TUF Nations Episode Three: Laprise Puts On Boxing Clinic
Chad Laprise wins on The Ultimate Fighter – Photo by UFC.ca/The Ultimate Fighter
The episode began with Canada riding high and cocky off the Elias Theodorou win and the Aussies burning from the second loss in a row. Being down 2-0 in fights, the team from down under resorts to middleweight Tyler Manawaroa blowing a horn in the house to disturb the Canucks, as well as hanging female necessities on the hanging moose head as a joke.
Canadian middleweight machine Nordine Taleb throws insults and threats at Manawaroa in a sign of things to come.
As for this week’s match up, Canadian coach Patrick Cote lets us in on the fact that our local man Laprise is his pick to win at welterweight. This episode really shows us a lot about Laprise and his mental makeup. He is a man of faith and that comes shining through when he mentions his beliefs and cites psalms and versus from the bible. You get a sense here that Laprise’s background, faith and mental game is on another level than that of his opponent Indich.
Indich talks about his fighting background and upbringing and speaks in vast contrast to Laprise’s life in Chatham-Kent. Indich was an aggressive youth with a questionable direction and was involved in schoolyard fights and bar brawls as his introduction into the sport. He even goes as far as to mention that his dad would drink and sometimes lay his hands on him when he was younger.
The fight is set up as a good-guy-athlete against tough guy fighter but I can’t help but comment about the large difference in the way these two teams are being prepared on the show. The Canadians had a very large experience edge coming in to the show and they are showing, led by Patrick Cote, that they have a vastly more sophisticated and advanced training approach. It is like night and day to watch the training sessions and hear the comments between the two coaches. Cote is cerebral and focussed and always looking for the edge and Noke seems relaxed, calm and happy to be there despite the fact that he is down 2-0 already
The Fight
Aside from the good guy vs. tough guy angle leading up to this fight, it was also stated that Indich was more of a grappling, grind it out fighter and Laprise had the better hands. It was pitted as style versus style but it turned out that the fight was anything but.
From the opening bell, Laprise put on an absolute clinic in the sweet science of boxing, showing the complete science involved in beating a man to the punch. He flicked his left jab out constantly, as he used his fluid footwork and head movement to keep Indich just out of range. Indich could not get close enough to shoot Laprise without eating a touch or a large taste of UFC glove leather. Laprise was also effectively mixing in leg kicks, many of which landed exactly where the man intended them to. He was technical and he was accurate, two trademarks of the famed Team Tompkins fighting system, and Indich while game and tough, had no intelligent answer. Many may question why Indich continued to stand with Laprise, instead of try to take it in tight, but I think the answer was in his one attempted shoot that Laprise defended with ease, and the set up fell horribly short of hitting the mark.
In the end Indich’s face looked like it had been through the meat grinder but he was able to fight to the end as Laprise took home a decision win to keep the Canadians undefeated in the competition.
In another clear sign that the Aussies do not have the leadership that the Canucks do, Aussie coach Noke thought that Indich took round two of the fight and was expecting a third round, when in reality the round wasn’t close.
Once again Chad showed the true gracious side of a martial artist post fight as he hugged Indich and stated over and over what a tough and great guy Indich is.
The house horn man Tyler Manawaroa will get his chance to pay the piper next week as house nemesis Nordine Taleb was chosen to fight him next in the second middleweight fight.
Aside from his prowess on the horn, Manawaroa was spotlighted as having some discipline and weight issues on this week’s episode and I don’t like his chances. Taleb is an athletic machine with excellent technical abilities and I look for the Canucks to be 4-0 after next week.