Magakian gets a little crazy
GLENDALE - [UPDATED: 9:03 p.m.] With 14 fighters couped up in one house with little to do to amuse themselves and keep hold of their sanity, it’s perhaps a bit understandable that just about every season of “The Ultimate Fighter” features an in-house confrontation or two.
On the fourth episode of the Spike TV broadcast on Wednesday night, it was Glendale’s own Sevak Magakian that was the first to lose his temper.
In an altercation long having been built up in proceeding episodes’ previews, Magakian finally had enough when it came to Alex “Bruce Leroy” Caceres. After the two exchanged insults with Caceres basically challenging Magakian’s manhood with language not fit for print, the Team Hayastan and Glendale Fighting Club-trained fighter tossed a napkin at Caceres and then ran around two tables and charged him before teammates got in front of him and steered him into an adjacent room.
“I don’t know if people love me or hate me, but I was trying to do the right thing,” said Magakian of the confrontation, maintaining his view that Caceres was disrespectful throughout.
In the previous week’s episode, Magakian - and many of the other cast members - took exception to Caceres’ boasts after his victory over Jeffrey Lentz. After Michael Johnson, a member of Georges St. Pierre’s team along with Caceres, defeated Aaron Wilkinson, in the second fight of the show, Magakian also took exception to Caceres’ words from outside the octagon during the fight.
“Bruce Leroy, he was just jumping on his seat, just [yelling] [expletive deleted] him up, [expletive deleted] him up,” Magakian said in a confessional while highlights of Johnson’s fight were shown. “That’s not the right thing, man.”
The episode then shifted to Magakian, fellow Glendale fighter Sako Chivichyan and the rest of Team Koscheck going through a torrid practice under Coach Josh Koscheck.
“C’mon Sevak, you crazy Armenian,” Koscheck yelled during the segment.
“I love training man,” Magakian said in a confessional. “He beats the [expletive deleted] out of us, man, I like it, man. That’s what I need right now.”
Chivichyan then chimed in in a confessional.
“After losing two in a row, myself and all the other guys, we’re all pumped up,” Chivichyan said. “Everybody wants to get in there. Everybody wants to battle. We gave them a head start, but I think we’re gonna come with the big finish.”
Back at the house, Magakian and Lentz were talking to Johnson about Caceres’ antics during the Johnson-Wilkinson fight, with Caceres pacing around outside fully aware about the topic at hand. He eventually confronted Magakian, the two exchanged words that played out in a blur of bleeps before Magakian went a bit crazy and had to be restrained with Caceres rarely pausing from a smack-talking diatribe.
“I think these guys love to hate me,” Caceres said in a confessional as clips of him wagging his tongue and dancing around played shortly after the confrontation.
“After I win that first fight, God’s will, the next one is gonna be Bruce Leroy on my list,” Magakian said in a follow-up confessional. “I’m gonna pick him all the way up, I’m gonna slam him down, I’m gonna knock him out.”
It was his teammate Nam Pham that was the first to stop Magakian from getting closer to Caceres.
“In the moment, to tell you the truth, I lost it,” Magakian said. “When Nam caught me, then I realized why I’m here and calmed down a little.”
One thing they didn’t show, however, was a brief confrontation between Chivichyan and Caceres. Chivichyan, a longtime friend and training partner of Magakian, was actually in a confessional, which is in the basement of the house, during the time of the altercation.
“I didn’t even hear anything until I got out,” Chivichyan said. “[Caceres] was making a lot of disrespectful comments during the [Johnson-Wilkinson] fight. Of course you want your teammate to win, but cussing [his opponent] out, making disrespectful comments is very unsportsmanlike.”
And Chivichyan apparently stated just that to Caceres and then some.
“He won his fight [in the first episode] and for the next five days he was drinking and celebrating and talking about how great he was,” Chivichyan said. “I told him there’s a lot of big dogs in this house and you’re not one of them.”
As for action in the ocatagon, Magakian, Chivichyan and Team Koscheck continue to look for their first win, as Team Koscheck’s Andy Main lost to Team GSP’s Kyle Watson in a spirited back-and-forth matchup that saw Watson coax a second-round tapout via rear-naked choke.
Chivichyan worked Main out before the fight and cornered him during it. In addition, he gave him advice on the game plan going forward, something Main got away from in the loss.
“I knew he had a tough fight in front of him, but I thought he had the skill to beat Kyle if he fought smart and stuck to the game plan,” Chivichyan said. “He got away from the game plan.”