The Ultimate Fighter 7 - Episode 2 Recap

For the first time in the history of "The Ultimate Fighter," UFC president Dana White forced all competitors to win a fight to earn a spot on the cast. Last week's season debut of "The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest" introduced us to eight cast members, and tonight, we learned the other eight.

Last week's winners were Mike Dolce, Cale Yarbrough, Amir Sadollah, C.B. Dollaway, Dante Rivera, Nick Klein, Paul Bradley and Jeremy May.

This week, we jump right into the fights to find out who will be joining those winners in the "TUF" house.

Dan Simmler (1-0) vs. Matthew Riddle (1-0)

Simmler's trained by UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, and like most of his students, he says his ground game is better than his stand-up. He faces the equally inexperienced Riddle, who claims he's "no pu**y" and will earn a spot in the house.

We're underway, and Riddle gets the early takedown with a beautiful hip toss, but he eventually allows his opponent to stand up again. After a missed flying armbar, Simmler eats some punches and elbows but gets back to his feet. While clinched up, Riddle throws some ineffective knees and suddenly finds himself pinned against the fence. Simmler works for position, but Riddle fights through it to score the takedown. He spends the remainder of the round trying to mix in some strikes from the top, but Simmler ties him up for the most part. Riddle likely wins the round.

Round two begins, and just as quickly, it ends. Riddle floors his opponent with a stiff right hook, and Simmler's knocked to the canvas and into a complete and total daze. Sprawled on the mat, Simmler seems only partially awake and moans in what appears to be a combination of pain and disappointment. The doctor says his jaw is a mess.

When Simmler finally comes to, he doesn't even realize he's been in a fight and continually asks what happened. He's shipped off to the hospital via ambulance to get checked out.

Coach Quinton Jackson calls it the Knockout of the Century.

Luke Zachrich (7-1) vs. Patrick Schultz (7-1-1)

Like yours truly, Zachrich fights out of Cincinnati. He's experienced, low-key, confident and doesn't like his opponent's haircut (who can blame him?). Like Zachrich, Schultz is very experienced and just as confident. Of course, this fight begs the question: who determined the opening-round match-ups? It seems odd to have two one-fight veterans in the first fight followed by two seven-win veterans in the second. Regardless, this fight assures that at least one of the season's most experienced competitors is going home.

We're underway, and Schultz catches a kick early and sends his opponent crashing to the mat. However, he prefers to keep it standing and allows Zachrich to stand up. What a mistake. Zachrich tags him with a couple punches, takes the fight to the mat, fends off a reversal, traps an arm, and starts raining down punches. After securing the mount position, Zachrich is quickly given his opponent's back, and Schultz is choked out seconds later by the rear-naked choke.

Timothy Credeur (10-2) vs. Erik Charles (10-5)

Credeur is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt with plenty of stamina; Charles has speed, power, a crooked nose and sinus problem. He gives one final, dramatic sniff before it's fight time.

The first round is underway, and Credeur gets the early single-leg takedown, works for position, grabs an arm, and forces the tap-out via arm-bar. That was a quick one.

With that fight finished, Jackson starts to notice that his assistant coaches are getting shut out by Forrest Griffin's coaches, who have corner duty throughout the fights. Dana finds it funny.

Like last week, we now see a few fights as highlights packages:

Brandon Sene (2-0) vs. Aaron Meisner (2-0)

Meisner sets the pace early and unloads some strikes, but Sene collapses on top of him and works from top position. Jackson, tired of sitting idle, decides to offer Meisner some help and runs to his corner. "Rampage" quickly deduces that Meisner doesn't listen to instructions and would be a poor student. It doesn't matter, though, because Sene takes his back and chokes him out anyway.

Mike Marrello (7-1-1) vs. Gerald Harris (6-2)

Harris shoots early, lands a big takedown, and then picks apart his opponent on his feet. If the highlights were accurate, Harris dominated the fight. However, he couldn't finish it, and he settles for the decision victory over Marrello.

Daniel Cramer (0-0) vs. Jeremiah Riggs (1-0)

Again, we only see the highlights, but this one appears to be high-energy but a little sloppy. However, Cramer's scrappiness starts to take over, and he batters and bloodies his opponent throughout the first round. The coaches quickly deduce that Riggs could be dangerous with some good teaching, and as round two starts, he can only stop Cramer with illegal upkicks to the face. A point is deducted, and Cramer continues the assault, reclaims the mount position, and finishes the round in dominant fashion to force the stoppage.

Riggs has an impressive performance and earns the respect of the coaches, Dana and his fellow fighters. It's a shame; he would have been fun to watch this year.

Nick Rossborough (8-3) vs. Jesse Taylor (6-2)

Rossborough is a confident veteran hailing from Utah; Taylor is a father with no job who's hungry for a break and a shot at stardom.

Dana and Griffin quickly deduce that Rossborough is rockin' the Slim Shady look as the first round starts. Slim gets thrown to the mat early, and Taylor begins to batter him with punches while he's pinned against the fence. Taylor swarms his opponent and rains down punches while working for position. He soon secures the mount, and after Rossborough gives up his back, Taylor locks in the rear-naked choke for the victory and, as Griffin says, sends Slim "back to 8 Mile."

Josh Hall (3-2) vs. Matt Brown (9-6)

Once again, I get to see a fellow Ohioan with Brown, a no-nonsense guy who deduces that it's do-or-die time. He takes on Hall, who makes it abundantly clear that he's there simply to smash some skulls -- just like his friend, Mac Danzig, the winner of last season.

Rampage knows Hall and is obviously rooting for him. Griffin says his opponent, Brown, is unassuming and looks a little small for 185. Could that be some foreshadowing?

We're underway, and Hall looks like he has the double-leg takedown before Brown breaks free. After a stalemate against the fence, Rampage continues to talk about Hall, and Griffin throws out some instructions for him. (No love for Brown, it seems.) After some dirty boxing, Hall then lands some kicks. Brown, though, follows with a neck-snapping jab and a leg kick. He's then taken down, but Brown remains calm and fends off his opponent's strikes while pinned against the fence. Brown continues to work for position and finally locks in a triangle choke. Hall tries to slam out of it twice, but it only makes the hold tighter. Somehow, Hall does break free, but Brown rains down a series of hammerfists and a barrage of ground and pound right as the round comes to a close. Herb Dean jumps in to stop it, though, with just seconds left, and Brown gets the victory.

"That kid's a f***ing animal," Dana says.

So there, you have it. Eight winners for a total of 16 cast members.

Dana then addresses the newest cast.

"We came up with his concept to get rid of the p***ies and the posers," Dana said. "There's none here in this room today."

Once again, until next week.