Zak Cummings TUF 17 Blog: Episode 4
The TUF 17 episode starts off with Adam coming back from the hospital and about jumps into the shower with Uriah cracking jokes and being his normal self. He said he didn’t really remember that he even fought. I still feel like he was doing pretty well before that knockout, Adam gained a lot of respect from all of us. This week’s matchup was “King” Kevin Casey and Collin Hart, which I feel like is a fight between some of the best grapplers in the house. Team Jones felt very confident in this match up, but then again they said that for every match up so far. Kevin said that after talking with the coaches, Collin would be the best match-up for him stylistically. He did not want to face a solid striker, which could work the cut that he already had from his fight to get into the house.
One of the funniest days of the whole time we were in the fighter house was the day of the rap battles. A bunch of us were chilling around the table and Jamal was attempting to freestyle and was trying to call out Kevin who was shooting pool at the time. When Kevin finally showed up we really didn’t know what to expect. Damn, he blew us away. I was very impressed. They went on for a while actually and when Jamal realized he was no match for “King” he began to show off his amazingly awful stripper dancing skills. Clint jumped into the mix and was pretty good as well. He had some violent lyrics but he was legit. I felt bad that the only TV time he got was of him choking but guess you gotta learn the hard way.
I thought both coaches were going over some solid game plans for each other. They both wanted to take the fight to the ground and be in a controlling position. Collin was planning on pushing the pace and attempt to tire Kevin out, and Kevin was looking to move off-angle and take Collin down with a submission. Bubba was really hoping Collin would win this fight and regain control so he could fight next. Bubba is a very big middleweight and it was pretty miserable for him to keep his weight down so low the whole time he was in the house. Most of the time we were in the house there was a lot of game planning and match-up talk. Everyone had match-ups that they believed were best for them but also we really tried to figure out what was best for our team as well. I think that is one reason why Team Sonnen meshed so well. We worked together as a team much better than Team Jones. I believe some of their guys were bullying match-ups.
Make sure to watch tonight’s episode #5
One night the house lost power and then the pranks started. Kevin though it would be funny if they toilet papered Team Jones in the middle of the night. Kevin, Kelvin, Jimmy and Uriah all snuck upstairs and got into Team Jones’ room. Kelvin said the camera lights freaked him out, making him throw his roll and hitting Jimmy in the back of the head. They all threw a roll and sprinted downstairs back to their room, as they were running downstairs Uriah tripped and fell down the stairs, which tripped Jimmy, which tripped Kelvin and created a huge pile up. I was dying laughing and went to check on my teammates and they were fake sleeping. Then we hear Bubba yell across the house, “Two rules, don’t fuck with my food and don’t fuck with my sleep.” This was an absolutely terrible prank but turned out pretty funny because it backfired so badly for our team. Kelvin was hiding in the closet all night because he was certain Team Jones would retaliate. On a side note, when we lost power, I found out my Asics running shoes glow in the dark. They lit my way to go to bathroom in the middle of the night. BIG PLUS.
At the weigh-ins, shit got real. Kevin and Collin went to face off and when Kevin put his hand out to shake hands, Collin backed away and threw up the middle finger. WHAT???!!! This was so random, Collin seemed to be a little different and quiet but nobody saw that one coming. Kevin got in his face and we had a pretty serious faceoff on our hands until Jamal separated them. Our team really thought it was disrespectful and I know even some Team Jones guys did not agree with it as well. Later on that night we were all back at the house and Kevin confronted Collin like a man. Collin said he really didn’t mean to disrespect our team it just kind of happened. Once again Uriah got very upset about something that had nothing to do with him, and said he wanted to trade Kevin places.
I felt that this was the most boring fight of the show so far. Not that it’s a bad thing, due to how amazing all the fights to get in to the house were and two very good knockouts in the first to prelim fights. Collin comes out all ‘flying ninja’ like and then takes Kevin down. Collin fought very smart on the ground not giving Kevin any space to get his guard game going. Collin stayed busy by trying to pass and land short shots to the head and body. Kevin actually looked pretty good on his feet when he threw the couple of combinations that he did but most of the fight was them clinched up or Collin on top. It seemed like Kevin just never really got started in the fight. At some point the two collided heads and split Kevin open with a big cut on his forehead. This made round two pretty bloody but not that it was a lot of damage done, just well controlled by Collin. Team Jones finally got their first win via decision for Collin Hart. After the fight Collin runs over to the treadmill and started jogging to prepare for his next fight and Kevin turned his own picture over on the bracket board to show respect.
Next week’s match-up is Bubba McDaniel versus Kelvin Gastelum, who Jones said he felt was the weakest competitor on our team. Bubba was coming into this as a pretty heavy favorite but we knew it would be a tougher fight than expected because Kelvin is a gamer. He is quick, a solid wrestler and has a great pace that he can push. I really don’t know what is going to be shown, but previews show Chael visiting the house and some of our game of charades. This was an absolute blast; we had some pretty crazy games going on. You will not want to miss next week’s TUF 17 episode.
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: 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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