Here are my picks and whatnot. Let me know what you think… what you agree on… what you disagree on, etc…

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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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Lauzon’s Penn pal has fighter ready
By DAN DUGGAN

17 November 2007
Boston Herald

It didn’t take B.J. Penn long to recognize there was something special about
Joe Lauzon. Penn was a coach on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”
reality show earlier this year and he knew after seeing Lauzon in tryouts
that the young fighter had potential.

“I just had a feeling about him,” Penn said. “When they were in the trials
to test who you want to pick, Joe wasn’t going real hard or doing a bunch of
things, but there was just something about him. He had some kind of fire.”

The only reason Penn hesitated to pick Lauzon was because Jens Pulver was
the opposing coach. In Lauzon’s UFC debut last September, the East Bridgewater
native knocked Pulver out and Penn was amused by the thought of watching the
two have to work together.

“I was looking at all of the picks and I was wondering who we were going to
pick. At first, I was like, `We shouldn’t pick Joe; we should put him on
Jens’ team just to mess with Jens’ head.’ But later on I was really glad
that me and Joe got together.”

The partnership was successful, as Lauzon won three fights during the
season, but lost in the semifinals to Manvel Gamburyan. More importantly for his
future, Lauzon forged a bond with Penn, one of the top lightweights in the
UFC.

After the season, Lauzon (14-3) accepted an invitation to join Penn in his
native Hawaii to train. Lauzon, 23, spent two months training with Penn in
preparation for his fight tonight at UFC 78 against Jason Reinhardt (18-0).

Lauzon jumped right into the five-hour, six-days-a-week training sessions,
something that didn’t surprise Penn.

“He was right there; he didn’t wimp out,” Penn said. “That’s one of the
reasons I wanted him to come (to Hawaii). He’s the kind of guy that gives
100 percent. On the show he was the one guy that anything I asked of him, he did
it in a heartbeat.”

Working with Penn was Lauzon’s first opportunity to train exclusively
without having to balance work, school or television, and Penn thinks the focus
solely on fighting will make a difference.

“Without a doubt (people are) going to see a new Joe Lauzon,” Penn
said. “I’m not going to sit here and say it’s because of me. It’s because of him. He
went there and he did the work. I know he definitely improved a lot in that
time.”

Now that the 5-foot-10, 155-pound Lauzon has the skills to match his
determination, Penn thinks he’ll be even tougher to beat.

“His best attribute is his intensity,” Penn said. “I was going to say
explosiveness or his heart, but it’s his intensity. That’s what he brings.
Every time he learns a new technique it’s just icing on the cake. When Joe
wants to turn it on, he can turn it on. That’s what makes him a great
fighter.”

Penn expects Lauzon to prevail over Reinhardt tonight, which would move him
up another notch in the lightweight division. As Lauzon continues to
improve, the possibility of a teacher-student fight could arise. It wouldn’t be
something that either would enjoy, but Penn understands that there could be
a time when the two meet in the Octagon.

“This is the UFC and it could happen,” Penn said. “As far as that, it’s not
even on my mind. Anytime he needs my help, I’ll help him and I know it’s
vice-versa. If it happens, it happens. There’s nothing we can do about it. If it
did ever happen I’d hope it would have to be for some kind of title fight.
I’m not looking forward to anything like that.”

If the two were to fight for the lightweight title down the road, Penn knows
what he’d tell his prized pupil.

“If I was the champion and Joe made it up there one day to fight me, I would
tell him you have to follow your dream,” Penn said. “And his dream is to be
the champ so you have to do what’s right and you have to go get that
championship belt.”

Interim OK with Penn

While Penn spent time training Lauzon, it’s not as if his fighting days are
over. Penn is scheduled to fight Joe Stevenson at UFC 80 on Jan. 19 for the
interim lightweight championship. The division is currently in flux while
current champion Sean Sherk appeals a positive steroid test.

Sherk failed the test following a win at UFC 73 in July and the appeals
process has been a long one, with his latest hearing postponed until Dec. 4.
Sherk isn’t happy about the fight for an interim champion, but Penn is
unfazed.

“I guess Sean Sherk doesn’t like the fact that we’re fighting for the
interim title,” Penn said. “He says it’s a fake title, but I sit here and say his
title is no more real than Marion Jones’ gold medals. Sean has to realize
that if you call this fake, you have to look in the mirror.”

Penn has his sights set on winning the interim title and then fighting
Sherk, assuming he wins his appeal. While Penn wants to win the title, he wished it
didn’t have to come under these circumstances.

“It’s kind of in shambles and it’s kind of sad,” Penn said. “But that’s
where the sport is right now so we’ll see what happens.”

`Ultimate’ reality

The headline bout tonight pits “The Ultimate Fighter 2″ heavyweight winner
Rashad Evans against “The Ultimate Fighter 3″ light heavyweight winner
Michael Bisbing in a light heavyweight matchup.

The event takes place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey,
marking the first UFC event on the East Coast in more than two years.

