With the second welterweight matchup pitting Team Cormier’s Jeff Creighton against Team Sonnen’s Andreeas Binder, The American Gangster brings another former TUF winner as a guest coach for his team in former welterweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer, Matt Serra. On season four of The Ultimate Fighter, Serra competed as an active member of the UFC roster in the first-ever “comeback season” of the show. Contestants on the show would compete for a championship opportunity, with the winner competing against the champion of their respective weight class.
Winning all three of his fights, Serra got the opportunity to compete against then-UFC welterweight champion and all-time great, Georges St. Pierre, at UFC 69. In a shocking upset, Serra won the fight with a first-round knockout in what’s often considered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
Serra’s training session focused on grappling and wrestling, emphasizing his perspective of the competition as his six-week training camp.
“I didn’t put pressure on myself. I looked at it as a six-week gladiator training camp,” Serra said. “I would just take it one fight at a time and it worked out for me”.
Back at the house, Creighton talks about his motivations for being on the show in being able to provide for his wife and family. “At some point, I wanna be able to take care of my mom and dad and they’ve sacrificed a lot for me. Without them, I wouldn’t have gotten this far, I know that, so I'm forever appreciative,” Creighton said.
A native of Valley Center, California, Creighton opts to live a not-so-traditional lifestyle, living in a trailer on the property of his wife’s grandparents. While he’s in his trailer, Creighton trains out of The Arena in San Diego under coach Vince Salvador.
Creighton’s aggressive fighting style makes for a tough matchup with an experienced record of 11-2-1, while also being a former Melee Combat MCC Champion and A1 Combat Champion.
For Andreeas Binder, the Romanian-born fighter trains out of Ireland and is a second-degree jiu-jitsu black belt, being the youngest black-belt in the country’s history. While his grappling game is well-regarded, Binder isn’t afraid to use his hands as his most recent fight ended in a second-round TKO victory.
In his preparation for the fight against Binder, Team Cormier’s Creighton plans to utilize his boxing and cage work to win the fight. “As far as preparation goes for this fight, I’ve been working on using good, clean, boxing to close the distance,” Creighton said.
“I just wanna get my hands on him and make it a dirty fight”.
While Creighton may not be the flashiest fighter in the competition, Cormier noted how his determination is always present when he fights. “I said he is a meat-and-potatoes guy and he still is. But he’s that guy that throws on his hard hat, throws on his boots, and goes to work every single day,” Cormier said.
Training out of SBG Charlestown in Dublin, Binder took up judo when he was younger to stand up to bullies, and recalls his dad for being the motivating factor in becoming a mixed martial artist.
“My dad said to me “Look you need to get into Martial Arts so you can (actually) stand up for yourself, how much can you (be) getting bullied for?” Binder said.
Before his upcoming weigh-in, Binder describes the weight-cut as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do”, as his struggles to make the welterweight limit were highlighted in the past.
The day of his weigh-in, the Irishman continues the weight-cut with complications starting to become apparent. While some fighters drop the weight more easily than others, Dixon noted Binder’s slow-down in sweating off the remaining pounds with fatigue starting to set in for Team Sonnen’s fighter.
90 minutes before his weigh-in, Chael Sonnen comes to check on his fighter as Binder tells his coach he can no longer make the allotted 171-pound welterweight limit, as the Irishman remains unable to cut down from 176.
To compensate for the weight miss, Sonnen offers Team Cormier’s Creighton $1,000 for each pound Binder is overweight, making it $5,000 in total. Creighton remained on the phone with Sonnen and asked for $2,500 for each pound instead, stating, “This is the biggest opportunity of my life. He should make weight, it’s his responsibility,” Creighton said.
With negotiations between the two teams, Sonnen agrees to the $12,500 pay for Creighton that was given to him on weigh-in day.
On Fight Day, the stakes have been raised as both welterweights feel confident that they will be victorious.
With round one beginning, Dana White noted Binder’s heavy appearance as both fighters got their rhythm going with kicks from each side. Despite being the heavier fighter, Binder used his power and pressure quickly as Creighton got pushed against the fence early in the round.
As Binder kept up the pressure, the fight moved to the ground as Creighton caught his opponent with an armbar with two minutes to spare which was inevitably brushed off. With the clock winding down, Binder became visibly fatigued as the hard weight-cut started to play a factor in the fight.
Creighton ended the first round with a cut to Binder’s forehead from an elbow strike.
As Binder entered the second round battered and bloodied in the second, Creighton began to impose his will by taking his opponents back and mauling them with ground-and-pound strikes. In an attempt to submit Binder several times throughout the fight, blood was spreading everywhere that turned the UFC Apex into a horror movie.
With the second round ending, both teams got ready for round three until referee Mark Smith stopped the fight as the second round was deemed a 10-8, giving Creighton a unanimous decision win and some cash to take home along with it.
With Team Cormier now up 3-1 in the tournament, Sonnen desperately needs to get back in the win column as flyweights return to action between Kazakhstan's Alibi Idiris and Uzbekistan’s Furkatbek Yokubov, as Cormier described it as “one of the most even matchups on the show”.