The Ultimate Fighter returned for another week, airing the fifth episode of Season 31, with Team McGregor prospect Carlos Vera facing Team Chandler veteran and The Ultimate Fighter 27 winner Brad Katona. Read our recap of Episode 5 below.

The episode began with Conor McGregor heading into the TUF House to hold a rowing machine competition with the Team McGregor fighters. Aaron McKenzie came out on top with the quickest time in a 500m sprint. Coach McGregor then jumped onto the rower himself and got a slightly slower time.

Read our recap of The Ultimate Fighter 31: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler Episode 6 here.

From there, we saw the first scenes detailing the drama surrounding Brad Katona being on Team Chandler against his regular coaching team at SBG Ireland, who are on the Team McGregor coaching staff. Katona explained that he has drawn on his previous TUF experience to know he has to put himself first, as TUF is an individual tournament at the end of the day. But that did not stop the Team Chandler coaching staff and other fighters from getting extremely fed up with him.

The Fighters

Brad Katona (12-2-0, 2-2-0 UFC) enters TUF 31 in the unique position of having already won TUF previously. After putting together a record of 6-0 on the regional scene, Katona appeared on TUF 27, where he would beat Kyler Philips, Bryce Mitchell and Jay Cucciniello on his way to claiming the Featherweight tournament. After that victory, Katona dropped to Bantamweight, beating Matthew Lopez before suffering losses to Merab Dvalishvili and Hunter Azure.

Surprisingly, like many other TUF 31 veterans, Katona was cut from the UFC without having the opportunity to establish himself in the organisation. Since being cut, Katona has put together a four-fight win streak, winning and defending the BRAVE CF Bantamweight Championship. Born in Canada, Katona trains out of SBG Ireland alongside McGregor but finds himself across from his gym teammates on Team Chandler.

Across from Katona will be Team McGregor prospect Carlos Vera (12-3-0), who, at 35 years old, is amongst the older competitors on the entire TUF roster. With experience in the LFA and Fury FC, Vera has found great form in recent years, putting together a four-fight win streak with submission victories in his past two bouts.

Find the entire UFC Vegas 76: Strickland vs. Magomedov fight card and start times here.

The Fight

The two men opened the fight exchanging from range on the feet, with Vera showcasing his Tae Kwon Do and Capoeira kicking pedigree. Katona smartly closed the distance, holding Vera along the cage before working his way towards a takedown. Vera showed some good grappling defence, managing to get back to his feet, but Katona remained on him along the cage, chaining together takedowns.

Katona spent most of the rest of the round on top, landing solid ground and pound, with Vera managing to counter the position in the last few seconds and ending up on top. The two men scrambled to their feet, with Vera landing a massive right hand. 10-9 to Katona after Round 1.

The second round began with much of the same. Vera was landing some powerful spinning back kicks to Katona’s body before Katona initiated the grappling and managed to take Vera down. Katona then took his back and controlled from the top for most of the round, landing solid ground and pound. Vera managed to get back up to his feet again before the end of the round. But the round was likely another 10-9 for Katona.

At the end of the two rounds, McGregor was once again calling for a third round. Still, once again, the judges had already reached a decision, with Katona taking a unanimous decision victory to take Team Chandler to 5-0 on the season. As has been the case every week of TUF 31, the Team McGregor prospect put up a solid fight, but the Team Chandler veteran was just too good.

Up next week, Team McGregor will hope to get its first win of the season through #1 ranked Lightweight prospect and McGregor protege Lee Hammond, who faces #4 ranked veteran Kurt Holobaugh.

Read our recap of The Ultimate Fighter 31: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler Episode 4 here.