TUF 10

He may have had a pre-fight meltdown, verbal wars with his teammates and coaches and an issue with voices in his head, but former NFL player Matt Mitrione defeated UFC veteran Scott Junk on the latest episode of “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Mitrione put down Junk a handful of times with punches in the first two minutes, forcing the Hawaiian to switch to diving for single-leg takedowns. Both heavyweights looked completely spent by the end of the round. Junk secured a takedown, got through with punches standing in the second and appeared to take the round. Still, only one judge called the fight a 19-19 draw; two others gave Mitrione a 20-18 nod. His team having now lost seven straight fights, Junk’s coach, Quinton Jackson, flew off the handle, completely destroying a door with kicks, elbows and punches.

The episode was mostly a character study of Mitrione, a man prone to outbursts. Teammate Jon Madsen threatened to slap him in the face in the house, so Mitrione laid into him during a subsequent sparring session. Madsen halted the session, and Mitrione went wild, screaming and yelling at everyone, including his coach, Rashad Evans. Wes Sims later donned a ninja outfit and clowned around with Mitrione, who responded with a warning instead of a smile.

The final preliminary fight, Marcus Jones vs. Mike Wessel, will air next week. Quarter-final fights will also be announced.

Some of the best fight build-up of the year -- for a fight that may never happen -- continued. There were verbal fireworks between Evans and Jackson, as Evans called out Jackson on his team’s record, prompting Rampage to shoot back with “I ain’t a coach!” repeatedly. Evans replied with “You came here to coach.”

The episode scored a 1.9 share rating on Spike TV, according to MMAPayout.com. It was the lowest rating of the season, but the 2.5 million viewers for the program ranks in the normal range.