Episode 7

Interesting episode to say the least. Yes, we did keep stealing Tom’s fruit platter. What he did was slick because it was rightfully his and we were in the wrong for stealing it so, jokes on us. However, I lucked out on this one, as this was the only day I didn’t eat the fruit lol. I would have but I was playing chess and eating a steak, the two pastimes I picked up after being eliminated, THANKFULLY.

What it didn’t show was, after Kyle let his little unborn children have their first oriental taste, it actually took about 4 days till Dave ate it. I mean by this time I figured it was fair game, but damn watching him eat it made me wince. With all the pranks going around it was just a matter of time till someone got emotional about it, and I have a hard time saying I wouldn’t have either. That is when Dave said he was going to take a crap on all of our stuff and that Kyle would have his “fecal matter on his person” by the end of the show. I am not going to lie; I was kind of worried about getting my stuff ruined. I was not exactly in a place where I was making a lot of money, and the free training gear would definitely come in handy. The whole thing turned to a feud between Kyle and Kaplan thankfully though, so my stuff remained safe.

Let’s go into the fight a little. Kap underestimated Nover, bottomline. Nover is a damn good fighter, and the guy hits like a Mac truck. Hard to believe he cuts almost no weight. He was talking to me and Kingsbury saying “Man I am so dehydrated”, we both asked him how much he had cut and he said “Three Pounds”. We gave him hell about that. THREE WHOLE pounds of water. How did he ever survive? Haha.

Seriously though, Nover is a warrior. Very well rounded and Kaplan gave him good shots very early in the fight. Once he was rocked it was just a matter of time. Something I have been hearing a lot and I want to touch on is people have been saying that Dave sucked, this and that. Bottom line is, the guy still stepped in there. Really it is easy to say a guy sucks from the couch, but a lot more goes into it when stepping in. Between the adrenaline and nerves, it is an indescribable experience. I wish it were true that you always showed up and did the right things, but it isn’t. It is still a sport, so try and remember that while watching. It is about learning and getting better, especially when the show is concerned. No one there thought they should have the belt, we were just all working to become elite level fighters. I know that from personal experience on the show. I know my fight was terrible, I know more than anyone how bad it was. It happened to ME. However, I wouldn’t change that fight, it made me much better, and I am sure Kaplan learned how to approach a fighter better as well.

Ok, now an Al Stankie story… We are at practice one day and the dialogue went like this-

“Hey Stankie”

“Son, let me tell you something…you got dynamite in your hands, I know my stuff son, and you will never be beat…EVER….your unbeatable” Stankie emphasized unbeatable multiple times.

I then said “Uh Al…I got beat yesterday”

“WHAT? Oh yeah…why did you take him to the ground so fast, and while down there remember WHAP WHAP WHAP (throws mock punches in the air)

Now my favorite Al Quote: When one of the lady producers asked if anyone had any questions Al responded with “CHILD..I wouldn’t want to box ya…but I’d LOVE to wrestle ya..YESSSSSSSSS” haha man that guy is a piece of work.

Episode 6

To be honest, I only watched the last twenty minutes of this episode. Didn’t really care to see the build up to it, I was there. Hell I didn’t really even care then. The whole situation with Junie spitting on the black belt was of course disrespectful, but most of the stuff he did, while sober at least, makes me think it was just for air time. The fight itself was a surprise to everyone. It actually made me doubt Junie’s skills afterwards a little, but I had seen Rolie give guys problems sparring on my team so I knew he was underrated. They took the guy for granted, and there is no quit in him. Junie approached the fight poorly, but I think a lot of it had to do with Rolando’s attitude while inside the cage. I think it took him by surprise and played with him a little. The fight itself was an exciting one, although not that strategic. I thought Rolando showed a lot of heart and almost pulled that one out. Junie definitely won though, so congrats brotha.

Episode 7
A lot to say about this episode that I didn’t know happened while there. First I will start with fight selection. Vinny vs Jules. There is no doubt this is an almost impossible fight for Jules. We knew it. He had a puncher’s chance coming in, especially with Vin’s ground game, but I liked the guy so I was pulling for him.


Now let me tell you what sparked the entire Vinny/Nog situation. I am sure Vinny is going to do nothing but thrash me about how I suck, how I didn’t show up at my fight, etc. He already said that all too me on the night in question, so I have heard it already. Bottom line is I am not going to talk bad about the guy behind his back with stuff I haven’t said to his face. I respect his Jiu Jitsu, as a fighter when he gets more of a striking game and takedown game, then I’ll respect his MMA game more. The guy is young and will be around for a while, as long as he gets away from the being scared to get hit thing. This was told to our team by Mir’s entire team, but that comes with doing striking. No doubt the guy will be a force a 205 in the future.

However, personality wise, I just don’t really like the guy. All he did was talk about all the guy’s wives he has boned. This would have impressed me when I was fourteen, but didn’t really do it for me at 23.

The night in question we were sitting outside, me, Rolando, Shane Nelson, Junie, and Vinny. It was late, because by this point we were all going out of our minds and had insomnia. Sitting on the balcony a ton of things were thrown in the air. The quote I had on the show was “he said you were a high level grappler when you were a brown belt, but since you haven’t competed then you are no longer a high level grappler”. I can almost understand his logic. If you don’t compete at something, then you are not high level at it anymore, and that MMA doesn’t count in some BJJ’s guy’s minds as pure grappling. It wasn’t really the phrase that got me though, it was the arrogant way he said it. Also went on to say a bunch of other things about the rest of my team, how they wouldn’t last a minute on the ground with him, etc. I just said I didn’t think he knew where people’s skills were and that putting a time limit on it was just cocky.

