Someone on twitter asked me what the first song on my workout playlist was. I thought it was a pretty good question so I decided to put up the current playlist I train to on here. I change this around all the time and add in new and old songs and mix it up… but this is what I will be working out to tonight. (continue reading…)

I play a lot of MW2, but I am really not that good. I always like to hear advice from people on how to get better, how they have their classes set up, etc. So I want to know what are your most used classes. Here are my 3… (continue reading…)

So I was kickboxing this morning… and Bobby Hill had shin guards on, but I didn’t. This resulted in this…

The best option was to push the blood around and make it flat. So the video below is of us doing that… (continue reading…)

Not everyone is on board with Mixed Martial Arts yet, but more and more sports fans are getting accustomed to our sport. With the increased popularity of the sport, it’s becoming mainstream and it’s just getting started. (continue reading…)

I watch movies and TV shows all the time. I am definitely a movie junkie and Chris has turned me onto a lot of TV shows. I can watch terrible movies and be entertained pretty easily… Army of Darkness anyone? A lot of times when I am training I don’t have that much time to watch because I don’t have such big blocks of free time. Seeing as how much free time I’ve had lately, I have been catching up.

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This is 6 days after I had ACL surgery. My knee was a little swollen so the doctor thought it would be best to drain off some of the fluid (blood) to make me more comfortable. It felt better afterwards, but it was excruciating while it was being drained.

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Kenny beat me, fair and square. He is the better fighter and proved it on Wednesday night. I knew I was an underdog coming in, and despite having a few good moments Kenny showed why he was the favorite.

Since this fight was announced I kept talking about Kenny’s great ground game it was ultimately my downfall. After a back and forth first round, Kenny got mount in the second and I couldn’t get him off me. I didn’t take a lot of damage while on the bottom but Kenny wasn’t going anywhere either. I got him off once, but used up a lot of energy in trying to get him off again and again.

I loved going to Colorado, but hope to never have to fight in altitude like that again. I went two and a half weeks early to get used to it and thought I was, but a fight is always worse on your body and I felt drained by the end of the first round. Coming out for the second round my legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds and it was showed.

A lot of people have been talking to me about the elbows. While some of the elbows did land to the back of the head, and I have the stitches to prove it, it didn’t affect the outcome of the fight. It certainly didn’t help having the doctor try and take care of my cut and making me bend over forward and not being able to breath but thats how it goes sometimes. The blood didn’t bother me and it wasn’t the first time I had seen my own blood. Herb Dean stood us up, but then he told us to start fighting from standing position. I am still not sure why we were started standing when I had worked for a takedown and better position, but thats not on Kenny that should be on Herb Dean.

Thanks for all of the support to everyone. I have around 2000 emails and messages to go through and about 100 missed calls on my phone. I will get back to everyone but its gonna take some time. For right now, I am gonna lay low and relax in Florida with my girlfriend.

Thanks again,
Joe

Before I get into the UFC74 fights, I want to talk real quick about the the fights that mattered most to me this weekend. I would have loved to make it out to Vegas for UFC74 this weekend, but I had a couple guys fighting back home on a local show. This was my last local show before heading off to Hawaii and my team didn’t disappoint.

Matt “Vitali” Vitale (pronounced “Vital”) made his amateur debut this weekend. Vitale is part of the “3rd Generation” of fighters that Team Aggression has turned out and started off his amateur career on a strong note. Matt came out and stuffed a few takedown attempts, before taking the back of his opponent. In a scramble he lost back control and ended up on bottom, but did a great job of getting back on top. He again worked for the back, and went right from the rear naked choke to the straight armlock and got the submission. Matt was the first fight of the night and set the tone and the pace for the fights to follow.

“Gorilla Bob” Balaschi made his pro debut this past April after a rocky 30 seconds to start his fight. He came out, got excited, and did an excellent job of stopping every punch thrown with his face (someone else said this, I forget who, but I stole it). He got it together though and came back strong and put on a grappling clinic for the next round and a half before sinking the rear naked choke for the submission win.

