Bermudez stops Corssani, heads to final
Posted November 10, 2011 12:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Dennis (The Menace) Bermudez has moved into the featherweight final of Season 14 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” stopping motor mouth Swede Akira Corassani.
The first-round submission win is the sixth in nine fights for coach Jason (Mayhem) Miller, who will face off against rival coach Michael (The Count) Bisping on the live finale Dec. 3 in Las Vegas.
In the episode of the MMA reality TV show that aired Wednesday, the brash Corassani serenades Bermudez at the house before the fight, singing he will crush his dreams.
And it initially looks like he’s about to make good on those words.
Corassani comes out swinging against Bermudez and soon has the Miller fighter reeling. But Bermudez survives and connects himself, piercing Corassani’s limited defence.
Afte failing on three takedown attempts, Bermudez succeeds on the fourth. When Corassani tries to get up. Bermudez grabs his neck and locks on a choke as Miller shouts instructions from outside the cage.
Corassani taps with 1:50 remaining. The dazed fighter has to ask his coach what happened afterwards. “I lost?”
“He caught you in a guillotine,” Bisping replies.
Bermudez will face either Bryan Caraway (Team Miller) or Brazilian dynamo Diego Brandao (Bisping) in the final.
The bantamweight (135-pound) semifinals pit Johnny Bedford against fellow Team Miller member John Dodson and T.J. Dillashaw (Bisping) against Dustin Pague (Miller).
Corassani has proved to be this season’s abrasive joker.
“Very cocky and a little nutty,” is UFC president Dana White’s assessment.
An irate Caraway describes him as “a classic bully” after the Swede uses a razor to cut a swath off his hair while he is sleeping. Caraway and his roommates subsequently barricade themselves in their bedroom.
The prank factor continues as Bisping and assistant coach Tiki Ghosn spray fire extinguishers at Team Miller in their dressing room. The Bisping camp arranges to have a Mariachi band on hand to prevent things from getting out of hand and keep the atmosphere light.
“We didn’t want a fist fight to break out,” explains Bisping.
Bedford, for one, objects at being sprayed by a chemical before his fight. Bisping responds by saying they checked that the spray was non-toxic and “completely harmless.”
“Obviously don’t do this at home kids,” he adds.
The attack leaves the gym unusable but draws grudging praise from Miller, a prankster himself.
“Bravo Tiki,” says Miller, applauding as he speaks.
Bisping, meanwhile, asks Miller to keep his pint-sized dog out of the gym, saying it’s unhygienic.
In the teaser for next week’s episode, Miller and Bisping square off at air hockey in the coaches’ challenge.
Winnipeg bantamweight Roland Delorme was eliminated the previous week on Episode 7, stopped by Dillashaw.
