Episode 3 - Tiger Kings win, Rafik goes home.

Rafik's cockiness after their double victory lost him respect from the Tiger Kings, his team mates and even Stephan Fox. The Tiger Kings were so pissed off they swore to win their next challenge and, their ultimate goal for their first victory was to send Rafik home.

I will not attempt to talk more about the challenge. I thought it was a good challenge because it emphasized a lot on fighting techniques and power. Well anyway, the Wild Boars lost the challenge because Rafik dropped the weight into the pool and couldn't get it back up on time. It was such a close match but the victory went to the Tiger Kings. Finally, it was their turn to experience the sweet smell of victory. They were rewarded to an afternoon at the Laguna Golf Resort.

Episode 3 has most commonly been classified as The Brawl. Rafik and Dzhabar - one cocky as hell, one hot headed as hell. It wasn't a matter of who provoked whom at the moment before the brawl happened but it was more a matter of accumulated anger and how much Rafik have pissed the Tiger Kings off. The Wild Boars were all cocky after their victories but anger was directed at Rafik and not the entire team. As Zach mentioned on his blog, we weren't given the benefit of witnessing the extent of Rafik's cockiness and because it is reality TV, some things had to be edited off to show off certain charateristics. Living with Rafik was probably very unbearable.

The Captains' Fight - JWP felt that it was his responsibility to send Rafik home because he was the captain of the Tiger Kings and because of that, he had the duty to protect his team members. The deliberation process began with JWP volunteering and hotheaded Dzhabar eager to fight Rafik, for revenge. What do you think will be the outcome if Dzhabar had fought Rafik instead?

JWP wasn't at his best, of course. It was quite disappointing actually. Rafik got him almost everytime he used his elbows. Yes, Rafik had quality elbows but other than that JWP was dominating the match, chasing him around the ring, falling all over the place, no doubt, but landed plenty hard punches on him. There are a lot of forums talking about Rafik and I suppose this was what Rafik wanted, to be famous, to be popular, to let the world know what French Muay Thai is all about. Rafik got famous after his challenge to Yodsaenklai and after his fight with JWP, one of the world's best fighters, he will definitely be remembered and respected, if not for his personality, for his fighting spirit.

Big mouth, great fighter. I can't decide if he has a small or big heart. There has to be something about him, considering that Yodsaenklai and Naruepol both asked him to corner for them when they fought at Paris. Dzhabar is still waiting to fight Rafik. When that happens, it will be the most exciting event.

At the end of the show, Rafik commented that fighting was easy, it was living with the others that was difficult. We all raised our eyebrows to his comment but well, we respect him for his fight, he did well. Some of us are sad that he's gone, some of us celebrate. I personally think the show might become a little less spicy without the Frenchie but who knows, we just gotta wait and see. 3 episodes down, 3 fighters gone, 12 more episodes to go. Can't wait.