by Nick Ring
Enter Rich Franklin, Forrest Griffin, Gray Manard, and Tyson Griffin
I was very impressed with Rich Franklin’s technical skills. He has a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (just like me), and his striking is very technical as well – I also noticed immediately that Rich had a really keen eye for detail. Unfortunately for me, I was out of commission at this point so I did not get to work with Rich or any of the new coaches at all, but I would have loved to ask him some questions and gotten to move around with him. I could tell that he really knew what he was talking about and I felt like he would have had a lot to offer me.
One of Rich’s assistant coaches was Forrest Griffin. Forrest was much bigger in person than I thought he would be, and wow is he ever funny – when this guy would talk, he would literally hold all of us captive with his words as he told story after story after story, he would have all of us laughing and wanting to hear what he had to say next. Besides his impeccable story-telling abilities, Forrest was also quite impressive on the mat as well. I watched Forrest do some grappling with Seth, Hammortree, McCray, and Kaycey. I also got to watch Forrest do some striking with Kaycey Uscola on one of the days – I thought Forrest was going too hard with poor Kaycey (he was beating on him like he owed him money). I gotta hand it to Kaycey though, he wasn’t backing down at all even though Forrest was completely gigantic compared to him and was pummelling him, it was awesome watching them scrap.
The other assistant coaches were Tyson Griffin and Gray Manard and I got to admit that I didn’t know anything about them when I first met them. They were both built like pitbulls though and I have heard since then that they both fight like pitbulls too. Gray Manard, apparently, was one of the contestants on a previous season of TUF (and now that I know this, I guess I should probably watch it sometime).
I know it may sound ironic coming from an MMA fighter but I really don’t watch very much of it myself, I love to train and compete but I am not a huge fight-fan so I do miss out on a lot of the news. The only way I ever know anything usually is because I ask my friends who actually do follow the sport.
Anywho… I was very impressed with the new coaches, these guys were all very technical and I really would have liked to participate.
Court Versus Brad
I can definitely see how that situation would be awkward and even knowing this is what you signed up for it would still be hard to fight a guy you have been training with. Oh well, it could be worse – you could be like me and have to sit on the bench with McKinney (just joking McKinney, I fucking love u man – please don’t sucker punch me)
Payback!!
I thought that this payback was fair. The “minority report” had gone out of their way to be obnoxious in the house since day 1 and the payback was good natured and well-deserved. I know that Yager and Tavares did not agree but McCray understood instantly and acknowledged that the retaliation was fair by saying “That was good yo”.
Noke was probably the least deserving of the spraying but he got it bad, and he was only guilty by association. After Noke got sprayed I overheard him complaining to Seth who just matter-of-factly replied “You hang out with garbage, and after a while you start smelling like it”. Seth’s comment made me laugh, it sounded like something that my dad would say.
Brad Tavares Versus Court McGee
I thought both fighters fought well but I would have given Court a slight edge in the first 2 rounds, and it was pretty obvious who had won the fight by the end of the 3rd round but I thought that Brad made a good accounting of himself in this fight – In my opinion Brad can hold his head high.
I also want to say that I think Brad had a really good attitude after the fight and he took the loss like a man. He didn’t whine or complain or feel sorry for himself, and I could tell by the way he was talking afterwards that he was just going to take what he learned from this loss to improve himself for next time – I know he will only get better from here on so watch out for this guy in the future.
More On Brad Tavares
I shared a room with Brad and despite being in the “minority report” he was actually a really good roommate – in fact, he was the perfect roommate. We pretty much just stayed out of each other’s hair and there was never any issue between me and him… In my opinion, a quiet roommate is a good roommate and despite the noise that Brad made in the rest of the house he was always very respectful in the room – he had his stuff and I had my stuff, it was a very easy relationship.
Brad and I didn’t really hang out that much in the house and I wouldn’t say that I know Brad very well but over the days and weeks however I did get to know a little bit about him and the more I learned about him the more I liked.
I learned that Brad comes from a big family and they are all very close, he also has a solid network of friends back home. What I gathered from talking with him is that he is extremely loyal to those people in his life that he is close with and will do anything for them. Brad is very young but he has got a really solid sense of who he is as a person and he does not try to be anybody that he is not – he does what he likes and either you like him for it or you don’t.
