Every fight I get asked about my picks for fights… so I am going to TRY and start posting short blogs on fights and who I think will win. Sometimes I am dead on, but most of the time I am way off. I want to hear who you guys think will win too though… so let me know what you think about my picks.

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Just screwing around at the gym after Team Training.

Whenever people hear “ACL surgery” they assume the worst. I know for a long time, an ACL surgery was the end of an athletes career. I have gotten so many emails from people telling me it ended their football, soccer, track and basketball careers. Tomorrow will be 8 weeks since surgery and I am amazed at how much more I am able to do. Rehab has come a long way. (continue reading…)

Friday, February 6th
4 pm – Fighters on the Scale
Marshall Student Center – USF

Royal Palm Ballrooms A&B on the 2nd floor.

Weigh-Ins are free and open to the public!!

Congrats to D-Lau. We were looking forward to the fight with Horedecki but it didnt work out this time, but we are confident it will happen in the near future.

We want to thank Bobby Green for stepping up and taking the fight on short notice. A lot of guys wouldnt want to be dropped in the deep end of the pool on two days notice but as he said in an interview, he will fight anyone anytime.

Let me tell you, Dan was not looking for any kind of break for anything other than recovering his balls from his throat. Dan is the most stubborn kid I have ever met in my life. He does not want any shortcuts in anything and wants to earn everything he gets. He clearly got kicked in the balls and he took the amount of time he was given. If I got kicked in the balls I wouldnt want to tie me own shoes… nevermind go out and fight. It happens in fighting and in some cases you dont need the full time. In other cases, you do… and this was one of those cases. He gets fouled and then when he takes his time to recover he is the one thats wrong? He got hit in the nuts and he took his time to recover. Thats it. Its not out fault Bobby Green consistently had terrible accuracy and hit Dan in the balls 3 times

After the third one, they gave Dan the option of the easy win. They told Dan that Bobby would be DQed if he didnt want to continue. If Dan was looking for an easy way out, he would have said he didnt want to continue and take the easy win. It would have been the smart move… he could have collected his money and gone home with a win. Instead, he went out and showed those HUGE BALLS and finished the fight like a man.

Congrats to the UPGRADE.

Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. We woke up late this morning and just hung in watching some TV. We went for a walk and found some food before heading to watch some football. Pats DOMINATED today. Yes, dominated. After that, we went and saw ‘Burn After Reading’ at the movie theatre in Council Bluffs. Came back to the hotel, watched some Entourage and went for a swim. Just relax for a bit more before I go to bed.

I have to do a video interview tomorrow afternoon and a few more people come in tomorrow. Should be a little more eventful than today.

Thursday Night
We left Boston on Thursday night and headed for Las Vegas. We got in pretty late so we hit up some late night pizza and went to bed early.

Next Stop: Las Vegas

Friday
We had to be up early for some stuff for the new UFC video game and then we went training. After training we went to the weigh-ins and then hit up the Hard Rock and did a little gambling and walking around.

Quick little photoshoot…

Quick little 3D Mapping…

Quick little J-Lau coming to XBox360

Saturday

We got in a good workout Saturday morning and then went to back to the hotel. Along the way we had to stop for some DELICIOUS In-N-Out Burger after training…

We had great seats for UFC79… they really don’t get any.

Amy + Margaritas = Amy Likes Boobs

AAAAANND…. she’s out.

After the fights we walked around before talking with Jeff and meeting up with him and his brother Greg. We ended up finding our way to MGM and going to Chuck’s after party at Studio 54.

Sunday
We were out late on Saturday and after training took it easy on Sunday. We basically slept most of the day away. When we finally woke we were starving and had to make a trip to PF Chang’s with The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 star Matt Arroyo.

Mmmmm….. Green Tea.

Matt, Greg, Me, amy, Lauren, Hollywood, Brandon, Natalia

After dinner we went to New York New York to ride the rollercoaster thats on the roof.

Walking to the rollercoaster, Hollywood challenged me at “any game”. After I lost 150 to 140 in Whack-A-Mole, I challenged him to a rematch in another game. Steve plays basketball, I don’t… and I still smoked him in the baskletball game 31 to 14. We tried to find a third game to be the tie breaker. We found a racing game but this one kid sat there playing for a good 20 minutes and we gave up. We will have the tie breaker later… he is going down.

No Hollywood, I will not duel you in Dance Dance Revolution

Monday
I had to twist Matt’s arm to get him to train Monday morning (okay, I will be honest… I mentioned training and his eyes lit up like Amy’s on Christmas morning.) and we got a good workout in.

