SBNation.com User Blog: Anthony Ferguson

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 10 Recap: This Is My Time

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:14:06 -0000

So, that's it. The season is over. It was a fun and strange experience, but I'm so glad I did it. I'll get into my fight from last night as well as Ramsey Nijem's battle with Chris Cope. Before that, make sure you read all of my recaps here at SB Nation MMA: there's week 9, week 8, week 7, week 6, week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1.

This episode opens with me trying to talk to Chuck O'Neil the morning after the incident went down with me and Charlie Rader. I knew something was wrong, but like I said last week I wasn't really clear about what I specifically said. When Chuck wouldn't talk to me, I got a bad feeling. It must've been way worse than I thought it was.

What you didn't see was the time delay. After I cleaned up and no one was talking to me, I just decided to leave the situation alone. I talked to the show's producers to do some interviews and they filled me in. Obviously what I heard was not good.

I knew I had to apologize and acknowledge my mistake. I had to man up, but I wanted to make sure I apologized to everyone at once. How did they take it? Not great. They each took turns scolding me, one by one. I knew I had to take it and not walk away. I had to make sure they said everything they had to say. It felt like I was being lectured by my parents.

Here's what you don't know: my team made a collective decision to not help me train for my fight. They all told me that morning after the drunken incident I was on my own. I'd say there was almost a week's distance between that morning and the day of my fight. I spent a lot of time shadow boxing and training myself. It sucked and it was lonely, but I was left with no choice. I still had a fight, so I couldn't let it get me down.

Chuck had a lot of people to roll with and help him prepare. Me? I found my way towards the boxing ring and just prepped myself. And the guys on the team were watching me day in, day out.

The coaches, Brock Lesnar and Marty Morgan, mostly stayed out of it. I heard Len Bentley said something to them about how the team wasn't going to help me. The coaches never turned their back on me. They helped me as they normally would just without any training partners. That didn't bother me. I wasn't going to make any excuses about what happened. I was going to deal with it and still win.

The only two people who were really supportive of me was Javier Torres and Nordim Asrih. They decided they would forgive me and understood people made mistakes. I am very grateful for their understanding. You also heard them both cornering me in Spanish, which we knew would throw off Chuck. My Spanish isn't perfect, but I understand a lot. I heard all of their instructions and Chuck later told me he had no idea what they were saying to me.

To take my mind off of everything I wrote in my journal. I wrote to my parents and wrote to my girlfriend. Just being able to put happy thoughts to ink helped me smile and inspire me.

So what about Ramsey's fight with Cope?

I always knew Ramsey was tough. Like I said before, I fought his roommate Brock Jardine. Both Jardine and Ramsey, who train at the same team, have the same style and approach to the game. I saw Ramsey during the competition grow. There was no doubt in my mind he was a formidable opponent. I also knew Cope was really underrated. His takedown defense had come a long way, his cardio was on point and he had decent striking. It didn't surprise me at all that he stopped all of Ramsey's take downs in the first round.

But then Ramsey does what he does best: pressure, make it an ugly fight, suck guys into his game. Cope put up a decent scrap in the first round, but succumbed in the second. While Cope had improved takedown defense, we knew a wrestler like Ramsey had a few tricks up his sleeve to either get the fight to the floor or confuse Cope enough for him to make a mistake. That's exactly what he did. You can't win a fight on your heels, defending the entire time. Eventually Ramsey took away everything Cope uses to win and stuck him hard. That was all she wrote.

Then came time for me to face Chuck. Despite all that had happened, I was in the zone. I knew I could win and knew exactly what I had to do to win. More importantly, it was a reckoning. These guys had to know I was there for business. I had a statement to make. I had to win without controversy. I had to beat Chuck up and let everyone know I meant nothing but business.

I knew Chuck was going to try to counter off my jab, so I wanted to use more head and trunk movement to throw him off. Slowly but surely, everything started opening. My left hook started finding the mark, then my jab, then my inside lead leg. The plan was to pick him apart with a lot of different looks. You'll notice, though, I dropped Ryan with an uppercut. I feel like I've got a ton of different strikes that land in high percentage. I wanted to show them to Chuck, to Dana White and to everyone who wondered what was going to happen in the fight.

