TUF 13 Fighter Blog: Shamar Bailey Talks Episode 4

Welcome back for another Thursday blog.

Glad you guys keep coming back. I appreciate it.

After the first three episodes all had different exciting elements, this one felt like it was kind of uneventful. Not to take anything away from the guys that were fighting, there just weren’t any real deeper situations going on; nobody was leaving the show or anything like that, you know what I mean?

Ramsey certainly establishes himself as the biggest character out of this group this episode, though I was necessarily a fan of who he went about things.

I think the theme of this episode is the difference between our two camps, in terms of our training and our focus.

You see us going through what is normal Team dos Santos practice. Everybody on the team was real happy that you could tell our coaches cared about us and wanted us to be successful; whether that was beating the crap out of our bodies or taking it easy on us. We could tell they really cared about us being successful. The only thing people complained about was how their bodies were feeling afterward.

On the other side of that, you’ve got Brock’s team.

I could definitely tell they weren’t happy with the coaching that they received, and it just didn’t seem like the majority of that group were mentally in the right place to fight, so I felt confident fighting each and every one of them.

It all comes back to the fact that fighting is all mental. No matter what the approach or whether your coach is pushing you or it’s more laid back, it’s all mental. You can rely on your coaches to an extent, but at the end of the day, its up to the fighter to be ready. I just think that [Team Lesnar’s lack of focus] shows that no matter what you go through as a fighter, it’s all mental.

Hearing Charlie say how happy he was to have Chuck there keeping him focused on eating right and staying on weight is a perfect example. When you’re in this house, you shouldn’t need someone there pushing you like that every day, checking up on you and keeping you in line; you should be doing that yourself.

I definitely picked up on what appeared to me to be mental weakness with the guys from Team Lesnar; people needing to lean on each other and feeling the need to talk about themselves a lot. Anybody that feels the need to talk about themselves in the house and tell everybody how good they are typically isn’t as good as they say they are.

Ramsey and I were roommates, and we talked a lot the homosexual lifestyle; he’s enamoured with that lifestyle, how guys are into guys and girls are into girls. I picked up through conversations that he was enamoured with it, but I didn’t think that he was going to act out some things.

As time went on, he started taking off more and more clothes. At the end of the day, a lot of people played along with it; being in there for six weeks with no women, a lot of people played along with it. But I just don’t play that way, I can’t get down like that, so Ramsey decided to do everything in his power to make me uncomfortable, and a lot of other guys did too.

What they didn’t show you is that every night — every night – he’d be asking me to put lotion on his back because there’s that one spot he couldn’t reach. (Laughing) Every night I would say no. So it’s one night before his fight and he’s telling me that a good roommate would do that for me, so I said fine and then Spike goes and makes it look like the first time he comes and asks me to put lotion on his back I jumped at the opportunity.

(Laughing) I just want everyone to know that is not how it went down. I was just trying to help him out the night before his fight, that’s all.

What Ramsey said afterward, about Team Lesnar thinking he’s there just to be on TV, really shows the differences between our two teams again.

There were a couple guys on Lesnar’s team that didn’t feel the need to tell us every second of the day what they were going to do to us, but for the most part, those guys over there were a bunch of talk. Our guys were more about business; maybe we worked so hard in practice we didn’t have the energy to talk, I don’t know.

It seemed like they were getting a bunch of confidence after having trained with Matt Hughes; like, “I just worked out with Matt Hughes, so now if I fight a wrestler, nobody will be able to take me down,” that sort of thing.

I think they gained a false sense of confidence from having one session with the guy. I’m sure he taught them some good stuff, but one session with anybody doesn’t make you a different fighter.

The fight went the way we expected it to, though I was surprised it took Ramsey as long as it did to get him to the ground. Ramsey’s a very technical wrestler; he’s more patient and technique oriented.

Once he got Charlie to the ground, I knew it was definitely in Ramsey’s ground; Charlie didn’t look comfortable at all. I think his tap showed that and summed things up for that team for this episode.

We couldn’t believe he tapped so quick. That’s the easiest $5000 somebody can make right there; he just gave it to Ramsey. I wasn’t surprised though. Getting him ready for his fight, I was telling Ramsey that Charlie hadn’t fought any wars, so when he fought somebody that challenged him just a little bit, he faded real quick.

I said Brock would throw a chair into the cage at some point during the season and now he has. To me, at that point and in talking to his team after, he’s just being a coach. I hadn’t been a big fan of how Brock had handled some things, but at that point, the guys were under-performing, they showed it in practice and they showed it in their fights.

A lot of times you can’t control the outcome, but you can control your effort, and I think that’s what Brock was referring to. Maybe he could control his effort as a coach a little more, but at that point, you just have got to listen to your coach and move forward.

I think those guys are taking his comments a little too personally, instead of looking for ways to improve themselves. I wouldn’t take it personal; it’s just something you’ve gotta work on, and if you’re good in that area, then there’s no reason to take it personal. I don’t know what the problem was to be honest; I don’t understand that part of it.

That being said, its great to be on the other side. We felt like we had a great squad, we felt like a family.

A family that’s up 3-1 through the first four fights, and definitely happy about it.

Shamar

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