It was a pleasure to know Brad and I think he will have a great life ahead of him.
United States Marines Visit The Ultimate Fighter House-hold
The United States Marines came to visit us in the Ultimate Fighter house. For me to learn about how they operate in their day to day training and then to get to share a meal with the very people who keep America (and Canada) safe from invaders was a complete honour for me. I feel that the marines do not get enough credit for the sacrifices they make and I will always support them. I don’t care how many hippies complain either – complaining is privilege that you little pussies would not even have without these guys risking their lives day-in-day-out.
So I will just end this blurb by saying: Fuck you hippy – If you don’t love America then go live in Russia! And put on some deodorant you little coward!!
Kris Training For Josh
Things were very different this time around in training and I felt that Kris had really improved a lot from his first fight with Josh. I also felt that Josh might have been a little bit cocky after his fight with Yager. Not that he was doing anything outright rude but I could tell from the way that he was walking around the house that he was pretty confident he would beat McCray. The fact that he had beaten McCray last time they fought made me think that the tables may have somewhat turned and now Josh was taking McCray a little bit lightly.
All I know is that McCray was taking Josh very seriously this time and in just a matter of a couple of weeks I had seen a massive improvement in him – I predicted that McCray would win.
Social Dynamics in the Ultimate Fighter House
In the Ultimate Fighter house there were three very obvious cliques.
There was the “minority report” AKA – the “Farm Animals” (a term coined by Seth Baszinski). The “farm animals” consisted of Yager, McCray, Noke, and Tavares.
The 2nd clique in the house was the “I hate farm animals” group and this consisted of Hammortree, McKinney, and Kaycey Uscola. This little group had a lot of feelings of hostility towards the “farm animals” and all they ever seemed to want to talk about was how much they hated Yager and how badly they wanted to leave the Ultimate Fighter house and go back to their hometowns (and yes they were miserable to be around…. Ummm cough cough – I mean I loved being around those guys, they were so much fun).
The last clique in the house was everyone else who just wanted to stay out of it, and most of these people were on the blue team.
Note: I know that this is an over-simplistic model of the life in the Ultimate Fighter house and I also know that one of you who lived there with me will probably try to refute my clever little social model by saying that I am completely wrong but…. Before you say anything just read the rest of my story you little fudge packer!
My Relationship To The “Farm Animals”
I found myself in the cross-fire between the “farm animals” and the “I hate farm animals” groups because I was friends with all the guys in both groups (yes – even with Yager). I was not exactly “boys” with the “Farm Animals” but I at the same time I did share a bedroom/bathroom with 3 of them (Tavares/Yager/McCray) and because of the logistics of my sleeping quarters in relation to where they would hang out (which often happened to be my bedroom) I was in frequent contact with them. As a result of where my bed was, I was often locked in chit chat with the little Hommie-G’s as I was getting ready for bed.
As I got to know them a bit more I did start to like the “farm animals” but I must admit it did take me some time to get used to them. I think it was hard at first partly because me and the “farm animals” have very different communication styles. I am a person who is logical by nature and I generally speak in a very logical and sequential manner. Many of the things I like to talk about are very fact-based and they usually have some relevance to me achieving some kind of objective (I don’t often like to talk for the sake of talking and most of my conversations have some kind of purpose).
What I found from chit chatting with the guys in the “minority report” was that their style of communication involved a lot more banter and they would often talk in riddles. They would also use a lot of rapper-slang/talk and flowery-type speech/fluff words that don’t mean anything, and they would also make a lot of references to pop-culture. These are generally things that I don’t give a flying-fuck about on the best of days so it was definitely a challenge for me to try to relate to them.
That being said, I did sometimes enjoy listening to the “farm animals” interact with each other. I would hear them go back and forth and they would sometimes say some really funny stuff to each other that was quite ‘on-the-ball’. They were constantly engaged in verbal play with each other and would often “one-up” one another (all in good fun) and they were generally really positive around each other as a group – the problems only arose when they decided to play pranks and be obnoxious to people outside of their little clique. Sometimes they would be loud for the sake of being loud (they would often bang on pots and pans, or they would scream, or they would color on the walls like kindergarten kids) and their antics would often irritate the rest of us in the house (it would irritate some of us more than others, hence the “I hate farm animals” group).
