But in the end we would not see Pete blow his chance at a staying in the competition. He chose to exercise his coin toss-winning rights and rejoin the Team No Love welterweights.
"Now, I got to pick myself back up and do what I got to do," said Pete.
At the fight announcement, Pete declared that Matt Serra would fight "next week" and this week the fighters would be Team Mojo’s Din Thomas against Mikey Burnett.
It turns out that Team No Love's picking Din was strategic because they knew he was still suffering from the staph infection which was making the rounds of the house last week. They thought that he would be at his weakest come fight time.
Din is a fighter who has shown a lot of promise, working up the lightweight ranks, only to suffer losses as he approached the top. But he is a strong TUF candidate. In fact, Din is Dana White's pick to win the welterweight division.
He has two notable losses against BJ Penn and Caol Uno that set him back. He dropped out of the UFC scene after a controversial win against none other than Matt Serra at UFC 41.
In Mikey Burnett, Team No Love chose a true veteran from the “no holds barred” days of the Octagon, a stand-up fighter with boxing experience and an association with Ken Shamrock's Lion's Den, but who is also attempting comeback from addiction to get his life back on track.
"Sometimes there's different fights in life," said Mikey. "'I’m trying to create a future in the UFC now."
As for the elimination bout, it was a quick on again this week. It essentially could summarized in this way. Din pulled guard once, tried for the triangle choke, failed; he tried again, and locked it in for the tap out from Mikey.
The loss was a disappointment for Mikey, and a brief chat with Randy after the fight suggests that he has more thinking to do about his comeback. Sometimes making things new again is harder than it seems at the outset.
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