I dropped Chuck once, but backed off the first time. The second time it was different. I nailed him with an inside leg kick. That forced him to lean and look for the head hunting punch, so I went hard to the body. He crumpled from there and I jumped. Referee Herb Dean did his job and I don't think anyone would argue with how decisive it was.

You see me yelling on top of the cage after my win. I was yelling "it's my time". It was. For the longest I've been working for others or doing things that didn't really help me. Finally I was doing the right thing for me, my family, my loved ones and my career. I was putting it all together and it felt amazing. After that hard, long, lonely week, that was pure vindication.

It's me and Ramsey at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale. I already feel great, I've got a great gameplan and I've had a fantastic camp for this fight. I am not doubting Ramsey's ability to win this, but I will not let him take away my dreams from me. This is my time.

Thanks for all of the support over these past few weeks and watching me fight. Get at me on Twitter or Facebook. I want to say thanks again to SB Nation for letting me come here and tell my story on this journey.

This Saturday is the biggest fight of my life. Just like I've always done, I'm headed to the fight dressed well, full prepared with my dream box tightly clenched in my hand.

This is my time.

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 9 Recap: What Went Wrong?

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:36:06 -0000

I've got a lot to explain, don't I? I will discuss everything from last night's show, both the good and bad. First, be sure to catch all of my recaps: there's week 8, week 7, week 6, week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1. Make sure to read those before you get here. Alright, let's talk about the two fights on last night's show.

Before we get into the madness, let's go over the other stuff first.

First up was Chuck O'Neil's rematch with Zachary Davis. We knew when that rematch was announced that Chuck was going to beat him. When you beat someone once, it's much harder to beat them again. Fighters learn, adapt and get their attitude right. Any time I've fought rematches they've been much harder. Also keep in mind the first time he had to get the weight right. This time it was already on point, so he could just focus on preparation.

I also have to say Brock Lesnar was a big help to Chuck and all of us. There's nothing fancy about Lesnar's style, but Brock is huge on basics like positioning. I think he was instrumental to Chuck's success in terms of giving him the tools he needed to let his stand-up shine.

Zach Davis is a warrior. Trust me, I've been hit by Chuck in practice. He punches very, very hard. You could hear them smack against Zach's face during the fight. I didn't know it would do that much damage like tearing his retina, but I wasn't surprised he was hurt. His leg kicks weren't light either. Did I know he had two torn retinas? Of course not, but he stood through a beating.

The mood after Chuck's win among the team was very high. It was funny how Spike TV edited it. I actually fought before Chuck and broke the door before him, but for whatever reason they showed him doing that. You can actually see me in the background during Chuck's fight with my hands still wrapped. When Chuck won we all felt great. It was one thing for Zach to fight after I already stopped Ryan McGillivray, but after Chuck beat Zach you could tell Team dos Santos was totally deflated. We were still thinking like a team at this point, so that seemed like a very damaging blow if you ask me.

Then it came time for me to fight, on the TV show, anyway. I was amped. Incredibly amped. Everything felt different this time. I stayed out of the politics about whether Ryan was the weak link or not. I didn't care about that stuff. When Dana White asked me who I wanted to fight, I told him it didn't matter. It's a tournament, right? That means you should be able to beat everybody. Whether it was Ryan or Ramsey Nijem or whoever, it doesn't matter to me.

I did things differently this time. I threw that inside left kick. I was hoping for an inside superman punch, but it wasn't there. But from Ryan's jab, I got his range perfectly. You'll also notice he kind of threw it upwards. Instead of slipping to the outside, I slipped to the inside. That's when I landed the left uppercut. He started tripping on his heels, but I didn't really realize he was in that much trouble. When everyone screamed to get on him, I ground and pounded as much as I could. You saw what happened from there.

Now, let me talk about what happened in the house.

You first have to understand we started drinking not long after we had just got done fighting. We had also done the semi-final picks. I think part of me brought the fight home since my real fight with Ryan ended so fast. When you bring alcohol into the mix, it was just bad from there.

