TUF Brasil: Episode Four Recap

As expected, the excessive joking of Anistávio Gasparzinho is bothering his training partners and the rival team. The peak of misunderstanding happens when the athletes decide to sleep and Gasparzinho, electric as always, starts a session of noise, singing and pulling Rony Jason's sheets from him.

Rony doesn't take the jokes so well, and after having his sleep interrupted and talking to the athletes of the opposing team about his insomnia problem, he goes down to hit the punching bag around 4:45 in the morning. It’s a considerable disturbance for Team Vitor.

Later in the training center, Rony goes to Team Vitor's room to report what happened and explain the reasons which led him to do such a thing in the morning. Head coach Vitor Belfort believes the allegations, but thinks he could have acted differently.

The fourth episode marks the competition’s second match in the featherweight division, and Vitor oozes with confidence as his team is up 2-0, while opposing coach Wanderlei Silva tries to build the confidence of his men so they don't feel too bad about the disadvantage.

Vitor, Francisco Filho and Luis Dorea take a different strategy to name a team representative and opponent for the next fight, leaving this decision for the day of the announcement. And the new plan doesn't please everyone, but Rodrigo Damm (Team Vitor) and John Macapa (Team Wanderlei) are chosen.

During the hours before the fight, the two trainers explain to fans the steps for cutting and regaining weight correctly.

Leaving theory aside, it's time for action! At first the two strikers go hard while trading 1-2s. Macapa has the advantage early, forcing Rodrigo to seek the takedown with a single leg. Rodrigo showed his wrestling credentials to get the takedown, but didn't keep Macapa on the ground for long. Standing again, the member of Team Wanderlei was in control until Damm got the takedown again. This time, he was working to pass the guard, which didn't happen, allowing them to get back on their feet, with more bombs being thrown at will.

Round number two began with Rodrigo trying two takedown attempts, but Macapa was alert and his sprawls were accurate. The two failed attempts by Damm made Macapa more confident and he kept the pressure on. An accidental finger in the eye of Macapa stopped the fight momentarily, but did not diminish the aggression of the Team Wanderlei member. And while Macapa had the advantage, he got taken down in the final seconds, which left a doubt in the eyes of the judges, and a third round was needed to undo this tie.

A give and take of punches started in the decisive round, and Damm tried to take Macapa down without any success. Macapa had good combinations with his hands and got off a leg kick. At this point, the titles Damm won in wrestling helped him out of an area of discomfort when he applied a beautiful takedown and began working with punches until passing the guard. With less than 20 seconds to go, Damm took advantage of an attempted takedown from Macapa to try a kimura lock, but this hard-fought battle was going to the scorecards, where Damm won by a 2-1 nod, putting Team Vitor ahead 3-0 in the competition over Team Wanderlei.

"It was one of the toughest fights I've ever done in my life," said the winner of the three round war.

Meanwhile, the leader of Team Wanderlei showed all his indignation with the result, saying that Damm was holding throughout the fight and offered no danger, not even once.

For the next episode, Team Vitor still has the advantage of choosing the fights, and in an attempt to turn the tables, Wanderlei and his coaches will need a new course of action while not letting the team lose faith.