Zak Cummings TUF 17 Blog: Episode 3 “FAILURE IS ALWAYS AN OPTION”
Week three starts off with recapping Luke’s sick flying knee to keep control of the TUF 17 fight selections for Team Sonnen. Bubba calls out “King” but Team Sonnen matches up Uriah Hall vs. Adam Cella. Team Jones seems pretty excited about the match up. They said that this is the exact matchup they wanted, which we all laughed about since Bubba obviously wanted Kevin Casey next.
On our van ride back we had to give “King” a hard time with him getting called out like that and now we all had to see each other back at the house. Once we got back to the house, a group of guys were up at the fire pit hanging out. Uriah was making fun of “King” which was ok because he was playing around, and then shit hit the fan. Uriah was talking about Tor being a “Professional Cooker” and Josh – “Dad”- corrected him by saying “You mean Chef.” Uriah freaks out and storms off downstairs. You see him completely abusing a perfectly innocent orange while venting to Jimmy and myself. I couldn’t understand a word he said. I just kept watching the orange smash from hand to hand. Funny part that gets me, was that Uriah wanted to fight Josh the whole time since we got there but, when it came down to it he went with Adam. Maybe the coaches had more input than we know but whatever.
During the training it shows Uriah freaking out about getting tapped out by “King” then calling him out for more. Uriah then said something in his interview about just being too nice and he wasn’t going to be “nice” anymore. Funny this is when we train most of our egos were left in the locker room. Uriah does not have a sparing speed, and he will admit that. He just goes hard, which drove a lot of guy’s nuts during practice. We knew it was a competition and some of us tried to help out our teammates more than others. I will agree with Chael that Uriah was definitely the most athletic there and worked the hardest. He never stopped; sometimes I think he actually over worked himself. On Adam’s side it seemed like Coach Jones was trying to set up a good game plan of taking Uriah down off his kicks and do as much damage as possible with elbows.
Uriah has a little battle within him and has a sit down conversation with Chael about fighting off that mental doubt that all athletes have. Uriah did tell me that Chael gave him some really good advice but I never knew that conversation existed ‘til I watched the episode. Chael gave some great advice and now I know what Uriah was talking about. There were some great quotes from this episode by the “Darkside” coaches. Coach Jamie of course with his, “Good fighters find openings, but great fighters create openings” and Chael with his GREAT speech about failure, “Failure is always an option; Failure is the most readily available option possible.” Chael is an absolute great coach and person. I was very impressed the whole time I was there, with who Chael was. The coaches decided that “King” Kevin Casey was next by already placing his picture on the board with a question mark next to his name. This upset Adam a little bit thinking our team was looking past his fight.
After weigh-ins, all the Team Jones coaches came over to hang out and get to know their team a little better. I was incredibly excited that he brought his puppy. I tried my hardest to kidnap her but it didn’t work out in my favor. Our team came home after the weigh-ins, Tor and I cooked dinner for everyone which was something we did pretty much every fight. We would cook for whoever had a fight coming up to keep everything stress free and help them recover from making weight.
The look on my face says it all regarding the KO from Uriah Hall
I actually thought this was a very good fight. Adam came prepared for a war, pushing forward and throwing bombs. Uriah kept using quick jabs and push kicks to keep his distance, and a couple of the push kicks actually knocked Adam to the canvas. Uriah caught a kick and scored a takedown but not much happened on the ground ‘til Adam got back to his feet. Besides the takedown and pushing Adam down with the kick I thought this was a very even round on the feet. Possibly, Adam even landing a little bit more with his hands pushing forward. Then it happens, the 10 second clap comes, Uriah throws a huge back spinning heel kick to Adam’s chin and puts him straight to sleep. This was probably the nastiest knockout I’ve ever seen in person if you couldn’t tell by my facial expression afterwards (pictured). Adam was down for quite some time with that deep breathing. Luckily Adam came to and went to the hospital to get checked out and he made his way back to the house later that night being his normal joking self. He was fine, and we were all very happy he wasn’t injured. If that wasn’t a guarantee for KO of the Season and the $25k bonus, then I don’t know what was. I swear this is the only season where a five second knockout will be forgotten. Ridiculous!!!!
Next up, Team Sonnen retains control of the fight pick and Chael did not play any trickery. Kevin Casey was up next, but we had no clue who they would match him up against. Bubba did not get his match up, Collin Hart got the call and he was ecstatic. Tune in for tonight’s episode when things get heated up at the clip of weigh-ins where Collin flips off “King” to his face when he put his hand out to shake. Shit gets real!!!
If you missed last week’s blog from Zak Cummings just click here to check it out. Make sure to follow Zak on Twitter and check back next week as he continues to blog throughout the TUF 17 season exclusively on MMAValor.
Category: Blog, Exclusive, Featured, MMA, UFC, Ultimate Fighter
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Team Sonnen member of TUF 17, blogging each week during the season.Subscribe
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