the face in the house, so Mitrione laid into him during a subsequent sparring session. Madsen halted the session, and Mitrione went wild, screaming and yelling at everyone, including his coach, Rashad Evans. Wes Sims later donned a ninja outfit and clowned around with Mitrione, who responded with a warning instead of a smile.
The final preliminary fight, Marcus Jones vs. Mike Wessel, will air next week. Quarter-final fights will also be announced.
Some of the best fight build-up of the year -- for a fight that may never happen -- continued. There were verbal fireworks between Evans and Jackson, as Evans called out Jackson on his team’s record, prompting Rampage to shoot back with “I ain’t a coach!” repeatedly. Evans replied with “You came here to coach.”
The episode scored a 1.9 share rating on Spike TV, according to MMAPayout.com. It was the lowest rating of the season, but the 2.5 million viewers for the program ranks in the normal range.