Stand Up and Take it Like a Man!

We begin this episode where we left off last time, with Nito winning his fight against Rudy. They show us some scenes in the locker room where Rudy and Nito each tell us about their experiences. Rudy hangs his gloves up next to Michael’s and leaves the gym.

Up at the loft, Nito enters to cheering from the rest of the guys! The guys are discussing the next pairing for the next fight. Gary Balletto wants to fight Aaron Torres and the gold team wants to have some say in the pairings, even though the blue team has the power to choose again. They also talk about pairing Grady up with Vinroy. Someone says Grady is afraid of Vinroy. Vinroy calls Grady a coward, then Grady tells us he thinks he’ll have to step up… and off we go to a commercial already!

{rant} What is wrong with this channel? They show so many commercials and only run them for 1 to 1 ½ minutes. That’s not enough time to get a drink, let alone go to the bathroom! Do they really think every viewer has that short of an attention span that they’ll change the channel? Not me, I’m hooked on this show! {/rant}

And we’re back! The guys are working out in the gym. Alfonso comes and spars with some of them and tells us that the guys all have different flavors, different styles, it’s like a tootie fruitie! Jeff is taking it easy this day, he never knows if he will be the one called out to fight. Some of the other guys are taking it easy too, just in case!

We head to the bracket wall and Sugar Ray talks about Nito’s fight and subsequent win. Nito gets his necklace and is asked to place his name on the bracket wall. He doesn’t hesitate and puts his name in fight #12. Aaron says this will give him the most rest between round 1 and round 2, but did Nito think about how much rest he’ll need before round 3?

Wait a minute!!! What happened to Nito’s reward? What? He doesn’t get one???

Steve tells us that he thinks the blue team is cracking a bit. Cut to the blue team, who are having a heated discussion about who will fight next! Both Aaron and Grady want to go. Then the teams line up on the apron. Sugar Ray asks who will fight for the blue team and Aaron steps out into the ring. He calls out Gary, who toes the line. Sugar Ray asks Aaron why he chose Gary. Aaron says it’s because Gary wants to fight him and he doesn’t step down from a challenge. He was trying to be an example for Grady. The gold team tells us about how Gary is the knockout king! His record is 29 – 2 with 25 KOs!

Aaron talks about his hometown of Philadelphia and his failed marriage. Gary brings a cake to the family housing to celebrate his son’s 11th birthday. He has 3 kids and is married to his high school sweetheart. They’ve been together for 14 years.

…with the way this was edited, one would think that Aaron is going to win because they only showed him for about 1 minute, while Gary got several minutes of footage.

Aaron, who’s record is 14 – 2 with 6 KOs, is in the locker room getting ready. He tells us the winner will be the one with the most heart. He also tells us he’s here for himself. Gary has a rich life to go back to, if he loses, he goes back to the ghetto. Aaron’s father and girlfriend show up to encourage him before the fight. In Gary’s locker room, he tells us, for him, boxing is a hobby. He’s been out of it for 2 years and 3 months. His wife and kids stop in to wish him luck. His kids are very nervous about him fighting.

On to the fight!!! Again I remind you, we aren’t shown the whole fight, plus I am no boxing expert, just a fan of the show! In round 1, Gary’s long arms swing fairly wildly, which makes him use up a lot of energy. Aaron gets some really good shots in, but is distracted by the crowd and is like a deer in headlights! It’s almost as if he never fought in front of a crowd before. I’d count this round for Aaron though. Round 2 has Aaron against the ropes. The two of them actually fall down to the mat, but Gary controls this round. Round 3 has Aaron totally distracted and Gary gives him quite a whooping! In round 4, Aaron finally starts fighting like he should! He sits down for a moment, but then comes back swinging! I’d give round 4 to Aaron. So it’s seems all evened up going into the 5th and final round! The 5th round is anybody’s call because, from what we see of it, it looks fairly even. They basically just traded punches.

On to the judges scores: The first judge scores the bout at 48 – 47 for Gary, the second scores it 48 – 47 for Aaron and the third scores it at 48 – 47 for Gary! By split decision, Gary wins! Wow! It was so close too! Poor Aaron, you’ve just won yourself a trip straight back to the ghetto. If you weren’t so distracted, you could’ve won this thing!

Some of the guys say that Aaron fought hard, he stood with Gary the whole way, fought well and didn’t get KOed. Aaron says he had so much more to gain and he was looking for that reward. He hangs his glove on the wall next to Rudy’s and leaves the gym.

Next week: The gold team revels in their win! Will Vinroy and Grady fight? …and there is a callout surprise!

Ummm… if there is a callout surprise, do we really think it will be Vinroy and Grady? That wouldn’t be very much of a surprise now, would it?

A tribe original ©2006