The thing that actually irritated me the most was, the guys he was talking about were sleeping. They aren’t there to hear the stuff your saying. I mean it just seems kind of a petty and childish way to do things. I was always told that if you have a problem with someone you should say it to his face, that’s how a man handles things. After that entire ridiculous night, your damn right I told my team, including Noguiera. By this time in the competition I was eliminated; however, I was genuine friends with the guys he was talking about. Why would we not tell them what was being said, ESPECIALLY when this is going to be on TV. Noguiera was of course upset, but I think he felt more betrayed than anything. What it didn’t show was Nog was actually mad about him saying stuff about the rest of our team, the “high level grappler” thing came out at the tail end of the conversation. By that point I think his idea of Vinny had changed, also the things he said about Daniel Valverde, one of our other coaches was also discussed.

The fight that happened was obviously in Portuguese, which I don’t speak so I didn’t know what was said till now. The way I figure it is, I am not going to play the “I swear he said it” game. He knows what he said, there were other people there. If he wants to deny that until the end of time, that reflects on his character not mine. I think he actually got pretty lucky with the editing by them not showing the conversation because it would make his case both laughable and hypocritical. Now on to the fight.

Jules was scared to engage, you could tell. He didn’t want to throw anything that would risk him getting taken down. He was fighting a losing battle, because it is hard to win a fight where you do things with timidity. Vinny did a pretty good job throwing kicks, didn’t really throw any hands though. It looked like Jules took Vinny down, but I think that was actually an attempt at a flying armbar. Once on the ground Jules was just outclassed. He got swept, mounted, then armbar came. It was actually a really slick little armbar, one that would have left my knee screaming in agony though. Easy win for Vinny, it went pretty much like we thought if Jules didn’t get punches off. Don’t get me wrong, Jules didn’t have great standup, but he did hit like a truck. If he would have went in there swinging for the fences I think the fight would have been different, but it’s a learning game. Till the next time.

Welcome back. Finally the qualifying fights are out of the way and episode three goes back into the typical Ultimate Fighter format. After winning out we all got treated to a thirty minute van ride to where we were staying, a mansion, in the middle of nowhere. The house itself was awesome, plenty to do when you first got there, but give any place enough time and then it sucks. The amount of time in this case started about the same time I finished unpacking. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome being there, but I like to do stuff on my schedule and this was more of a prison scenario. Finally the show got underway; however, with the team selection.

Going into the team selection I didn't actually care either way as far as the team I would be on, both had great coaching staffs. The one thing that was in my mind was how well Mir's corner did coaching my first fight, but either way I knew I would be satisfied. They started about like I thought. The big Polish guy got picked right off the bat, big shocker there. With thirty fights under his belt and by far the most one sided fight I think we all knew he was going to be first. Bader also didn't suprise me, nor did Vinny. I was a little suprised that I got picked before Eliot Marshall though. He was a blackbelt, had a great fight, and jiu jitsu guys tend to stick together more. To be honest at the time I thought the picks couldn't have gone worse for me. They essentially put what my strong point (Jiu Jitsu) and put me opposite two guys that I knew were better than me on the ground, Vinny and Eliot. At my stage in my career right now, I'm very well rounded but just don't dominate a single place yet, whether its standing, wrestling, or on the ground. So I knew I would have to beat two BJJ guys to get to the finals. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't scared of either of them, it was just a bad matchup for me at the time so I wanted to avoid that if possible.

When team training started I was overwhelmed. You have so much information hitting you at once in the first few days your in Vegas that it is just kinda crazy. After the first practice though I started feeling good. Noguiera did a fantastic job selecting his coaches, the only complaint I had was there was no Thai coach. Instead we had a sixty nine year old boxing coach, Al Stankie. Don't let his frail appearance fool you, or the fact that he HAS to suffer from dementia, he fights everyday to stay alive against all odds. That has got to make you tough. Him holding mitts was obvious that he wanted us to stress cardio because everything was a damn twenty hit combination. I liked the old man though, he was grating at times, but overall he was a good man to have around for the whole experience.

Big Nog suprised me with his ability to stand. That guy is damn well rounded, despite the fact most of his fights are sub wins. He can take a punch like no one else in the business as well. What I liked most about his practices was it was structured. The one sad truth is there are alot of lazy asses out there and if you just give them freedom to do what they want, they never work on their weaker areas. Me wrestling bader straight up, without strikes, was a joke. I took him down anytime I wanted. Kidding. He obliterated me, like a two time all american will do to an Muay Thai/Jits guy. Working with him I improved significantly and picked up a ton of things to drill, etc. Kyle Kingsbury was also my other main sparring partner. His standup is sick, good wrestling defense, the only down side to him is he only had remedial bjj at the time. He knew it though and worked his ass off to learn more. Lets face it, it just takes more time to develop a ground game, but with his standup and wrestling, he would give any 205er a tough fight. Give the guy another year or two on the ground and watch out...

Ok I could talk about Junie getting drunk and this and that, but quite frankly I didn't care. I was there to fight, so the in house stuff I will talk about next week. Lets get down to it. The fight. Bader vs Tom.

I want to squash something I have read in a few articles here lately. Me and Tom's fight lasted over two minutes, NOT twenty seconds. On the feet I think I had the advantage, wrestling was all him, ground back and forth. That along with a few training days with the guy, I understood his game pretty well. This was just a terrible matchup for Tom. It went pretty much how we all thought it would. Tom fought great. He had very solid takedown defense, but eventually we knew the fight would go to the mat, and don't let Bader's background fool you, that guy has a ground game. Not alot of damage took place until the big right hand that put Tom to sleep, but that is all it took. Tom was actually out for a good amount of time. Something it didn't really show onTV, but he fought hard and as I said it was a tough matchup for him. Next week is looking to be interesting though and I was right there for all the drama, so catch the in house stuff next time here at aroundtheoctagon.com.