Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 5, Episode 9 of NBC's "The Voice," titled "Battle Rounds."


The battle continues on Season 5 of The "Voice" -- and these singers weren't yet ready to make nice. As two of each team's singers met on stage for a mic'd up showdown, Carson Daly announced the entrances like we were watching Friday Night Fights. This was boxing-level excitement for the third Battle Round on "The Voice," and some of the duos delivered.


While nothing could really compare to Christina's meeting with a supposed mosquito on set, these battles surely did their best.


Battle Round: Team Christina with special guest Ed Sheeran

Josh Logan vs. Michael Lynch, “Harder To Breathe” by Maroon 5


Okay, six-nights-a-week-singer Josh Logan and Michael Lynch, the landscaper who moved to Mexico City to be the next Enrique Iglesias, must be the only two people in America who didn't hear Maroon 5's first single 987,000 times when it was released. Neither of them really knew the words -- and I wonder if Christina made them more nervous by showing off her runs. We know, we know, girl -- you've got the best voice around.


During rehearsal, Christina wants the guys to get more hyped on stage, and cries, "Michael, play with me!”


"I wanted to get their attention," Christina says. That probably did it.


When it came time for the battle, Josh's moves were subdued compared to Michael, who bounced around the stage like his feet had springs. While the pair's harmonies blended gorgeously, Josh, in fact, didn't need to move -- his vocal control was just superior to his younger competitor, and Adam said he at times overpowered Michael's spotlight. "Adam wrote it from a very pissed-off emotional place," Christina says, "So you have to mean what you say." The judges agree -- Josh wins the battle, and Michael smiled graciously as the judges declined to steal him.


WINNER: Josh Logan


Battle Round: Team Cee-Lo with special guest Miguel

George Horga Jr. vs. Juhi, "The Best I Ever Had" by Gavin DeGraw


First things first -- Miguel has the best hair on this show right now. The R&B upstart and Cee-Lo put an unlikely song on George Horga, Jr., the Romanian with a dream to sing, and high school sweetheart Juhi, who will be an aerospace engineer if she doesn't win "The Voice."


Juhi's voice? She sounds like cabaret theater and women dancing in fishnets. She does NOT sound like a high school girl. "That girl can sing her face off," George remarks. But Juhi's squeaky, un-enunciated phrasing might be too much for the song. George worries that the key is at the top of his register. But the two battlers seemed to hit it off well, singing together in rehearsal like a poppy Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.


George hit a foul note early in the battle round, but recovers quickly. When Juhi grabbed the mic and commits, her eyes bulging out wide, Adam just stares at her -- it's a telling moment. Hard to believe those guttural, fierce vocals can come from such a young girl -- but Juri also shows her age. She just didn't have enough breath control to make it through all her lines.


Adam and Blake are both impressed with Juri's sound. Blake laments that he should have made a play for Juri during the blind auditions. While Cee-Lo calls Juri a "young Einstein," he feels compelled to "commend and support someone who wants to solely do this, as if there’s no plan B." It seems like Juri's aerospace engineering dreams have backfired on her, as Cee-Lo goes for George, who moved to LA three years before with a dream.


Things are sad for a moment, until Adam presses his button and steals Juri! He said he thought Cee-Lo would keep her, instead of George. "I think we have work to do, but gosh, you’re 16," he tells her. "I just kind of won the lottery by grabbing you for my team.”


Also, how long is Cee-Lo gonna wear that red leather outfit?


WINNER: George Horga, Jr.

STEAL: Juri to Team Adam




Battle Round: Team Blake with special guest Cher

Austin Jenckes vs. Brian Pounds, "To Love Somebody," Bee Gees


Blake Shelton's country-fried battle pits Brian Pounds, the baseball player who gave up sports for guitar, against Austin Jenckes, singing to honor his dead father. Blake notes this Bee Gees song was covered by none other than Hank Williams, which makes it more of an understandable pick for the Oklahoma star.


In one of the more unlikely moments of the night, bearded Austin Jenckes, who wowed the crowd in blinds singing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man," actually gets tongue-tied meeting his rehearsal mentor. "I'm actually a huge Cher fan," he tells the camera.