This weekend he started off much better for Gorilla Bob. Not only did he keep his hands up, but he set up his takedown beautifully and was in control from bell to bell. He worked from within the guard landing good punches and eventually worked to half guard where he TKOed his opponent. I am most proud that this time he remembered his name and knew his fight was over when I talked to him a few hours after the fight was over.

We are very proud of both guys.

Because we were at the local fights, we taped UFC 74 back at home and were just praying that we would get out early before hearing any results. We ignored text messages and phone calls trying to not let anything get ruined. It was going to be particularly tough tonight because Gabriel Gonzaga is from Massachusetts and he was fighting Randy Couture in the main event for the Heavyweight Title. Luckily, we made it out of the venue without having any of the fights spoiled.

Patrick Cote vs Kendall Grove
I thought this was a good fight. Patrick Cote actually trains some locally with Mark DellaGrotte up at Sityodtong in Somerville. I thought the fight was a great display of using all your “weapons” in an MMA fight. Those guys were throwing a variety of punches, elbows, knees and kicks. I thought Kendall was getting the better of a competitive fight before getting caught with an overhand right that knocked him silly. Cote followed up mounting him and hit him enough to get the TKO stoppage at the very end of the first round.

For those of you that don’t know, Cote was originally brought to the UFC as a last minute replacement to fight Tito Ortiz, who Kendall trains with, at Light Heavyweight. Cote said it was funny because he caught Tito with the same overhand right when they had fought. This was the first fight Cote was able to finish in the UFC and you could see how happy he was about it.

Joe Stevenson vs Pellegrino
This fight was interesting to me for a number of reason. Firstly, these guys are both in my weight class and I had a feeling the winner of the fight would be facing BJ Penn for the vacant lightweight title if Sean Sherk is indeed stripped.

More importantly, I had a “T-Shirt bet” on this fight. Its known I like to play poker and would bet on most anything… although I am not as bad as McMackin who would bet a coin toss. I knew this was going to be a good fight, but was pretty confident Joe was going to take it. I had a bet with Rick Caldwell that if Joe won he had to wear a shirt to the next local show that said “Lauzon’s B*tch”. If Kurt won, I had to wear a shirt that said “Rick Caldwell taught me everything I know”. And yes… pictures would be taken. Thats a given.

The fight went pretty much how I thought it would. Both guys were happy to throw until getting caught with a good punch and then showing how wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu should be blended. I thought it was a great fight from start to finish and absolutely loved when Stevenson suplexed Kurt while keeping the back control and then moving to back control from the turtle. Joe ended up winning a unanimous decision, despite having his jaw broken in the first round. Yes… he broke his jaw and still fought on to win a decision with a badass like Kurt Pellegrino. I think we will be seeing Joe and BJ fight very soon.

Roger Huerta vs Alberto Crane
This is another fight I was interested in seeing. Again, both guys are lightweights. And again, I had a bet on the fight. While I won the first bet, I lost this one. Alberto Crane was +300. For those of you that don’t understand how odds work… that means Crane was a 3:1 underdog and every dollar I spent would pay me 3 times that if he had won. I think I bet like $70 bucks to win $210. I thought it would be a close fight as Crane is a wizard on the ground, as he showed. I will take 3:1 odds on a close fight any day.

Roger proved to be just too much for Crane showing excellent submission defense, great striking both on the feet and on the ground, superior cardio and the best use of the large video screen I have ever seen. Roger was on his knees and used the screen to see where Crane’s head was, and delivering elbows. It was like watching someone play a video game and staring at the TV screen. Once again, Roger has one of the most entertaining fights of the night.

Georges St. Pierre vs Josh Koscheck
I bet on this fight too (which I did win). Are you starting to see a pattern here?

We all know it, but it has to be said: GSP is a freak. Koscheck is a ridiculous wrestler and was taken down by someone that never wrestled in high school or college. Like GSP, I never wrestled in either… but I am always working on my wrestling. I know its going to be tough to catch up to guys that have been wrestling since they were 6… but GSP gives me hope.

