Rampage Jackson says, 'I swallowed my whole heart'

The penultimate Ultimate Fighter Heavyweights last night featured a lot of action, leading up to this Saturday’s season finale. But the best brawl was a verbal one between opposing team coaches Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans.

The two have had increasingly contentious arguments, but last night, their feuds over warring strategies and criticisms of each other’s coaching styles spilled over into a low-growl confrontation that had them inches from each other’s faces. Rashad dared Rampage to “throw it — let it happen.” Alas, it did not. Was this rage trumped up for the cameras?

Meanwhile, the best semi-final fight of the evening was between Marcus Jones and Brendan Schaub. The rangy, tall, but significantly older Jones got off a good high kick to Schaub’s face early on, but once Schaub took Jones to the mat, it was ground-and-pound all the way, with the referee calling a victory for Schaub before Jones’ face took more punishment.

Rampage provided the quote of the night after this defeat for his team: “I swallowed my whole heart,” he said in sorrow. “I don’t even know what it was doing there, but I felt it go down my esophagus.” Gulp.

This means that going into the finale — a special that will air this Saturday night on Spike at 9 pm EST — the big fight will be between Schaub and Roy “Big Country” Nelson, the blobby battler whom UFC honcho Dana White said with delight possesses “the worst physique in sports.”

This season of Ultimate Fighter has proven to be highly entertaining, even if its biggest media attraction, Kimbo Slice, has been a glowering, always boastful disappointment. (Kimbo will appear in an undercard fight on Saturday.)

Any EW readers out there watching this besides me? Will you watch the finale on Saturday?

(You can follow me on Twitter.)

Photo credit: Spike TV

ncG1vNJzZmidp2OwsLmOmqmtoZOhsnB%2Bj2lwaGliZH10e9Slq6KlkamybrLIoJ%2BtnaJitaat1bKunqGXncG0ecSpoKynlJp6cn6O