Practing the “quick tap” technique”

Taking Matt’s ACL home with me

Trying to guillotine… but no such luck with that posture

Being lazy and complaining about the air being thin and dry

Watching UFC79

Bunch of degenerates

With Brandon… this is right before I ball tapped him.

Monday Night (New Years Eve)
We went to Cherry which is a night club in Red Rock. We met Giff and a few others there and had a great time.

Even UFC Lightweights enjoy a nice bubble bath…

Domestic abuse at its funniest…

Tuesday
We slept most of the day away and then took a walk through Ceasars

Cool stuff in Caesars…

More cool stuff in Ceasars…

Me, Amy, Joe Lewis

We flew home on Wednesday. Nice little trip to Vegas for some fights and new years.

When we were in Newark for UFC78, there was a miss Brazil competition going on. Here are a few pictures of Team Aggression with the girls…

The Upgrade… cannon balled and splashed them all

Bishop having a WONDERFUL time

Devin just felt like going a swim…

Fred has a nice red hat…

Let’s look for that red hat… oh.. there it is!

Santos just turning his back on them all. Paying no attention. That’s game!

Lots of people in this one…

Today was an off day for training. Slept in a little bit and went over to BJ’s to watch some Football. After watching the Colts spank the Bronco’s I watched Batman Begins and are some power fuel (Pizza). After that, BJ said we were going to go jumping into some water. So Tony and I pile into BJ’s truck with him and off we go.

The first place we went to was called the Boiling Pots and it was a pretty good time. The drop was around 25 feet or so, and was the first time I had ever jumped into the water from so high. I made the mistake of taking in a deep breath right before I jumped and when I landed I knocked the wind out of myself. Couldn’t help but laugh, but I was okay and it wasn’t too bad. We climbed out of the water, dried off and headed to another place.

This time it was a bridge off the side of the road and it was a lot higher. When we got out of BJ’s truck and walked over to the bridge I was thinking that there was no way we were jumping this and that it had to be a joke. BJ had this smirk on his face, as he always does, and kept trying to tell me it wasn’t a joke. He was saying he had never jumped into this one, but had seen people do it a bunch of times. As I am doubting him, I notice a cross right where we are standing with flowers all over it and BJ tells me that someone died jumping from here a few months ago when they didn’t get a good push off and landed on the rocks. Now I know he must be joking… until he climbs over the edge and jumps.

WTF. He didn’t just do that. Now Tony climbs over and he jumps too. They both land safely and are looking up at me to jump. I am thinking there is no way I am doing this jump. The other one I could handle… this is way too far. Next thing I know I am climbing over the edge and ready to jump. Now I am paranoid that I need to get a good push off the edge or there is going to be a cross there for me too. I get a good push off and I push the air out of my body so I don’t knock the wind out of myself. I am so happy to be alive, and that I actually went through with it that I don’t even think about anything else. A few seconds later I realize how hard I hit the water and everything from my elbows to my fingertips are bright red, numb and tingling. It also feels like I just got punched in the face and throat because of how I landed.

We climb back up to the road and notice a helicopter buzzing overhead pretty low. It’s one of those yellow rescue helicopters and we wonder what’s going on. Helicopter flies away and we get back into BJ’s truck and head back to the house. We are coming up on the entrance to the first place we went to and see an ambulance pulling in. We figure the helicopter and the ambulance must be related and pull in to see what’s going on.

When we were leaving the first place, we passed 4 kids that were heading to where we had just jumped from. Sadly, one of the kids jumped from a different ledge into a different pool and didn’t come out of the water. Not sure if the drop was higher, or he landed on something. I tried to look up some news on it, but can’t find anything. RIP.

Nate and Karo had some "issues" in the Team Pulver locker room after Manny won his fight. Karo was complaining to the Team Pulver corner that they pissed him off because they should have been quiet, so he could yell instructions to Manny from the audience in Armenian. Thats pretty ballsy to complain to Manny’s corner that they should keep their mouths shut so he can yell instructions from the side. Diaz jokingly says "You’re the new guy here" and played it off being cool. Karo started on Diaz and kept giving him a hard time talking down to him and putting his hands all over him. If I had to some up Nate in one sentence, it would be: "I ain’t no bitch". Nate wasn’t happy about Karo’s persistence and was 100% ready to throw down. Who does Karo think he is? "Who are you? Do you even know me? Do you know who I am?" When someone is saying things like that, you know they are arrogant and need someone to reign them in. Fortunately, everything was cool between Manny and Nate regardless of what happened with Karo. From the Team Penn dressing room, we could hear something was going on between Karo and Diaz, and we figured it had something to do with how Nate’s brother had lost a real close decision to Karo. I guess that wasn’t the start of the problems, but Karo was bringing it up saying things like "Go ask your brother what happens when you try to fight me".