I thought going into the fight that GSP was going to take Kos down, as he took down Sean Sherk, Frank Trigg and BJ Penn in their fights. GSP also beat in ADCC (which is basically the Olympics of Submission Grappling) a guy that beat Kos in wrestling his senior year in college. Add in the fact that GSP moved really well on his feet and sets up his takedowns well and you have a tough fight for Kos. Kos was swinging for the fences and was taken down in the first round with a double leg. It could maybe be chalked up to carelessness in the first round, and Kos adjusted in the 2nd round. This time, GSP got in again and took him down with a single leg. For the third round, you could hear Kos corner telling him to take GSP down. When he tried, GSP was able to get his legs wide and work out of a deep single leg (much like he did against Matt Hughes while in a deep body lock). This kind of marked the end for Kos as he had GSP on top of him for the 3rd straight round. It was a good fight, but GSP just showed how he is an absolute animal.

Randy Couture vs Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga

Guess what… I didn’t bet on this one. I really couldn’t. I was a little bit torn for this fight. On one hand, I got to meet Randy while on the Ultimate Fighter and worked out with him and he showed me some great things. On the other hand, Gabriel and his team are from Massachusetts. In the end, I had to pull for the Heavyweight title coming back to Mass.

I was hoping this fight would go from bell to bell the way the opening minutes went. Both guys were throwing punches and rocking each other, working takedowns and just putting in on one another. Randy showed why he is the champ and lifted 250 pound Napao over his head with a high crotch and landed on top of him. During the takedown, it looked like their heads collided a little bit and caused the cut on Napao’s nose. This was the beginning of the end for Napao. Napao needed all the cardio he could get to keep pace with Randy who is known for outworking guys in the cage. Add a broken nose and having to deal with swallowing blood and its only making things more difficult, never mind when you are fighting Captain America.

Randy kept working hard and after 3 rounds was able to overwhelm Napao. To me, it looked like Napao was just mentally and emotionally drained. When you train that hard for a fight and it starts going south and you are seeing your own blood and knowing you are losing, its tough on you. Randy was the gentleman as always and in his post fight interview came right out and said without being asked he felt Napao’s nose break when they landed for the takedown. It’s a fight… things happen. Great fight for Randy, who I hear said in the post fight press conference that he wanted Fedor. With the acquisition of Pride, I am sure the UFC could do a great job of introducing the american audience to the closest thing MMA has to the terminator.

Great weekend overall.

This week on the Ultimate Fighter we have two fights. One is the first of the second round of the tournament, while the other is between two guys who have just lost, and are frustrated being in the house.

Fights picks are a little different this time around. Rather than teams winning and getting momentum, all the matchups were determined at once in the beginning. Dana, Jens and BJ had a meeting and decided on the best fights. That much you saw. What you didn’t see was when each fighter that won their first fight had a very brief sit down with Dana and the coaches on who they wanted to fight. Going into the second round, I wanted to fight Brandon or Manny. I thought both fights were good pairings for me. Brandon is a striker without a lot on the ground, while Manny is good on the ground, but I thought I could get the takedown and put him on the fence. I wanted to avoid Corey, because he is so tall and can make anyone look bad. I would rather not fight Diaz because he is a real bad style matchup for me… being real tall, a southpaw with great boxing and he is very good on the ground once I get it there. I think we all saw Nate as the top guy on Team Pulver, so I don’t think anyone really wanted to fight him, but I don’t think anyone was scared of him either.

The first fight they announced was me and Cole. I was happy with this fight, because I thought I could control the pace of the fight, because Cole’s biggest weakness is his wrestling. I worked with Cole a little bit on evaluation day doing some grappling, and he felt as I had thought he would. He had long legs, but wasn’t very strong. He had good hip movement, so submissions and sweeps were constantly coming, but I felt comfortable that I could stay out of sweeps and submissions while beating him up on the ground and making it a fight and not a grappling match. Team Pulver knew that one of them would have to face their own and BJ had said that everyone on both sides were saying they wanted to fight Cole. I was happy to have the fight because a fight between Cole and I had been talked about since long before either of us even thought of getting on the show. A lot of people would get to see a fight that had been talked about in depth.

