Jon Manley survived the bite of the “Snake,” and he emerged $5,000 richer for his troubles.
In addition to a $5,000 finishing bonus, Manley emerged from the victory with a bite mark on his ribs, the product of Chaney’s frantic but unsuccessful effort to escape the submission. While Manley chose to give his opponent the benefit of the doubt after the fight’s conclusion, Chaney expressed no remorse for the underhanded tactic.
“I bit him on purpose. I wanted to find a way out of there,” Chaney said. “I thought maybe it would loosen [the choke] up. Maybe I’m kind of a piece of s--t, but I did not want to lose that fight. This is something I take pretty serious. It’s really all I got. It was a last resort, but it didn’t work. You live and you learn, I guess.”
The contest did not begin as most would have expected it to as both fighters, in the words of Shane Carwin, elected to play Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots in the early going.
“Round one started the exact opposite of the way I thought it was going to. These guys came out banging,” said UFC President Dana White.
Eventually Chaney was able to close the distance and pull guard. Shortly thereafter, he trapped Manley in a tight triangle choke. The Team Nelson competitor then picked Chaney up and walked him over to the cage, but was unable to hold him there. As the two combatants went to the floor, Manley loosened his opponent’s grip by planting a knee on his face and dropping short punches.
“The triangle was tight right away. He got it so quick I didn’t know what else to do. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to pick him up. I’ve never picked someone up in a triangle before, but I got him up,” Manley said. “I put him against the cage thinking I could hold him there. He went down and I was able to put my knee on his face...I started to smash down on his face and he started letting go of the triangle.”
From there, it was all Manley. Once he escaped the choke, he quickly transitioned to full mount and applied a tight guillotine to his opponent. Chaney attempted to escape by pushing off the cage before sinking his teeth into Manley. All of his efforts came up empty, however, and Chaney had no choice but to surrender.
“It is f----d up that he bit me,” said Manley, who quit his job to focus on his fighting career. “I totally blame the fact that we gave James the nickname ‘Snake.’ Snakes bite.”
Earlier, Julian Lane continued his quest to give all of mixed martial arts a bad name, challenging seemingly everyone in the house to a fight in a drunken fit of rage.
“Let me bang,” Lane pleaded. Fortunately, no one complied. Lane already had his chance to fight.
Although most of the fighters in the house were fed up with the act of the Mohawk, there were no hard feelings the next day, as everyone realized that Lane was ashamed enough of his tantrum as it was.
In other “TUF” shenanigans, Carwin and Nelson engaged in a track-and-field competition during the coaches’ challenge, White’s favorite part of each season. The events included javelin, discus, shot put, long jump and a 400-meter run. Not surprisingly, it was a clean sweep for Carwin, who won $20,000 for his efforts.
Members of both teams began to speculate if the results of the competition offered any insight into what will happen when the two coaches collide on Dec. 16 at the “TUF 16” Finale. No one was impressed with “Big Country’s” performance, but Nelson claimed that his dismal effort has no bearing on what happens in the Octagon.
“He can beat me in track and field; he can beat me in bumper cars; he can beat me in golf, but he’s not going to beat me in MMA,” Nelson said.