We Don't See A Ton Of Conor McGregor In The Second Episode Of UFC 229: Embedded, But The Karate Hottie Is Now In The Mix

Alright, so…I’ll be honest – Episode 2 of Embedded really fell flat for me yesterday.

Obviously, not getting a ton of Conor McGregor footage (turning the series into Macbedded) hurt, and getting the clip we got, where he basically just said he likes to run, that just served as a cocktease for more. Throw in the fact that we once again got a TON of Tony Ferguson, including clips of him doing dumbass fucking circus tricks on a yoga ball that make it look like he’s trying to get injured before his pay-per-view bout on Saturday (wouldn’t be the first time!)…this episode just wasn’t for me.

That’s fine, as well. Every now and then you’re gonna swing and miss, and I wouldn’t even call Episode 2 of Embedded a swing and miss universally, just for me. If you’re a die-hard Khabib fan, I’m sure you enjoyed it. He did some grappling training, then joked around about Conor McGregor’s (alleged) bus assault with a crew member that was on the bus, and looked as calm and loose as he has all camp in my opinion. I’m sure if you’re a Khabib fan you think that’s a great sign.

Again, with Tony Ferguson, he ran through his catchphrases – McNuggets and Tiramisu – within point two milliseconds of being in front of the camera, and did those elephant-on-a-ball tricks afterwards. Not much depth to his arc at all in Episode 2, which I was more than okay with, and then we got a pleasant surprise!

Michelle Waterson, AKA “The Karate Hottie” touched down in Las Vegas and she’s got a camera crew with her as well! Waterson is the star of ‘FIGHT MOM’, a documentary about her life as – you guessed it: a fighter and a mother – and is one of the more beloved personalities on the UFC roster, so it’s really great that her fight week will be documented as well. She’s also an ESPN Body Issue cover athlete.

I wonder if she was always going to be on Embedded, or if the crew filming realized Conor was zoned in for this fight and wasn’t going to put much effort into wisecracks and soundbites this time around (which I don’t blame him for one bit…this is war) so they needed to spice things up. Regardless, I’m happy she’s here.

Then, finally, we got a TON of Anthony Pettis material, and it was clear this episode was sort of “his”. I thought all of it was pieced together very well, and the best part of the entire episode. When you’ve got soundbites of Pettis talking like being like the fighter he once was again playing over highlights of him throwing ALL of his spinning shit in sparring, I’m just gonna get behind that underdog story in the blink of an eye. I didn’t care that much about this fight as of yesterday, and I’m ride or die for Pettis in the fight as of today. That’s the magic of marketing.

But for real, after Saturday night you may be able to call me an idiot, but Pettis’ personal #ComebackSZN is something I believe to be VERY real, and it’s so much fun to watch so hop on the bandwagon now. He was lightyears ahead of competition for a while…he got hurt…the game passed him by…and he’s finally started to catch up.

Could you imagine if he landed the Showtime Kick on Saturday?

Would be fucking insane. Let’s hope tomorrow’s Embedded is a little more lively!