I did a phone interview with Whoop Ass radio yesterday and talked about my move to Hawaii that is coming up. UFC74 is this weekend and we talked about most of the fights on the card, and a little bit about how I saw each fight going down. Listen to the show to get my UFC74 picks.

Also on the show is Kurt Pelligrino (will be facing Joe Stevenson this weekend). Randy Couture also gives his take for his heavyweight title fight this weekend with local fighter Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga.

Click Here to Listen

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.

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.

Episode 2 started with the Allen coming back into the house. He gathered everyone together like he was getting ready to say good bye, and then he says "If any of you guys get hurt, I’m still here." So while everyone was led to believe they had seen the end of the Lobstah, we learn that we will all be subjected to even more of the horrible accent. As Allen always tells us "The accent sells lobstahs".

Gabe and Wiman are having some problems. For whatever reason, Gabe is looking for excuses to have problems with Matt. Gabe out of nowhere starts attacking Matt and continues it even after Matt has left. Matt just wants to be done with it and not let fighting within his own team be a distraction. it didn’t matter what was going on, Gabe would jump at any chance to have problems with Matt. We could be at the house, in the van, training… it really didn’t matter. At times when we should be sticking together as a team to help whoever was fighting next, Gabe was starting trouble to steal the attention of the camera. It is pretty beyond our control as team mates to settle the problems, so bring it to BJ’s attention. We tell him how Matt will let it die, but Gabe is constantly finding new issues to have with Matt. We had a meeting as a team, and we basically agree to keep Matt and Gabe away from one another in training, and they just ignore each other around the house. Matt and Gabe are both ready to fight each other in training, but this is doing nothing more than costing us valuable training time. BJ reminds us that we are all we have for support on the show and we should be focused on fighting the Team Pulver guys.

We have the second fight selection in this episode. Team Pulver has control, but BJ has plans of his own. When we show up at the gym, BJ and Rudy are telling us all about the book "The Art of War" and how they want to try and influence Team Pulver’s fight pick . Corey was barking and grunting at team selections like a mascot, so we figure if Rob calls him out, he will have to accept the challenge. So while its their pick, we get a fight that we want. When Dana asks Team Pulver who they want to fight, Rob right away starts talking to Corey, "With all that barking you did, you better pick me. All that hooting and hollering you did, you better back it up. All that barking, show me the bite. You’re a dog. Let do it." Jens cut everything off though, and they stuck to their gameplan. Manny called out Noah saying, "I don’t like any of you guys, but there is only one that I hate". We really want to try and turn the tide, and get control of the team picks back. We need to do everything we can to prepare Noah for Manny. We don’t know a whole lot about Manny, but we are sure he fights a lot like his cousin Karo (another UFC fighter). The Team Pulver guys definitely seem like they have more of a tight knit team atmosphere. They don’t have team mates picking fights around the house or in the van. They are getting the most of their training time while we are trying to keep Gabe and Matt apart.

We got so bored in that house. We ended up on roofs and all kinds of other places. We would try anything to keep ourselves entertained. At one point, Rob sees some girls riding on horseback, and convinces them to come around to the front the house. This was fine, until the horse slipped on the driveway and couldn’t get up. I was sleeping during all of this, but it was the talk of the house for about a week about how Rob almost killed a horse.

Again, trying to fight the boredom, we are looking for something to do to kill time. On one of the walls in the house, we find a shield, and someone has the bright idea: Lets have someone hold the shield, and throw stuff at them. The first thing we thought to throw was one of the spears that hold the tiki torches in the backyard. Rob was fully ready to hold the shield for whatever we wanted to throw at him. Gabe is ready to throw a spear and I tell him its a better idea to throw this ball of duct tape that we made. Now I played baseball in high school, and I stopped when I started fighting. Thats for a very good reason: I can’t throw something straight to save my life. I nailed Rob right in the balls (however you want to word that). At once, we all dropped to our knees. Rob dropped because he just took one in the junk, and all of us because we feel for him and are laughing our asses off. We can hardly breath to even talk about it.

We asked for markers to write on walls and other stuff, so we wrote on one wall in the house "Team Penns supports and loves the troops". Rob took it upon himself to go into the pool house and write "Suck it Team Pulver". Now most of our team didn’t even know what Rob had put on the wall. Nate and Manny took major offense to it. They both felt saying anything about Team Pulver was a direct attack on them. It started off as killing time messing around, and almost turned into a fight in the house. Manny in particular wasted a lot of energy just screaming, yelling and ranting for a few hours, when he should be in bed sleeping because he has to fight the next day.

Manny sings, all the freaking time.

The fight between Manny and Noah, we didn’t really know what to expect. We somewhat expected a lightweight version of Karo, and that was what we got. The fight started off bad for him when he got dropped, Manny came in throwing bombs, passed Noah’s guard and got the submission. I think Noah was just completely overwhelmed. He came out of the fight saying: "If you don’t get off first, you may not get off at all". He is 100% right, and thats the case in a lot of fights.

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.