After one of my fights Karo starting giving me a hard time too. He came over and yelled across the mat something like "hey nice fight" and I just said "thanks". He starts saying "Oh is that all you have to say to me? Thanks? Speak up and say a little more next time." What more do you say though when someone congratulates you without coming off as cocky? "Oh yeah, I’m the man. I just won my fight with ease and killed that guy. I rule". The incident with me happened before the problems had with Karo, but I could see where Diaz was coming from on Karo. I don’t think Karo had any problems with me, its just his attitude and how he comes off.

Semi final fights were decided at the beginning of this weeks show. We had talked amongst ourselves, and we would rather keep the team intact and not be forced to have me fight Gray. Its just a much better situation fighting someone that you haven’t been training with twice a day everyday for 5 weeks. We thought Gray matched up better with Diaz while I matched up better with Manny. Manny was actually the guy I had requested in the second round, so I kind of figured that would be taken into account when they decided fights and it apparently was. Jens and BJ had a conference call with Dana and everyone all around liked those pairings, so thats how it was decided. I was just happy that training could remain the same and we wouldnt have to deal with splitting up the team or working different practices or any of the other stuff that Team Pulver had to deal with when Diaz fought Corey.

I was looking forward to this week show more than any other, because I am always looking to improve, and this fight showed all kinds of ways I could improve. Manny beat me by decision after 3 rounds. I knew going into the fight, that it was going to be a war with Manny. I could see the trouble that Manny gave Wiman in their fight, and there were a number of things I was concerned with, but I thought I could come up with an answer for each of them.

I was smart enough in the beginning of the show, to take notes on every fight. As soon as each fight was over, I had a rough play by play of the fight, and I made notes on what each guy did well, not so well, and what they did often. For Manny, I didn’t have a lot to go off based on his fight with Noah. His fight with Wiman showed me a lot more, and confirmed some of the things I had seen in the first fight.

The first issue was his overhand right. Manny absolutely loves to come up and swing for the fences and bomb that overhand right to close the distance. He dropped Noah with it, and he caught Wiman with it a few times as well. I had to be careful of it, but I had a lot or reach and did a good job at keeping him away, so it never really played into our fight so much. It was something to watch out for, but I didn’t see it as a real problem.

The next thing was his height. Manny is super short and we jokingly referred to him as the "bad elf". We were training for the fight and we would be doing ground and pound and BJ would have be yelling "Bad elf! Bad elf!" as I threw punched. It was kind of funny, but its really accurate. Manny is built like a tank, and while his reach is short, his upper body is enormous. I knew I didn’t want to get into any kind of clinch with him because he is so thick and I was worried he would throw me on my head coming from such a strong judo background. We worked in stuffing his shots in practice and working the front headlock, but come fight time I just couldnt get it done to the point I wanted. Manny was great at closing the distance and taking me down.

The next thing was his grappling and scrambling. I stuffed some of Manny’s takedowns, but I could never capitalize and get on top. He was really good at scrambling. It seemed like whenever I would make space or create an opening, he would either close it down right away or he would beat me to wherever I was trying to go. I have a very explosive style which makes for exciting fights, but I have trouble sometimes with someone thats just trying to slow the pace and grind the fight down to a crawl.

Manny did a great job of staying safe and controlling. Like Wiman had said about his own fight, I didn’t feel like Manny did a lot of damage to me. I had a swollen lip which I think might have been from a head butt, but I felt like I didn’t really get all that much. Aside from my lip, I don’t think I had a mark on my face. I did a good job on bottom of staying safe and not taking damage, but I couldn’t get up or get anything going so it wasn’t enough. Manny has short arms and no neck with a huge upper body, so I had a hell of a time trying to create any openings. Manny controlled the fight and did everything he needed in order to win the fight.

I think I was too patient in the fight and it hurt me in the long run. There have been times in the past where I have been over aggressive and taken chances I maybe shouldn’t have. Sometimes they work out beautifully and other times they get me in trouble (shooting in too quickly on Cole at the beginning of round 1 is a good example). I allowed Manny to control because I didn’t take enough chances for the first two rounds. In the third round I swept Manny with a sweep that I like a lot from the bottom of half guard. I was able to pass his guard, take side mount, then mount and finally take his back. I got VERY close with the choke. So close it makes me almost sick to my stomach watching the tape and knowing how close I got before falling short. Manny has no neck and a huge upper body, so while I got under his chin and had the choke in deep, he was able to pop my elbow off and I lost back control. From there, the fight was over.

