In the third episode of the fifteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, the prank war began between coaches Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz, and Cruz’s Justin Lawrence lives up to the hype.

Lawrence battled Faber’s Cristiano Marcello, and Lawrence finished the fight by knockout in the second round. It was built up to be a “semifinal or final-caliber” fight, but truthfully, Lawrence outclassed Marcello.

Marcello never looked comfortable with his standup, and he was having trouble keeping his chin down. Lawrence mixed in some straight crosses with a variety of kicks, and when he saw the opening that Marcello left out there in the second round, he pounced on him.

Marcello was on wobbly legs until Lawrence turned out the lights with a nice cross and was awarded the knockout victory. While the fight was entertaining, the most notable highlight from the show was without a doubt the pranks that involved both coaches.

During the episode, the world was introduced to Chris Tickle’s persona, and boy is this guy a character. In fact, it was Tickle, who is on Team Cruz, that got the prank war started between the coaches, when he removed Faber’s reserved parking sign and placed it in the gym.

Faber automatically thought it was Cruz, so he sought out revenge. Faber in return grabbed some black tape and gave Cruz’s large portrait on the wall a unibrow and widow’s peak to make him look like Count Dracula.

It was quite hilarious, but Cruz and his team fired back brilliantly. It’s no secret that Faber has a large butt chin, so Cruz’s team took paper towels and made a thong out of them to place over Faber’s chin in his large portrait on the wall.

Both pranks were harmless, but knowing how the fighters have reacted on previous seasons, it’s only going to get worse. Expect these pranks to turn into a game of who can top whom, until someone’s urinating in a bowl of fruit or even worse, like on the season eight.

As for the coaching interactions, Faber and Cruz are keeping their words to a minimum between each other, but if Cruz’s team continues to win, more pressure will be placed on Faber’s team to win, which means the drama should amplify.

Although this season has already been filled with classical moments like James Vick’s incredible knockout on the second episode, this season is just starting to heat up and an encounter between both teams and both coaches is only one sarcastic comment away.