When I hurt my knee, I had a lot of down time and said I was going to blog more. I really haven’t been living up to it though, so I want to fix that. I don’t consider myself an expert at anything, but I think I know a little bit about a lot of different things. I want to write about things you want to read about though, so I would love some input. Off the top of my head, I am thinking… (continue reading…)

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Unfortunately the internet connection at the hotel is terrible here. Trying to get the videos up as soon as possible but its tough. Here is the second one.

There are a couple different views that someone can have based on those 6 weeks we were in that house. There is seeing everything that happened with Team Penn, everything that happened with Team Pulver, and then what the viewers see which is just a little bit of each side. I was fortunate enough to see everything that happened with Team Penn, and then now I am seeing some of the gaps filled in with Team Pulver. I don’t think anyone on Team Penn knew about the issues Brandon was going through. At the time, we didn’t know about his hand and we definitely didn’t know about the problems he was having with Jens. There were times when Brandon seemed really pissed off around the house, but I just always assumed it was from trying to keep his weight down.

One day in practice, BJ and Gray were sparring pretty hard. They are both out there trying to kill one another and really going back and forth. I think Gray got a scratch on his nose that was bleeding, and Rudy wanted to stop it but Gray is like "No no no… I am good keep going!" So they kept going back and forth. It was definitely getting more competitive between them and it was a little beyond the scope of where it started. It escalated, but it was a good escalation. I was a little taken back though…. because BJ is up on this level above and beyond anything I had ever experienced…. and then there is Gray giving him all kinds of trouble. I’m sure BJ could have really poured it on and taken control, but I was just like "Wow… Gray is an animal".

We had "Captain America" Randy Couture come in as a guest coach for the day. He showed us all kinds of great stuff, and it was amazing being able to work out with him. Until you lock up with Randy, you really have no idea how dense and skilled he is. I had a huge amount of respect for him, but it jumped up so much after working with him. I actually got to drill takedowns and throw Randy Couture. Did he let me? 100%. But I will leave that part out. "So uh… I threw Randy Couture from the clinch. No big deal." I’m going to start using that line. Regardless, who else can say they got to work Greco with Randy for a few hours? It was great for Gray too, because Randy is his normal trainer and coach. So seeing someone familiar when you are alone and cut off was great for his spirits, and in turn that raised all of ours. When Randy walked in, it was like seeing Gray on Christmas when he got his first pair of wrestling shoes.

Brandon had a tough time cutting weight, but Wang was there to help him through it all. I’m sure Andy has been catching a lot of aggravation about how his fight went down and being kicked off Team Penn, but you really get to see who Andy is in this episode. Here is a guy that was eliminated from the competition and he is doing everything in his power to help that same guy make weight for his next fight. Wang could have been bitter or upset about losing, but instead he is committed to helping Brandon. Thats the kind of team mate you want with you when you are cutting weight and it starts getting tough.

The fight between Brandon and Gray seemed a lot closer when it was happening. I still think the fight was very competitive, but I was in shock when Brandon was getting back to his feet over and over. I think everyone on Team Penn expected Gray to take him down and keep him there for the rest of the fight, but Brandon surprised us all. In the end though, Gray kept taking him down over and over and showed how much of a work horse he is the drive that carried him in wrestling. Brandon seemed to fatigue as the fight went out which I am sure had a lot to do with cutting so much weight. The pace of the fight was real fast too, but you can’t cut that much weight and expect to carry a pace like that for very long. While trying to get back to his feet Brandon left his neck exposed and Gray took advantage of it. As Manny said though, "That was a crazy ass fight, bro".

Episode 5 should be called "Trimming the fat". In all honesty, as a team we tried our best to ensure that Gabe didn’t miss weight. We were constantly hounding Gabe about watching his diet more and working out harder. There is a saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. In this case, we could lead Gabe down the path to making weight but we couldn’t get him to stop eating. Gabe would have a "healthy" dinner of salad and bell peppers while we ate Pasta at night after training, and he would be miserable about it but he would be doing what he needed. However, later on he would be snacking on things, or just pounding bowls of cereal. You can’t do the diet correctly some of the time, and then forget about it later. Everyone on Team Penn knew that Gabe was way overweight, but he constantly assured us he would make the weight. It got to a point where we couldn’t do anything else, and had to just hope that Gabe could deliver on what he was promising. Missing weight would not only affect him, but it also affected fight picks.