My Relationship To The “I Hate Farm Animals”
The “I hate farm animals” group lived just across the short hallway in the next set of rooms which were shared by McKinney/Hammortree/Kaycey/Noke. In this bedroom section you had 3 people from the “I hate farm animals” clique sharing a bedroom/bathroom with 1 “farm animal” member. In retrospect it probably would have made more sense to have Noke and me switch rooms as I probably would have gotten along better with his roommates and he would have gotten along better with mine. But when we all got to the house and picked rooms I think we all pretty much picked our rooms before we picked-out our friends.
My relationship with the “I hate farm animals” group was easy right from the start and I got along quite well with McKinney/Hammortree/and Kaycey. The problem was that the energy coming from these guys was getting increasingly hostile towards the “farm animals” as the days went on. Every time I would hang out with them all they seemed to want to talk about was how much they hated Yager and how they hated how much “those guys” act like idiots. It was getting to the point where I didn’t want to spend time with them at all because it was really ruining my good mood which was somewhat fragile as it was after being trapped in the house with no escape for so long. And besides that, since exiting the tournament I had been pretty sad and I was looking for things that could bring my mood up instead of tear it down. I definitely tried to limit my time with the “I hate farm animals” group because their negativity was really not serving me well at the time and they were getting nastier daily.
Like Children On A Playground
The members of the “I hate farm animals” group all had had a few run-ins with Yager at this point, but I would say that Hammortree probably took the interactions the most personally out of the three of them and as a result, he was starting to take the brunt of the taunting from the “farm animals”. The problem was that Hammortree was trying to deal with their irrational behaviour by being logical and trying to reason with them. This was a big mistake and I have said it before and I will say it again but you cannot deal with unreasonable people by using reason, so just don’t try.
Hammortree was setting himself up for failure every time he tried to tell them what his expectations of them were and he was getting increasingly frustrated as a result of it – the “farm animals” would simply not comply with his requests to act civilized and it was making him increasingly irate. They definitely noticed the fact that they were getting under Hammortree’s skin and just like children on the playground they proceeded to escalate the situation. They would sing songs about him within his earshot just to disrespect him, and then they started to mess around with his food, and then finally they started to throw things at him.
The projectiles started in last 24 hours in the house, the food tampering started within the last 48 hours – and yes, the gloves were definitely off.
Yager Acting Like An Idiot – Yes Again…..Stealing Shoes
Yager had been caught stealing several times by now and at this point it was pretty much now just common-knowledge that if your stuff went missing you could always guarantee that Yager had taken it.
We had rules in the Ultimate Fighter house which we had all come up with in each other’s presence as a big group upon arrival. These rules encompassed cleaning duties, to respect for other peoples personal belongings, to not tampering with anybody’s food, etc, etc, etc,… Unfortunately Yager is just not somebody who follows rules and instead is someone who will go waaaaay out of his way just to break them – he does this merely for the sake of doing it, and he will do it whether it is convenient or not.
This being the case with Yager, the rule about not messing with people’s stuff was not much of a deterrent. On the last day in the house he decided to take one of everyone’s shoes as a “prank”, and prank or not this act was clearly breaking normal people rules again and it had no purpose other than to piss people off, which it did.
Throwing Beans At Hammortree
Like I said earlier, Yager and Tavares and McCray had been picking on Hammortree – it was just a little bit at first, but it became more and more and more frequent and as the last few days went on the situation went a little bit too far. The abuse had evolved to the point where Yager and Tavares were throwing beans and flour at Hammortree and McKinney out Yager’s window, the beans were the first things thrown and the flour out the window was the encore.
Hammortree retaliated by throwing his garbage on Yager’s bed and I thought he showed a lot of backbone in doing so. After all, throwing beans and flour at people is completely disrespectful and McKinney and Hammortree didn’t do anything to deserve it – they were just minding their own business.
Hammortree was perfectly justified to retaliate and any reasonable person would have understood this but Yager being the guy he is, did not see this at all. Instead of understanding another person’s point of view Yager instead saw himself as the innocent victim of a unprovoked attack which now justified him to escalate the situation by throwing beans all over Hammortree’s personal belongings (how dare Hammortree stand up for himself).