I thought Gray fighting Brandon was a great thing for us. Brandon was the biggest guy in the house, but Gray would be able to take him down and keep him there. Brandon has better standup but it doesn’t matter when you have a 3x Div I All-American trying to get you down. I thought Brandon was a good matchup for any of our guys, because we were all good on the ground and would all hopefully be able to get the fight down and keep it there.

I was happy to see Nate and Corey fighting, because it meant we wouldn’t have to deal with either of them this round. One would knock the other out, and it was a win-win situation for us. Nate said he knew that none of us wanted to fight him or Corey, and he was right. In a tournament like this, you would rather have an easier fight so you can go into the next round rested and healthy. Matching up two of their best guys was great for us.

Matt and Manny was almost set in stone before the coaches sat down with Dana. Manny was very clear that he didn’t like Wiman, and he told them that was the only fight he wanted. They just rubbed one another the wrong way and it was apparent in the house. Matt is kind the type to tell you how you should do things, while Manny is the type to tell you to do everything how you want and forget about everyone else. I like both guys, but I can see how they could annoy each other a little bit. I thought this was another good fight for Team Penn because Matt has a lot of height an reach on Manny, and he has no problem standing. So he could keep Manny away with punches, and then stop the takedowns. He would have to stay clear of the clinch stuff so Manny didn’t throw him on his head, but it gave us a clear gameplan which is always good.

We are at a point now where there are 8 still focused on fighting, while the other 7 are just trying to deal with life in the house and having a good time. A lot of the guys were drinking and as it usually does happen, guys get a little confrontational and bad things happen. In this case, it was a brawl between Marlon and Noah. I am never one to give someone a hard time about losing a fight, because we all lose and its going to happen sooner or later. There is no point in kicking someone when they are down and its usually uncalled for. However, I usually don’t talk myself up and make all of these ridiculous claims either, to have the time come to perform and lose in one sided fashion in under a minute. Marlon made a lot of claims about how hard hitting he was, and how he will knock people out, and talking about this and that… and then he got dropped with the first punch of the fight while hanging his chin out, and was choked unconscious in no time. When you make big claims and fall drastically short, you are going to hear about it on the back end. Thats basically what happened at the house sitting around the fire.

Less than two days after being crushed by Matt, Marlon was already trying to build himself up and talk about how he and Weems (who had their fights stopped by the referee) were better than Noah and Allen (who tapped out). Marlon for some reason things its better to lose by TKO or being choked unconscious, than to tap out because you know you are caught. I have always had an internal debate on whats better: tapping out to a choke when you know you are caught, or going to sleep in the middle of the cage, and being woken up in front of everyone. Getting choked unconscious can be embarassing, but I think its worth holding out and trying to get out with your last bit of effort because it could be the difference between getting out and possibly winning or losing outright. However, Marlon is now trying to make his loss out to be better than Noah’s, who would have been a serious world of hurt and rehab had he not tapped, and had serious damage done to his shoulder. It was a transparent ploy, and the guys weren’t hearing it. Marlon says he will never tap in a fight. His career in MMA will be short lived because sooner or later he will be caught in something that will do serious damage and he will be badly hurt, or he will be shown to be a liar like the rest of his stories and tap out. Either way, he looks like an idiot for not knowing when he has lost.

As talking went on… Noah brought up how Marlon lasted 50 seconds and Marlon didn’t like it, and flipped the chair Noah was sitting in. Both guys started taking off clothes and microphones and were ready to throw down. I think everyone was so bored that this was just something new and exciting to do in the house, so no one really cared what happened. Allen was a huge instigator in the whole thing and was really pushing for them to fight, saying things like "Are you ready?" and "Lets get it on" really isnt the best idea… when you are directly drawing comparisons between the UFC and mindless brawling. The UFC has tried to separate itself from these stereotypes for years and as the show starts getting mainstream attention, Marlon, Noah and Monstah steer the show right into that direction.