We all drank a lot. It started out with shots of Patron and moved to Jim Beam. Miller Lites were mixed in the entire time. We weren't just drinking to relax. We were going hard core. Everyone was drinking, too, although maybe not as much as some of us.

Things got out of hand fast. My adrenaline was still going. Things were beginning to escalate around me. They didn't show this, but Shamar Bailey got pissed after Ramsey started dancing on him. That helped to set things in motion.

Throughout the show, I tried to keep calm and poised. I excused myself from a lot of conversations or just insane bulls--t. I was trying to stay focused.

That all went away fast. Charlie Rader poured water on my head, but at the time I thought it was beer. I couldn't understand why he would do something like that, even as minor as it may seem now. I had a short fuse. I'm usually not like that. When I saw myself, it was honestly kind of creepy.

Unfortunately, everyone saw The Boogeyman came out. That's a side of my personality I usually only see in the cage, but somehow Charlie brought it out in real life. Something just snapped and I thought "This guy is your enemy now". Rather than try to bring people close to me, I was pushing everyone away.

Why did I bring up Charlie's son? I have no idea, but I have a guess. My birth father wasn't there for me growing up. Somehow Charlie's situation mixed in with my adrenaline from fighting and the booze all worked together to bring up my own issues. I learned a lot about myself watching that on tape and how I felt about certain things in my life. I was under a lot of pressure, I was trying to bottle up frustration and it didn't work. Well, it worked for a while, but ultimately did not.

I said some things I shouldn't have said. I was in a weird place. I was having crazy dreams in that house. The entire experience took me out of my own independence and removed all of my release valves.

I really regret saying what I said to Charlie and we've talked about it since the incident. I've spoke to Clay Harvison and Chuck, too. We are in a better place now than we were that night.

Part of me feels like this is what the producers wanted. Every season there is someone who cracks. It sucks it had to be me, but I've never lived in a house full of fighters competing against each other. That alcohol is also there for a reason. Maybe subconsciously I needed that to happen so I could fight Charlie and Chuck who were my friends in the house at the time.

The really weird part was how drunk I got. When I woke up the next morning, I didn't remember much. I had a scar on my left arm, didn't know where it came from. I started cleaning up and was basically none the wiser. But no one wanted to talk to me and who can blame them?

The last I will say is maybe all of this is related to me growing up angry. I only met my father two years ago. But I never wanted to bore anyone with my stories. My attitude was that no one cares about my problems, so I'll just keep them to myself. That didn't work, but that's what I was working with when I was in the house at that time.

I'm sorry to all who I disappointed, but I want you all to know I haven't had a drink at all during this camp. I'm training hard and staying on track. I'm living a healthy life, physically and emotionally. Thanks for all of the support over these past few weeks and watching me fight. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 8 Recap: Chris Cope Prevails

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:21:46 -0000

There's lots to talk about last night's show, but be sure to catch all of my recaps: there's week 7, week 6, week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1. Make sure to read those before you get here. Alright, let's talk about the two fights on last night's show.

The episode opens with the old beef between Chris Cope and Shamar Bailey. If you're asking me if I thought it was real, I'd say yeah. I don't think they hated each other. Maybe Shamar was just using how he was annoyed by Chris to fuel him. Either way, there was something there genuine about Shamar's dislike for Chris. It didn't help that Cope did the "woo!" thing, but it never got to me like it got to Shamar. Just remember Cope can get under anyone's skin and Shamar liked his peace and quiet.

When it was announced Clay Harvison was going to fight Ramsey Nijem, I thought Clay had a decent chance. Ramsey's stand-up is not that good and I believed Clay had the takedown defense to eventually stop him. We were worried about the finger, but I was with Clay that when the adrenaline gets pumping he wouldn't even feel it. More on that fight in a moment.

It was pretty cool to see Brian Stann show up. I've never been in the Marines, but his life lessons and message helped put things in perspective. Besides, it's always important to listen to the lessons of UFC fighters that have done well and made a name for themsevles. I don't think Dana White would pick Brian Stann to talk to us by accident. The guy's done a lot and has a lot of important things to say. The only funny part is when we were woken up that morning where he spoke, we didn't know what was happening. No one told us we were going to be listening to Brian Stann. If you notice, I had on a button-down shirt because I thought they were taking us somewhere. Wishful thinking, I guess, but I was still happy to have Brian there. I know Clay liked it, too, because it was a familiar face for him.

