Lester Shows His Heart Once Again

For weeks, on The Ultimate Fighter, we’ve heard that Dave Faulkner is the best fighter on Team UK. We’ve watched as Jason Pierce drummed up excuse after excuse to avoid fighting the dangerous Brit, eventually getting his wish at the end of last week’s episode. No one on Team USA would stand a chance against Faulkner and perhaps no one would be foolish enough to take on the challenge.

Frank Lester was days removed from his last fight which knocked out all of his top, front teeth and severely injured his nose. Never lacking for courage, he convinced White that he was healthy enough and more than willing to take the fight against Faulkner as a substitute for Pierce. Lester was clearly the lamb being led to slaughter. There was only one problem-someone forgot to tell Lester that he was supposed to lose.

Perhaps Faulkner was surprised that Lester didn’t enter the cage wearing a white flag or perhaps his pre-fight hypnosis treatment made him believe he was a ring-tailed lemur. Whatever the reason, Faulkner did not destroy Lester in Round 1 as everyone would have had us believe. Faulkner was the aggressor, but Lester’s wounded face stood up to some brutal shots and he survived to fight a second round.

In Round 2 Lester took charge and won the round to force a sudden victory extra round. In a shocking turn of events Faulkner told his corner that he could not fight another round. They implored him to reconsider, telling him he would “regret this decision the rest of his life”, but he stood his ground and declared that he was done.

Had Lester then climbed the cage and yelled “Adrian”, I would think no one would have been surprised. The real surprise however was Faulkner’s reaction after the fight. While his coaches consoled their fighter, Faulkner declared that he “really enjoyed” the fight. He repeated this odd refrain several times and seemed so pleased with his decision to quit that coach Michael Bisping needed to leave the room before his disgust for Faulkner became obvious. I doubt that Faulkner can recover after such a complete meltdown and the fighter himself seemed aware in his post-fight interview that he may be wise to consider a career change at this point. Maybe there’s a market for ex-fighters with Mohawks with chronic problems with their gag reflex? Well, at least when this recession ends.

Lester was overjoyed that he is now “one step closer to being an official bad ass”. Given his behavior in previous shows, one also hopes he is one step farther away from being an official nut case. Say what you want though about Lester, the kid has heart.