The actual fight has been called the "most technical streetfight ever" by one Cole Miller. We had takedowns, ground and pound, submissions, slams, punching and kicking combinations…. but it was still a stupid street fight. Noah got a decent sized cut on the back of his head, but he was lucky thats all that happened. After they fought both guys were cool to one another, and even went he the point of signing Noah’s shirt which was covered in his fresh blood.

I knew Noah and Marlon were going home… because they had to set a precedent. The only rules we really had were don’t leave the house, and don’t fight in the house. If people had left the house they would have gotten the boot… and the UFC can’t have people fighting in the house. Setting a precedent, both guys were rightfully sent home. Going one step further, Dana sent Allen home too, which I didn’t expect but I had to agree with after the fact. Allen had as much if not more to do with it than the guys that fought, because if he wasn’t so actively egging it on, both guys would have most likely gone their own ways and left each other alone.

I was very excited for my fight with Cole. As I said, I had worked out with Cole in evaluations, and was actually friends with him before the show. We had talked prior and he told me about how he doesn’t come up with a unique strategy for any fight. He goes out there and tries to kill them with standup, as they try to take him down he tries to guillotine, and then if he ends up on his back he has a great guard and an even better triangle. I don’t think he has the best standup, but I wanted to take him down because I didn’t want to deal with his long arms and legs, but wanted to be careful of the guillotine as I went in for the takedown. Once on the ground, I would be okay… but the guillotine was my biggest threat on the way in. I worked a lot with Tony on posture and keeping my head safe, and working out of guillotines.

Everything we had done in fight preperation paid off. We worked on covering up as closed the distance, we worked on takedowns keeping my head safe, and we worked on a lot of ground and pound from the open guard. The fight started and Cole threw a kick right off the beginning. This was one of our "indicators" to shoot, because his base would be weaker with only one foot on the ground. Unfortunately for me, I shot in at a weird angle and gave Cole my back as the fight started. Immediately I am thinking "wow that was dumb". He has my back and is trying to work the choke, but I never felt in danger. I wasn’t being hit, and it wasn’t the first time someone had my back. I made progress when I got my back to the mat and Cole took mount. You never want to be mounted, unless it means getting someone off your back. I went for his leg the first time, and thought I had the lock, but he managed to work out and remained on top from the scramble. I went for his leg again and this time used it to get on top. Once on top, I was constantly dodging triangle chokes and armlocks, while landing good punches and elbows. I felt in control throughout the rest of the round, but had trouble passing his guard. Cole moves his hips VERY well and gave me some trouble, but I was happy to sit in his guard and land shots. At one point Cole and I were actually talking… he said something like "This is so much fun" and I threw a couple quick punches and said "I could do this all day long".

In the second round, Cole tries to kick again, and as its an "indicator" we take him down. I spend a few minutes on top trying to pass. I eventually start to pass his guard and he turns up for a single leg. I stop him from getting up to base, and I am thinking about a story BJ was telling us. He was telling us about when fought Caol Uno, he was in half guard and got hit with a really good elbow to the side of the head and it made him snap into it and realise he was really in a fight. For some reason, that was all I was thinking about, and I saw an opening and threw an elbow at Cole. When I threw this elbow, it hit Cole right in the back of the head and took the life out of him. He let out a whimper, and I knew he was hurt. I wasn’t trying to hit him in the back of the head, but it happened. I would never try to break the rules… you can actually hear me get warned about hitting Cole in the back of the head with a punch and I adjust and throw another punch and ask "is that okay?" and he ref tells me its okay. It sucks that it happened, but it did, and I was penalized a point. Cole was given time to recover, but it gave me time to rest too. I knew his head would be bothering him and he wouldn’t be feeling well, so when we restarted I went after him with everything. The five minute break was actually a help to me too, because I got a 2nd wind and was able to go after him harder. I ran across the ring chasing him down throwing punches and took him down again. Once down this time, Cole was weak and was hardly fighting back. He was hanging on and trying to tough it out, but there was very little he could do. I looked up at the ref once or twice to end it, but he let it go a little longer before calling an end to the fight.

