by Nick Ring
McCray Versus Noke
I felt a little bit bad for both of them having to fight each other being friends and all. Watching them weigh in was interesting because you just know that they were just coming around to the realization that they actually had to fight each other.
Tito’s Neck
I found out about Tito’s neck when he told me after a training session that he would have to get surgery on his neck. Obviously, I can sympathize with Tito. A neck injury is serious and it should be addressed, and the sooner the better. If you need surgery, you need surgery.
Fight Day
It was awkward watching the two friends square-off moments before fighting, but after the first punch was thrown, all the awkward feelings were gone.
Round 1: McCray obviously had the better takedowns in this round but I’m not sure it was necessarily out scoring Noke’s skillful stand-ups after the takedowns or his strong submission attacks which included a strong guillotine attempt and good jiu-jitsu control and attacks from the bottom. I would have probably given this round a draw based on UFC’s strong scoring for takedowns, but if we were looking at who came closer to finishing the fight, I would have to go with Noke.
Round 2: Noke had another very close submission attempt in the rear-naked choke on McCray, but McCray was able to positionally control the match otherwise. I would have given that round a draw as well. Both fighters were showing dominance using totally different skills.
Round 3: At this point it didn’t look like Noke had any more energy to fight and Kris was showing more desire to win at this point. Noke just kind of laid there and took punishment for the majority of round 3. Being the good submission fighter he is, I did see Noke make a nice kimura attempt but it was definitely not enough to balance out the scoring for this round. Kris was able to impose his will and Noke looked mentally defeated.
Both fighters were very classy over the whole situation and it was good to see that they were back to being friends after the fight. I think they both showed a lot of strong character by being able to separate the fight from the friendship.
Chuck Is Ranting Again
I remember being there for this little tirade; to experience how intense Chuck was about Tito was actually quite amazing because of the kind of contempt that Chuck had for Tito. It was pretty apparent that Chuck spends enormous amounts of energy thinking about Tito. He was bitching about Tito like nobody’s business. It was just pure and unfiltered hate that Chuckie-boy was dumping on us about our coach. Believe me when I say that it was real and not just made for television.
Chuck was so mad that he was twitching. He was pacing around like a psycho as he went into story after story about how much he wanted to punch Tito’s lights out. I didn’t totally understand Chucks desire to beat on Tito (yet again). I figured that knocking him out twice would have been enough to satisfy all of those savage desires, but apparently not. I was wondering why he wanted to knock him out yet again. Seems a little like beating a dead horse at this point.
Tito is my coach, but I definitely didn’t want to take sides in this little war of egos.To inspire so much hate there had to be a lot going on behind the scenes and I didn’t really want to get involved.
Seth Versus Brad
Wow — what a match!
Seth was very dominant with his body triangle from the rear and his attacks for the first majority of the round. Tavares was showing some good ground and pound from top and was using really good pressure (despite almost getting caught in a triangle). On the stand-up Tavares went for a flying knee and slipped, and Seth soccer kicked Tavares in the face. I know that for Seth it was just an accident and it was just a “heat of the moment” situation. Accident or not, that did not help keep the emotions between the coaches under control outside of the octagon.
I was sitting right beside Court McGee when everybody was barking at each other and we gave each other a look like “this is stupid.” And yes, it was pretty stupid. Tito yelled at Attonito and then Chuck ran over without hesitation to punch Tito. Chuck was looking for any excuse to flip on Tito anyway so this was good enough.
Jake Shields was also on Tito like stink on shit and was yelling “fuck you Tito! I’ll fight you Tito!” It was quite uncharacteristic of Jake. I had always found him to be mild-mannered and to see him flip-out was actually pretty intimidating.
I was surprised to see things simmer down because I was positive that punches were going to be thrown at one of us on the red team who were acting as human shields for our coaches. I think you had to be there to really appreciate the insanity of the situation, but the video does a pretty good job of summing it up.
Tito Pulls Out
Behind closed doors after the little melee (or at least almost melee), Dana pulls Chuck into the office to tell him that Tito is pulling out of their fight. Obviously Chuck was pissed off over this. He had already predicted that Tito would pull out before fighting him and, unfortunately, Chuck was correct. But in Tito’s defense, your neck is your neck, and it really isn’t a good idea to fight under those circumstances – being paralyzed is bad and your health needs to be first.
Knocking Tito out will have to be another day, I guess. Sorry Iceman.
Until next time, Nick Ring signs off.