I honestly think the sweep was there the whole fight, but I was paranoid about going for it. Going for that particular sweep can leave you open to elbows and punches if it doesn’t work and you get stuck… so I wanted to try other options first. In hindsight, I wish I had gone for it in round 1 because I would have had more time to work and maybe changed the rhythm of the fight. Hindsight is always 20/20 though, so I will remember it for next time and not cry over it now.

I try to take something positive from every fight, especially when I lose. I had said that there was never a point when Wiman was in danger of losing the fight, and I felt the same way about my fight with Manny. He controlled the fight and 100% deserved the win and its something I will have to deal with. Could I have maybe changed the path of the fight had I gone for that sweep? Maybe. Or maybe I would have hit the sweep and Manny would have been fresher and scrambled and I never would have gotten his back, or gotten close with the choke. I was frustrated to put everything I had into winning and then fall short at the very end, but it happens and I’m not bitter about it. I said from the moment I decided to go on the show that it would be great to win, but the training experience would be the real benefit. I said something like "All for nothing" to BJ after I had lost, but I don’t really feel like that. That was just a low point of "Wow this sucks" and I was fine 10 minutes later. I do feel like I grew tremendously as a fighter and had my eyes opened to a lot of things, so hopefully I will do BJ proud and show off some more things that I learned on the show with a little more refinement.

The food fight that was shown on the show really didn’t do that battle justice. We came home from training and the Pulver guys were still there because they were taking their afternoon practice off. I walk out the back door and see a piece of orange land at my feet, and Nate is standing there with a banana in hand waiting to throw it at Brian who is in the pool house. I ask whats going on, and Nate is like "Uh…. not much. Just killing some time" and he whips a banana at the door. For a bunch of guys that have been bored out of their mind for 5 weeks, this was the best thing ever. We ran inside looking for any kind of fruit or food that could be thrown. The goldmine though, was when I found a few bags of potatoes. We loaded up, and helped with the assault. I think there were around 5 or 6 outside of the pool house attacking Cole and Brian who were inside. We had the number and were braver, so we were trying to break in through the front door which they would look. Then they set up the ping pong table and used it as a shield. Gray and I decided to go Navy Seal style and attack through the side window. We started out throwing things through but when I saw an opening I dove through the window and unleashed potatoe hell on Brian and Cole who were cowering in the corner. Cole ran for the bathroom while Brian just took the beating. Eventually he joined Cole in the bathroom, and I laid blocking the door to make sure they couldn’t get out. Meanwhile, someone **cough cough Emerson cought cough** threw a pot through the window and sent glass everywhere. And that concluded the fruit war.

Looking at Diaz as a fighter, he will give you problems no matter where the fight is. He is a southpaw with a lot of reach on most people, and has tight boxing and doesn’t over commit. He will hit you all day from his feet and has all kinds of tricks he uses. For example, one thing he did very well was using his lead hand to grab Emerson’s fingers and throw punches from there. Little things like that can really cause problems for you in a fight. On the ground, he is just as dangerous if not more dangerous. Nate has very tight Jiu-Jitsu and uses his long arms and legs well. He is constantly transitioning from one thing to the next and everything he does it solid.

Gray on the other hand is a great wrestler with hands that complement his wrestling well. He doesn’t have the best Jiu-Jitsu but he has enough to stay out of most submissions and lay a beating on you. Gray is much stronger than Diaz, but strength isnt everything.

The fight between Gray and Diaz was great. Gray controlled and was getting the takedowns and was winning from the top, landing big shots all over and even cutting Nate. Nate held strong though and kept working submissions. Nate could take some big shots, but if he caught Gray in a submission it was over. Nate got really close to some submissions throughout the first. but Gray just powered out of everything and kept landing shots. Round 1 ended and it was looking like Gray was going to take it. Round 2 starts off and before long Gray is mounted on Nate and working a guillotine. Nate gets back on top and its looking bad for Gray. As Gray fights to get back to his feet and work a takedown, Nate locks in a guillotine.

I am very impressed with Nate, who won all 3 of his fights by submission. He finished Rob with a rear naked, Corey with a guillotine and then Gray with a guillotine. Nate was constantly moving and even when the fight wasn’t going his way, he stayed strong and kept composure and came back to win. Nate DIaz is a complete badass… end of story.

I can’t wait for the finale between Nate and Manny. I think this was the best season so far and we all did a good job of representing the lightweight division. I’m not even going to pick a winner, because I don’t want to doubt either guy. I am just going to sit back and enjoy the fight like everyone else.