We all knew about the show months before we left home. We only had a few weeks notice to know if we were 100% on, but we knew that the opportunity was there and we were expected to be in fight shape and ready to go if needed. Everyone else in the house did what they needed, and made weight. Gabe couldn’t have been dieting, or else he wouldn’t have come into the show so heavy. He had gone to Thailand for a few weeks before the show, and blamed his weight on eating horribly over there, but thats not an excuse. You either find a way to eat healthy, or you don’t go. It wasn’t the first time Gabe had been to Thailand, so not knowing isn’t an excuse. So he really dropped the ball before we were even in the house, because he willingly put himself at a huge disadvantage.

Once in the house, we knew from day 1 his weight was an issue. Someone having trouble with their weight should be doing cardio every single day, and doing whatever was needed to get into shape. We would be in the gym drilling and working out, and he would be walking on the treadmill. Other times, he would miss practices to go and get colonics. Gabe didn’t lose any real weight when he went for the colonic. He would be a pound or so lighter, and then put it back on the next day. Gabe said he found out after he missed weight that getting a colonic can cause dehydration, so that would explain him floating off a pound or two and then putting it back on. So the colonics didn’t make him lose any weight, he missed practices, was sodomized by a tube and was rewarded with a burning diarrhea sensation. He did this 3 times.

On top of slacking in the gym, Gabe should have been following a strict diet because if you don’t make the weight, it doesn’t matter how you perform or how you feel, you don’t get to fight. Brandon Melendez is huge for 155, but he still made the weight because he would do whatever was needed both in the gym and in the kitchen. Brandon was starving himself and absolutely miserable to make the weight, but he manned up and got it done. I am lucky where I know my body well enough that I could make weight in 24 hours notice with ease regardless of what I was eating. I could get away with eating some less than healthy food like ice cream cake (my favorite) and other things. Gabe wasn’t in such a situation, and should have been staying clear of anything like that, but he was still eating ice cream cake, cookies and whatever else. At another point a couple weeks into the show, he got up to 178 pounds because of all the Sushi he ate. He had a couple weeks to really diet and get his weight under control, and there he was higher than ever. Of course he wasn’t losing the weight when you don’t have self control.

The actual weight cut process was a brutal at the end, for both Gabe and us. I used to cut down to 145 pounds, and can honestly say it was the worst thing I have ever experienced. Nobody likes cutting, but you have a target weight and you don’t stop until you meet that goal. Talk to serious college wrestlers, and they will have horror stories about cutting weight and passing in the sauna. When I was cutting to 145 I would be going to sleep laying in the fetal position and shivering as I went to bed. Its that bad. We didn’t honestly know if Gabe even wanted to make the weight, and we still don’t know for sure. Gabe said from the beginning he was there to get all the camera time he could get, and he succeeded in that. In the scheming though, I think he forgot all about the reason he was there, and that was to fight. Did Gabe ever want to make the weight at all? Or maybe he was just trying to ensure his cut to 155 was dramatic and then everyone would be talking "Gabe is the man, he was way overweight but he cut it all and manned up". To be perfectly honest with you, we were completely unsure as a team. Maybe he never had any intention of fighting at all. The last few hours before missing weight, were filled with drama. You only get to see bits and pieces, but the day was filled with Gabe complaining to leave the sauna, falling over weak, falling of the bike in the sauna, telling us to put him back in the sauna while refusing to get off the ground on his own as he cried that he needed our help and of course lounging by poolside au naturale. Gray was a great team mate and was trying to help him with the cut. He was ready to help Gabe from the first minute that we knew Gabe was fighting, but Gabe had it all under control. Gray went above and beyond what Gabe deserved, and showed why he was a captain of his wrestling team.

