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I will start off by saying I was very impressed with the fights in the first episode, with exception for my fight hahaha. The farthest place I had ever gone for a fight was Oregon, so the initial experience of flying Las Vegas was exciting, and staying in a hotel by myself was very unique, especially since there was no contact allowed within the hotel or outside.
The weight cut process was harder for TUF prelims fights than I've ever had to do. We only got two hours of slot time to go to a gym, I ended up having to go back and forth three times to cut my weight because of the transportation of fighters. They didn't want us mingling with other fighters or the residents, so there were shifts of three to five fighters going to the gym and the two hours started as soon as we entered the gym; so the back and forth of not being able to stay and complete the weight cut in one sitting was horrible.
With TV there is always waiting involved, so the weight cut was even harder because our scheduled weigh in was pushed back for production and what not. But, entering Mandalay Bay and seeing Dana in the middle of the Octagon kinda took all the stress and pain away, because I knew that it was finally my time. Seeing all the banners and the tremendous amount of seats that could be filled to watch the fighters fight was pretty astounding.
Then Dana gave us his usual "Do you wanna be a fighter?" speech and I had seen it so many times and figured it would be just like that, another speech. But after he gave it to us it set like a fire inside it was so inspiring, because it was directed to us, you know, it was for me, then we got to weigh in and see our opponent. So in short I was pretty damn excited to be there and fighting in that arena.
I got selected to fight Orville Smith; I didn't know much about him except he had a good amount of experience. He was 11-4, so 15 pro fights, but the number of fights someone has never really bothers me. I knew he already fought Matt Jaggers who has a wealth of experience and went to a decision with him, and actually beat Josh Ferguson so I felt like he wouldn't be a pushover.
The locker rooms were pretty crowded but I got my time to warm up. It was odd preparing for a fight kinda by myself - I didn't know the corners and they didn't know me - so there was a lot of mental preparation on my own to get me ready for my fight. It was pretty cool because a former teammate of mine, Brian Caraway, was in my locker room which eased the tension a bit, but I didn't get much help from him cause he is a nervous nancy and was getting himself ready for his fight.
I got my heart rate up, stretched out and was ready to go. I didn't get to warm up like I usually do but I was ready as it is. I got in the ring and it was like any other fight, I was surprised at how not nervous I was, I was truly ready to win my fight and get into the house. I was very disappointed in how TUF portrayed my fight, also a little butt hurt on what Dana and Bisping had to say during my fight as well. My total fight was only two and a half to three minutes long, but they showed only 50 seconds and they didn't show any of the good stuff.
I can break the fight down pretty easy. I was a little taken aback at how much Orville was backing up and not putting any pressure on - I mean this is TUF 14 I was expecting a lot more from him - so I worked my double jab, right leg kick or right cross quite a bit. I leg kicked him so many times and hard enough that he literally squealed like a little girl and was limping (of course they didn't show that). I also implemented the thai clinch in the fight and was throwing knees like crazy, that moment when Bisping said I picked him up and slammed him confused me. Hopefully the viewers recognized what actually happened. I had Orville in another thai clinch and he was backing out real hard; I held tight but he literally jumped guard from the clinch, so no slam or even real takedown on my part.
Another thing that is frustrating with having corners you don't know or being an unknown fighter is people see I was smashing him on the feet, but don't know I'm a grappler first and a striker second. I'm not gonna force a stand up when I feel I can take him on the ground. I successfully passed his guard, took his back and choked him out, done deal. A win is what was most important to me that fight as I wanted to get into the house first.
I contracted Mersa a week prior to that fight, it was bad and I was on strong antibiotics all the way up to the day of the fight, so anyone that fights knows how antibiotics and Mersa can affect your stamina; maybe I didn't push the pace or wasn't as exciting as they thought. I fought my own fight trying to conserve energy and not gas out because there wasn't much in the tank because of the antibiotics and Mersa, but a win's a win and it didn't go to a decision and I choked his ass out, so I hope the viewers can appreciate that.
As for the other fights they all were pretty amazing; everyone fought their heart's out, and there was some real skill involved in those matches. Bantamweight John Dodson and TJ Dillashaw stood out the most to me as they were confident and crisp, and stopped both their guys in the first round. That body shot from Dodson against Brandon Merkt was amazing and the ground and pound of TJ was a sight. Featherweights Diego Barndao and Akira really stood out with stand up technique, those were some amazing knockouts. The heart of Dennis Bermudez really impressed me because he was hurt and almost out and was completely controlled the first round, and he ended up coming back to win his fight. There was a lot of excitement and stress coming into this, the opportunity to fight and become The Ultimate Fighter is life changing so I felt so lucky just to get that opportunity.
Watch John every Wednesday on The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, and check back here each week for his take on each of the episodes after they air.
Check out John's full fight against Orville Smith below:
Video URL: http://www.ultimatefighter.com/fight-videos/14926/tuf-14-john-albert-orville-smith
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Guest_Editorials_20/article_10591.shtml
Mikey Burnett Murilo Bustamante Grant Campbell Gesias JZ Calvancante Luiz Cane
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