I was positive that punches would fly and I would have to save someone. I was surprised to see that what started off as a blow-up between Yager and Hammortree quickly turned into a showdown between Yager and Kaycey when Yager made a face at Kaycey as he left Hammortree’s room. I already knew that Kaycey was looking for any excuse to punch Yager so this was more than enough reason to set him off.
In the yelling match between Kaycey and Yager I thought that Yager showed incredible nerve by implying that Kaycey was a pussy when he said “you had your 2 chances and you didn’t use none of them”. All I gotta say to Yager is at least Kaycey went out fighting like a man, unlike you who didn’t even have the balls to stand-up off his stool. It was obvious to everyone in the house (even Yager’s friends) that Yager did not have any right to talk to Kaycey like that. Kaycey is 10 times the man that Yager is and he proved this fact only moments later when Yager refused to fist fight him in the backyard.
It was pure comedy to see Yager talking tough as if he was on his way outside to fight Kaycey (“Lets do it, I got my shoes on… You think I’m fucking playin”) while he was walking in the exact opposite direction he needed to go to meet him in the backyard. Instead of following Kaycey downstairs and outside, he went straight to his bedroom and peered out the window at Kaycey who had just challenged him to fight him man to man and the funniest part for me to watch was when he closed his bedroom window as an extra precaution (just in case) – if that doesn’t say scared, I don’t know what does.
May I Have My Shoe Back Please?
To Yager it was a very welcome shift of focus after pussin-out to Kaycey when people started asking for their shoes back (he has been caught stealing now for the 20th time). Yager knows everyone is fed up with him and he wisely decides to surrender by saying “it’s all going too far” and he returns the shoes.
I love how he uses the word “it” when he saying things had gone too far. Yager used the word “it” as if “it” was some type of separate entity from himself. He implied that it was “it” who was responsible for the chaos that erupted on that morning rather than taking responsibility for the chaos he had caused by his actions. Yager was basically saying that it was “it” (not Yager) who was the one who was throwing things at Hammortree causing a big fight, and that it was “it” (not Yager) who was the one who was responsible for stealing everyone’s shoes and making everyone angry.
Even after Yager returns the shoes he did not really take full responsibility when McKinney was grilling him over it. Yager immediately started pointing the finger at Seth and to anyone else he could to spread the blame out on (look at the video and watch Seth walk away in disgust – hahaha).
I don’t really know what to say about old-Yager. He probably needs professional help (and I’m not necessarily saying he needs help for his sake, I am more saying it for the people who have to live around him).
I Want To Go Home
For me to witness almost brawl this far into the filming of the show was actually a surprise to me because it was literally only hours before we were to leave the Ultimate Fighter house forever. I figured it being the last day that we would all probably just get along and ride it out for the last little bit but wow was I ever wrong.
What I saw that day was complete insanity and it was built-up aggression from the last few weeks of living together that had just culminated into that one heated moment – it was very intense for all who witnessed it. I was actually quite surprised that no punches were thrown for how heated the situation had become, all I knew was that I really was sick of living here and I really did want to go home now – this just wasn’t fun anymore.
Kris McCray Versus Josh Bryant
I had my money on McCray for this fight because I really felt that he took the time to improve. I have re-watched the fight a couple of times and I thought that Bryant did a really good job at defending McCray’s takedown attempts and I wasn’t real sure whether the points were being scored for McCray’s successful takedowns (which never really ended up in any solid control) or in McCray’s takedown attempts (which was where he spent most of the time). I think the judging was weighted more towards McCray pushing the pace by trying to get the takedown but I also thought Bryant did a good job at defending them. The match was awarded to McCray who had fought much smarter this time around against Bryant but again this was a close one and Bryant showed to me (yet again) that he is a very consistently and tough performer.
It Is Over
I am proud of both Court and Kris to get this far, and as sad as I am to have had my season end the way it did for me, I feel that both of these guys completely deserve to be here and I truly hope they make the most of their fight careers.
I am really honoured to have been part of the show and I cannot wait until I can take my next fight. I am now just juggling my time rehabilitating my knee from my 3rd ACL surgery (which I had done in Canada April 7th, 2010) and making enough money to pay my bills. I am doing everything I can to balance real life with building the life that I am trying to create for myself.
I am preparing hard for the day where I will get to call myself a fighter again – this is not the last you will see of Nick Ring.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my thoughts on my life in the Ultimate Fighter house, I sincerely hope you enjoyed living this with me.