In the end, Gabe missed the weight. I’m sure he pissed off a lot of people as officials were brought in for a fight that didn’t happen. Both teams met at the gym and Dana told Gabe how much of an opportunity he screwed up, and sent him home. Team Penn is down to 7 members. The part that was aired was just a tiny sliver of what Dana said. Dana’s attention was focused on Gabe and as I stood next to him, I wanted to cry. You know that feeling you get when you were a little kid and you just know you did something really wrong and are caught? Yea… it was that feeling.

Rob Emerson really impressed Dana though in his loss to Nate Diaz, so he had been brought back into the tournament. Dana gave Team Pulver 24 hours to choose the next two fights. The following day, we found out that I will be fighting against Brian Geraighty, and Corey Hill will be fighting Rob. So we will have not 1 but 2 fights next week.

This may seem a little harsh on Gabe, but I’m not going to pull any punches. Gabe went in there and was willing to do anything to get some attention, well he is certainly getting it.

Jens and BJ legitimately hate each other. There will be no love loss when they fight again.

Before evaluations and team picks, we talked within the house on who everyone wanted to have for coaches. Pretty much everyone in the house wanted to be on BJ’s team, with the exception of Wayne Weems that wanted to be on Jens’ team (he is from Miletich already). Some people said they would be happy on either team, but the general idea within the house was "I want to be with BJ". A lot of people were saying to me "How can Jens show you anything? You already knocked him out". Thats really not the case though… I will learn absolutely everything I can from anyone. Jens and I fought, but that didn’t even matter. Had I been put on his team, I would have been listening as much or more than anyone else there. I would have taken every opportunity to learn from whichever coach I was with.

If I had a choice, I wanted to be on BJ’s team. Some people will look at it as disrespect to Jens, but thats not it. Jens style is to stay on his feet and trade standing, while BJ is a BJJ black belt and is world class on the ground against absolutely anyone. He is a more diverse fighter as well. He can stand and trade with people, or he can take them down. He has great wrestling and is happy no matter where he is. For me, thats the kind of guy that I want to work out with.

When BJ told us to raise our hands, it was the highest tension situation I have ever been in. First of all, we have to make a decision on which team we want to be on, knowing that we could be put on a team we don’t want to be on. Jens was standing there talking about how 10 people raised their hands but only 8 could be with BJ, so he couldn’t wait to spar with the two guys that didn’t want to be on his team but were "stuck" with him. He said he was going to just beat on those guys everyday until they left or quit. As I was standing there with my hand up, and BJ is shooting me smirking glances, and I knew he was going to pick me.

I thought for sure Gabe was going to be the first pick. He came in out of shape and way overweight. Everyone else in the house was ready to make weight the first day, but Gabe was the heaviest. If I were on Team Pulver, I would have been pushing hard to pick Gabe first, because everyone in the house knew he was the most over and would have the toughest time cutting weight. If you give him more time, he can do the right things to make the cut easier as you give him more time. If you have to make 155, you need to be around 170 at most…. and thats pushing it. The first ten pounds come easily, and then it gets tough and you have to fight for every pound. I think Allen Berube said it best: "You just gotta start giving 100% in the kitchen." This made Gabe start crying, which we kind of took as Gabe looking for some more camera time.

Cole and Monstah Lobstah were the first fight. I knew Cole before the show a little bit. I had met him a few times and talked to him a bunch. Cole is a real good Jiu-Jitsu guy but doesn’t have the best standup or wrestling. Monstah has good pretty good wrestling and boxing, so we thought if we kept him off the ground he would do okay. Monstah is a lot shorter than Cole, so he had to watch out for the reach advantage as well. It was a tough fight for Monstah, but it was one of the better match ups for him.

We went with the Braveheart face paint before Monstah’s fight. We were bored out of our minds, so it seemed like a great idea at the time. Our biggest issue in the house was boredom, so the face paint helped that a little bit.

The fight with Cole and Monstah seemed a lot closer when it was actually happening. When it was actually happening, it seemed like they were on the ground longer and the triangle didn’t come so quickly.

Cole was crying in the cage after the fight. It just shows the kind of emotion that goes into training for a fight. I think it was a little dramatic for winning a fight, but everyone handles their emotions differently.