This week’s episode begins in the locker room of Team Europe, where coach Conor McGregor is mocking Team USA’s Billy Quarantillo. The popular Irishman believes he saw fear on the face of Quarantillo when the American was selected to fight Saul Rogers on tonight’s telecast.
Back at the house, the loser of last week’s match, Tom Gallicchio, is lamenting his performance and questioning his career. He chokes back tears and says that he’s tired of the continual disappointments he’s endured; it appears as though he’s on the verge of retirement. Gallicchio quickly gives full credit to Marcin Wrzosek for beating him fairly.
We see Quarantillo whistling a lovely tune as he walks past Rogers, who is perched at the breakfast table. Saul giggles, telling his assembled teammates that the American is whistling because he’s nervous and scared. But, in between clips making fun of Quarantillo’s alleged fear, Rogers tells the camera that he had a daughter when he was just 19, and that made him mature and grow up in a hurry.
From there, we visit McGregor drilling his pupils on shot and clinch drills. He’s working the blokes hard and he reveals his excitement about the upcoming fight. With the edited training clips, it appears as though Rogers is working overtime and busting his hump more than anybody else on the team.
After Quarantillo is back at the abode, Faber is visibly uneasy about the fighter and his ability. While Faber admits that he’s an extremely hard worker, Quarantillo lacks a lot of technique, Faber says. When some clips show Quarantillo struggling with positional drills and some basic escapes, Faber is definitely questioning how well his pupil will do against Rogers.
Both teams are rewarded with a reprieve from the reality show and the coaches take everybody out to a high-quality restaurant. All combatants behave and, after some kind words from the respective coaches and a toast by Faber, the scene shifts to the weigh-in, where both men easily make the 155-pound limit.
Just before the fight sequence begins, we see that Team USA’s Chris Gruetzemacher is ready to crack. He’s complaining about living in the house, being away from his team and detailing how this experience isn’t indicative of how he normally trains. Naturally, the previews at the end of the episode make it seem as though “Gritz” is about to bounce, but the entire scene lasts maybe two minutes and the American’s plight is quickly erased and forgotten once the fight begins.
After looking terrific during the pre-fight warm-ups, Quarantillo’s plan is to attack Rogers from the start and make it a slugfest. The gameplan is to not go to the ground with the Brit, because he’s obviously better than Quarantillo on the mat. Quarantillo follows the blueprint nicely early as they trade some serious punches and kicks. Rogers is getting the better of the exchanges, but Quarantillo is definitely holding his own.
Out of nowhere, Quarantillo shoots in from way too far outside and is easily stuffed. We hear Faber ask, “What is he doing?” when Quarantillo goes for the takedown, and from there it’s downhill for Team USA’s representative.
Rogers mauls his foe on the ground with control, punches, elbows and transitions. Whenever Quarantillo explodes to his feet, Rogers quickly drags him back down. It’s such a shellacking that it’s plausible that Rogers is ahead 10-8 by the end of the opening round. Going into the second, Quarantillo needs to step up his game and even up the score.
The stanza begins just like the first with both taking and landing some hard strikes, but Rogers reverses course and shoots in, nailing the takedown easily. Quarantillo might as well have tapped at this point because the next four-plus minutes is another landslide for Rogers. It’s a carbon copy of the first round, though it’s arguable that Rogers is even more dominant this time around. To his credit, Quarantillo never gives up and tries a few desperate submission attempts late, but Rogers is too savvy to fall for them.
Rogers is awarded the lopsided unanimous decision via tallies of 20-16 and 20-17 (twice) to aid Team Europe even the overall score at two. McGregor, of course, is beside himself and proud of his student, saying it was like watching a lion attacking a gazelle.
“I got my ass whipped,” Billy said, his head hung low. “It’s that simple.”
McGregor picks the next fight and opts to send Mehdi Baghdad up against Team USA’s Julian Erosa, who hasn’t even been spotted on camera since his entrance fight in Episode 1. The two go face-to-face but the American is playing around and standing with a funny posture and facial expression. Baghdad isn’t playing any games and says to him with a stone cold killer’s expression, “I’m going to hurt you very bad.”