Immediately, Brian says "it tinges" a bit to see the judges fawn over Austin. He loosens up, drops the guitar, but Austin still gets lost in the song in a way Brian can't seem to do. At one point during rehearsal, Cher announces, "I have a problem!" (she's clearly used to seeing assistants scurry when she says this) Her issue? She can't hear Austin well enough.


So yeah, the deck was stacked against Brian from the beginning. But Brian gamely presses on. "When Cher talks, you listen," he says.


When the two perform, Brian just can't connect with the audience like Austin, who really has a once-in-a-Voice-season rock sound. The judges all think Austin took the battle. “He left his heart laying out there on the stage," Blake says admiringly. This is a clear-cut win, and there's no steal.


WINNER: Austin Jenckes




Battle Round: Team Adam with special guest Ryan Tedder

James Irwin vs. Matt Cermanski, "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic


Comeback kids James and Matt were both eliminated during previous seasons of "The Voice." Cue their triumphant returns: until they're tasked with singing a OneRepublic song in front of Ryan Tedder, the guy who actually wrote it. Both seem tentative as rehearsal begins. James can "hit all the notes in a way that’s astonishingly precise," Adam raves. But the more Matt sings, the more Ryan and Adam start to believe he could win this battle, especially after he ditches his guitar.


"Matt can sneak up and steal this away from him," Ryan declares.


When the battle begins, both singers should get credit for putting emotion and danger into this mid-tempo One Direction track. As the camera spins and the two singers circle each other, it becomes a for-real BATTLE! Matt has some pitch problems, but his falsetto seems to best James. At the end, Cee-Lo tells them, in all seriousness, "it was hype, dope and fresh." Adam acknowledges that both singers stumbled, but picks James as the winner.


After it's all over, James celebrates with his wife and baby daughter. Matt's mother tells him, "You won it in my eyes." Moms are the best.


WINNER: James Irwin


Battle Round: Team Christina with special guest Ed Sheeran

Destinee Quinn vs. Lena Gaudenzi, "I'm Not Ready To Make Nice" by The Dixie Chicks


Plucky Destinee Quinn faces off against teen-model-turned-singer Lena Gaudenzi -- and in rehearsals, they both struggle. Poor Destinee seems petrified, Lena is over-thinking her singing, and of course Christina takes the mic to prove she can sing it better (of course, she does).


Is it just me, or is Destinee just the most unlikely biker bar songstress and friend of Alice Cooper you could ever imagine?


The two look like they're in a full-on Lady War by the time they take the stage. It's a diva showdown, and a clear winner is hard to pick. Adam's a fan of Lena. Blake, pulling for Destinee, declares, "It almost looked like you were about to cry, you were so mad." Christina can barely take it. She's just like, "I'm so living for these two right now."


If Destinee won the emotion, Lena won the range. So when Christina says she has to choose Destinee, Adam doesn't hesitate, stealing Lena for his second theft of the evening. Also, a mosquito lands on Christina, and she starts screaming and trying to keep her dress from falling down. I love this show.


WINNER: Destinee Quinn

STEAL: Lena Gaudenzi to Team Adam



Battle Round: Team Adam with special guest Ryan Tedder

James Wolpert, vs. Will Champlin, "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons


This was hyped as the battle to battle last week's "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" in the promos -- too bad it didn't really deliver. Disappointing, because college dropout and Apple store worker James Wolpert stole my Detroit heart during the blind auditions with his cover of Jack White's "Love Interruption." But this song contest didn't pay off for Monday night's finale.


Wolpert dueled with white-spectacled Will Champlin, a new father and son of former Chicago bandmember Bill Champlin, who actually says, "“I’ve always looked up to Maroon 5 and One Republic." Really? I mean, your dad was in Chicago! Adam says the two vocalists are remarkably similar -- moving forward with both of them would "be redundant."


During the battle, Will hits some amazing high notes, taking the crowd (and me) by surprise. James shows off some fury, too. Blake and Adam both remark that James' buttoned-up look contrasts remarkably with the passion he shows on stage. "You look like you could be working the stock market, in a cool way," Adam muses.


In the end, Adam takes James -- and Christina, who said she thought Will won the battle -- swoops in for a last-minute steal.


WINNER: James Wolpert

STEAL: Will Champlin to Team Christina


The competition continues on "The Voice," Mondays at 8 p.m. ET and Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.