It really sucks winning a fight when its not clean, but not as much as it sucks to lose when its not clean. I have been on the losing end of a few fights when the fight wasn’t clean, and all you think about is "Well if that didn’t happen, could I have won?" It will haunt you for a long time, and I am sorry it happened to Cole. Things happen sometimes that are out of your control, and this was one of those cases. I talk with Cole all the time and he is cool with it, but I’m sure it bothers him a little bit. Thats how it goes sometimes though.

Thanks for reading.

This week on the show, we have two fights in one show. I square off with Brian Geraghty, while Rob gets a second life and has the opportunity to fight Corey Hill. Team Pulver picked the fights, but we were very happy with the picks. I was ready to fight anyone on Team Pulver and was happy to be fighting who I thought to be their toughest remaining fighter. In one of my earlier blogs, I talked about how we tried to play some mind games with Team Pulver and get them to choose a pick we wanted, which was Corey versus Rob. It didn’t work at the time, but in the end it did work out as that was a fight Team Pulver chose.

I had actually met Brian before we moved into the show. I had fought down in Florida a few times before fighting in the UFC, and Brian was on one of those cards so I got to see him fight. He was warming up in the same locker room as me and I could tell he was good on the ground the way he was moving around. Then he was hitting mitts and he looked great there too. I got to see his fight and he completely dominated the kid with punches, then kneed his opponent in the head and put him away. I remember thinking, "Damn, I don’t want to fight him". Fast forward to the first day of the show, and there he is. Wonderful. The first day there, we had evaluations with the coaches. Brian was in my group, and I don’t remember if I did any stand up with him, but I know we did some grappling and he took me down and kept top position on me. It really went his way from start to finish which was a little discouraging. One thing that kept me positive though was thinking about how I hadn’t trained in nearly 2 months prior to the show, and I would do better after getting back into training. I had banged up my wrist pretty good a month and a half before the show, so I wasn’t able to do any boxing or wrestling. I decided to rest my wrist and hope that it would be better for the show, which it was. If you pay attention to the Team Penn training sessions, you will notice that in almost every clip I have my wrist all taped up. So I took a beating in evaluations, but knew I could do better once I had a few days to train. The fighter I was on the day of evaluations, was a far different fighter than the one that had trained with BJ Penn 5 hours a day for 4 weeks straight. My cardio and technique was much better come fight time, and I was super confident going into the fight.

Leading up to this fight was a little different for me, because Brian and I were hanging out the night before we fought. Just talking about how much it sucked making weight and we were both sitting there stuffing our faces with everything from water, to pasta, to shakes, to Snickers Ice Cream bars. I don’t ever "hate" someone I am fighting, but I also don’t usually hang out with them the night before the fight either.

I really don’t get nervous for my fights. Some guys like to get all amped, get excited and get into their "zone". I like to stay calm. I just talked about how I had been training 5 hours a day for 4 weeks straight. Why do some people get nervous about doing 15 minutes of something you spent countless hours doing? It’s a different than training, but its not so different that you should entirely change everything you do. For me, I stretch out and jump around for a few minutes to get blood flowing into my legs. Thats what I do before training, and thats what I do before I fight. Everyone is different, but thats what works for me.

I think I really had BJ worried while warming up and before the fight. They kept joking "You know you have a fight, right?", but they were good and understood I knew what I was doing and how I liked to warm up, and they let me do my thing. Once I got in the octagon, BJ really starting getting worried: "Lets go, Lets Joe Joe. Be aware, Wake up. C’mon hands up!"