Ok, back to the action. So how was Clay's finger? I've never dislocated a finger, so I don't know what it's like. I also can vouch for Clay: he's a tough dude. He never really complained about anything. He was also doing everything he could to rehab it. Every night he was icing it, every day taping it. It was better than when he injured it, but he didn't have enough time to get it back into competition shape.

As for the fight, we knew what Ramsey was going to do. He was going to take you down and grind on you. When I fought Ramsey's roommate, that's what he tried to do, too. What I noticed from the tape was how Ramsey was able to bait Clay. He used that big overhand right to get Clay to fire back hard and over commit. Ramsey waited for the retaliation, level changed and took him right to the floor.

Once on the back, Ramsey had a nice uppercut that flattened Clay out. Ramsey never rushed it, but took his time to push the action along at just the right moments. Before you know it, you're in too deep to get out. You have to give credit to the kid. Clay's a serious competitor and Ramsey was able to execute his gameplan perfectly. Not much more can be said about that.

As far as Shamar Bailey's back injury, I didn't know much about it. I didn't even know he had cut his forehead and needed stitches. Those guys were really good at concealing injuries.

Headed into the fight, I gave Cope a very good chance of winning. His jiu-jitsu isn't the best, but he's got good lateral movement, good striking and one thing we knew he had over Shamar: conditioning. Cope's not muscled up or even the best athlete ever, but he worked hard, took lessons seriously and was always ready to go three rounds. In a system like we were in where you have to fight three times or more in six weeks, that's probably the most important asset you can have.

I personally scored the first round for Cope. Who knows how much Shamar's back injury affected him? I don't, but I think Shamar's inability to take Cope down had more to do with Cope. He was technically beating Shamar to the punch every time. I don't mean striking, I mean when he needed to have his hips in place, he did. When he needed to hand fight, he did. We worked a ton of cage defense to prepare for this bout. Greg Nelson even came in and it was just cage takedown defense review over and over. Shamar doesn't try to double leg you in the middle of the cage. He backs you up and uses the cage. Because his takedown attempts were predictable, that gave us a great chance to get Cope ready. It also showed how one-dimensional Shamar was.

The second I thought was an easy pick for Cope. I thought it was going to a third round, but I have now idea how Shamar thought he won both rounds. It's cliche, but you can't leave it up to the judges even if I honestly think the fight should've had a sudden death round.

I thought the interaction between Shamar and Dana White was weird, but only because of Shamar. He went to Dana to tell him he wanted to make it entertaining, but he never really did that. He then used his back as an excuse for not being able to take Cope down. I don't understand that. Dana White doesn't want to hear excuses. You saw Clay got a lot of props for fighting injured even though he lost. Did you ever see Clay go to Dana White and say he tried to make it exciting? Nope. I don't know what Shamar was thinking with that.

Be sure to tune in next week. I'm sure you saw teaser footage of me going at it with some people. I can't say much except don't miss it! Thanks for all of the support over these past few weeks and watching me fight. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 7 Recap: Charlie O'Neal's Redemption

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:51:43 -0000

Another episode, another chance for Len Bentley to be sour about things. There's lots to talk about last night's show, but be sure to catch all of my recaps: there's week 6, week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1. Make sure to read those before you get here. Now let's talk about the show.

You saw last week that Javier Torres from Team dos Santos and Chuck O'Neil from Team Lesnar were our wild card picks. From that point on, Len Bentley just bitched the entire time. I don't know what to make of his injury. He was trying to heal it, but he'd also be limping around on it and moaning, too. Right around this time he also played soccer with the other guys at Junior dos Santos' birthday party, so how bad was it? Maybe it was a day to day thing. I don't know, but I know Brock Lesnar made the right call. Chuck was healthy, a hard worker, talented and lost a close fight. Why wouldn't you bring that guy back?

