 |
Bunk beds, f***ing bunk beds hahaha; oh well, so Brian, T.J., Marcus Brimage, Stephen Bass, and Dustin Neace were the lucky few to have bunk beds with me. Yes, you heard me, Marcus and Caraway shared a room together. That's tv for you, though, make only enough rooms that opposing teams have to mingle and even sleep together.
So after all the fun and gorging on food the first free day we had, we actually had to do a bunch of what they call "media day" pictures and videos, all the commercial crap. There is actually always three to four days between each fight, so we have time to train and cut weight and weigh in and all that. A few days later, we all got ready to go to the gym and get ready for the team picks.
I honestly did not care what team I was chosen for; the biggest thing I learned from having past teammates on the show is that you've got to look out for your own, and the coaches are not really there for you. A lot of it is for TV, as I was told, so I tried to keep that in mind and just tried to be focused.
I was still nervous as hell, more anxious than anything, to see who the teams were gonna be and who my future possible opponents could be, even who my training partners would be. I was looking to most hopefully having Caraway on my team, as that would have been a great help emotionally and physically; Caraway is actually a savant grappler, and is almost a better coach than fighter, and that would of been a huge advantage on both our parts.
But, we were not fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be on the same team. I ended up with Louis Gaudinot, T.J., and Josh Ferguson for the bantamweights, and Diego Brandao, Akira Corassani, Marcus, and Stephen Bass as teammates. I was actually surprised and happy for the most part, I honestly thought we got he best picks of the show, just a full dynamic crew with all aspects of MMA, which would make for great training partners and potential wins for my team.
Back to the whole "Caraway and Marcus being in the same room" thing. Not only where they now in the same room, but Marcus was now my new teammate. It ended up not being as awkward as you'd think, mostly because Caraway is such a nervous Nancy that he does not like confrontation in the least, so he did what he could to make sure there was nothing to get in the way of focusing on his fight with Marcus, even having your opponent that could potentially ruin your dream sleeping five feet away from you.
It was little difficult, though, because I wanted more than anything for my friend and old teammate to win his fight and make it all the way to the finale, but also I really wanted our team to have control of the next upcoming fight picks. It really put me in a pickle because if Caraway wins it affects the fight picks in their favor and could ultimately affect my career and goal of winning the show.
With Miller in control he has the best opportunity to set up stylistic match ups; even though I felt I was going to be one of the toughest opponents they would have to deal with, I was looking to have control so I could try to choose the easiest opponent, because we possibly could fight multiple times in only a few weeks. I wanted to fight as soon as I possibly could. Ultimately I had to know that I just had to be prepared for whatever was coming.
Knowing and training with Caraway prior to the show, and having the opportunity to train with Marcus before their fight, I already knew Caraway was going to win. I told Marcus, though, that he had the tools to definitely win the fight against Caraway, because Marcus has great takedown defense and amazing striking that I saw during training. I was actually his main training partner for this fight, I even warmed him up in the back right before the fight. I never jumped sides, though, I tried to stay neutral the whole time during the show, because if i was a "secret agent" it could affect my training, and if I'm giving information out on fighters and they find out it would be a mutiny and I'd end up not having any training partner, which again affects my chances on the show. I just told Caraway to believe in himself, and if he had 100% confidence he could beat anyone in the house (I unfortunately had to tell him that multiple times hahaha). His wrestling, grappling and unique striking style and experience are truly bar none, it's unfortunate he's not a more confident person, even with his amassed skill and time in the sport.
Now into next week I am again stuck not knowing my future in this house, and what's going to happen next.
John Albert is MMATorch's TUF 14 blogger, providing his thoughts on each episode after they air. Watch John each week on The Ultimate Fighter on Spike, and keep an eye out for his weekly blog on Thursdays.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Guest_Editorials_20/article_10677.shtml
Dan Henderson Josh Hendricks Ed Herman Heath Herring Branden Lee Hinkle
No comments:
Post a Comment