Something I found funny watching the show, was how accurately I predicted my fight. Thats always the big question people like to ask: How are you going to win? How is your fight going to go? During my pre-fight interview I said "Take him down, beat him up on the ground, put him in our corner, grind him against the fence, drop bombs, beat him up, mount him, choke him out." Aside from the lack of mounting him, I really couldn’t have been more visionary. I didn’t really remember how my prefight prediction went, but looking back its kind of cool. That was my ideal fight, and it went perfectly.

Like I said, I knew Brian had good standup, so I rushed in aggressively when he threw his first punch. I had been working a lot of wrestling with Tony Desouza, and it showed by how quickly I got in for the takedown. Starting off on the right foot is important to get the momentum of the fight in your direction, and thats just what I did until it was over. Once I had the body lock, I slammed Brian (and my own head) down hard on the mat. I threw a few punches, kept him at odd angles on the fence making it tough to defend, and landed some good punches and elbows. With one of the elbows I knocked him out for a split second, and I knew the fight was mine. He had that dazed and confused look and was clumsy and lost coordination. I stood in his guard and cleared his legs and threw a big elbow with bad intentions. It looks on the video like I missed, but I think I grazed the side of his head with it, before it landed solid with the floor of the octagon. Either way, Brian got back to his feet but was still clumsy and slow because of the earlier elbow that knocked him out and I jumped on his back and sunk the choke. The fight really couldn’t have gone any better for me, and I think it was a pretty dominant performance. Most importantly, I was happy to have it be over with. In fighting, there is always the saying "You are only as good as your last fight". I had a lot to live up to coming off my win over Jens, but I was happy with how the fight went.

I think BJ was proud that I gave 100%, I listened to what he showed me in training, I went in there and used it in my fight. A lot of the things I did in the fight came directly from what we did in training. The shot was something I had worked on a lot with Tony in training, and even how I cleared the legs was something we had worked on a lot.

The number 1 question everyone asks me: How was it being on the show when you knocked the other coach out? This episode finally addressed the fact that I knocked out Jens in my last fight. One of the things Jens had said to Brian was "Forget that he hit me". Jens even needing to say that, shows you how much of a mental advantage I have on a lot of people in the house. Its never a good sign when your coach is telling you "Forget that he knocked me out". Thats never good for your confidence. Jens and I acted like professionals to one another. I wasn’t about to go running around pointing it out to everyone, and he wasn’t going to be bitter about it and call it a lucky punch or anything else. In MMA you can live and die by a single punch, you can’t start talking about when you lose it was a lucky punch and when you win its because you were better. You just have to see it for what it is… it only takes one. When I walked into the gym on the first day, he came over and gave me a big hug and was joking about how I was "the upset" and screwed up all of his plans. It was weird training for the fight with Jens and talking about how he was coaching the show and I was just looked past by everyone. It kind of brings a smile to my face knowing Jens was supposed to knock me out to hype him as one of the coaches on the show, and here I am as a contestant because I knocked him out instead.

Watching this weeks episode, I had no idea Corey had so few fights. I was still under the impression he had 8 or whatever fights coming into the show. I am super impressed by that… he came in fearless and didn’t care how much more experience everyone else had. He came in to win, and thats what he did this week.

We thought it was a good matchup for Rob. Rob has good standup, was in great shape and has good takedown defense. Corey kind of comes in throwing bombs but doesn’t have very technical standup. Corey has a lot of reach though and moves around well. When we were in the house, I thought Rob won the fight. After watching it half a dozen times, I still think he won the fight. They even showed a clip of Dana saying he thought Rob won, so it seems odd to me that the judges saw it otherwise. I thought Corey had round 1 and gave Rob trouble adjusting to the difference in reach. In round 2, Rob came back hard with leg kicks and did a lot of damage with them. The leg lock at the end of the round 2 ensured Rob the round. Round 3 was more Rob doing damage with kicks, and I thought he had the round. Corey moved forward more, but its tough for Rob to keep coming forward and walking into jabs all around. Rob did way more damage as a whole, and I still thought he took rounds 2 and 3.