Len also said coach Lesnar only coached when he was on camera. I disagree. It's hard to deny that Lesnar took a while to get warmed up to the role he was playing. But a few weeks in, Lesnar did a lot. I'd also say Marty Morgan and Erik Paulson were also fully available for help or questions. Think about this: when Len got hurt, the cameras were on him, but that was precisely the moment Lesnar was showing me and Chuck wall walking stuff. So was Lesnar only coaching when the cameras were on him? No, not true.

I'm not even sure Len wanted to be there after that. We would even come together as a team, encourage him to come to practice, but it was struggle. I don't think he's a bad guy, but he did seem like he had a chip on his shoulder.

Then came the coaches challenge. I thought for sure we had this in the bag. We were bummed when Brock didn't win, but it's not the biggest deal. The only thing kinda funny was that when Lesnar was running the course our team was yelling out "chicken s-t!" or "chicken salad!" just to hoot and holler. I couldn't believe when both Lesnar and Junior shanked the kicks, but oh well.

Chris Cope and his yelling. He would do this "woooo!" thing every morning. Downstairs was Team dos Santos and they were split into two rooms. Upstairs was us of Team Lesnar and we were all kinda bunched together. We would also practice first in the morning, so when he came downstairs the other team was still sleeping or relaxing. Cope would go downstairs and yell this at the top of his lungs. It obviously got to Shamar and no one in the house could blame him.

Then came the fight between Chuck O'Neil and Javier Torres. You saw all of the cage work Chuck was doing. We knew whether it was a guy like Ramsey Nijem or Torres, getting off the fence is key to defeating guys from Team dos Santos. Those guys are grinders and that's how they fight. Those of us on Team Lesnar wanted to bang it out in the center of the cage.

I've said it for a while now. Chuck has awesome jiu-jitsu skills. When Javier went on all fours to base out, Chuck snatched up the D'arce choke. We were a little worried about his energy levels, not because of his conditioning, but because of his size. He was a bigger welterweight and had to cut a fair amount of weight, more so than many other guys. As you saw, though, he had plenty of energy and awareness.

Chuck was happy about the win, but quiet, too. Those of us moving on knew we still had a long road ahead. More importantly, Chuck wanted to get redemption against Zach Davis, the guy who hadn't beaten him before. He knew it wasn't going to be easy to beat him or to move on from there.

As you saw, Ryan McGillivray is the next guy I'm fighting. That wasn't the guy I requested. I had heard Shamar Bailey wanted to fight me and that was who I specifically requested, but I don't play matchmaker. Me and Shamar had talked about it and thought this would be a good fight, but it wasn't meant to be, I guess. Doesn't matter to me. I didn't care who I fought. If you want to win the show, then you have to be willing to fight anyone and believe you can beat anyone.

Shamar is also going to get his chance to beat up Cope after being annoyed to death. Yes, I can confirm: that's a fight Shamar was very much looking forward to.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for all of the support over these past few weeks and watching me fight. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 6 Recap: My Heel Kick Knockout

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:55:47 -0000

You finally got to see me fight! I was so stoked watching that I could hardly believe my eyes. Before we get to this week's episode, though, be sure to catch all of my recaps: there's week 5, week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1. Make sure to read those before you get here. Alright, onto last night's show.

The episode opened with Lew Polley again rubbing Junior dos Santos the wrong way. I've said this all season long. I don't know Lew Polley. We didn't have much interaction. When we did it was fine, but always seemed like a bit of a tool. I just know it takes a lot to piss off coach dos Santos, but Polley managed to do it. I can't comment on whether it was the right decision or not. I didn't even really know about it when it happened. We just thought Team dos Santos was shuffling out coaches. For example, Greg Nelson was with us for part of the season and absent the rest. There's no conspiracy there, he had other things he had to do. We figured Lew was like that until I asked the team later in the season what happened. They told me he was fired because he undermined coach dos Santos' authority. It didn't matter to or affect us, but it seemed like Junior had enough.

Clay Harvison and Len Bentley were struggling with injuries, but ended up not being as bad as we thought. We were worried after Clay's fight he was out with a broken pinky. Luckily it was dislocated. That is the worst dislocation I've ever seen, but not being broken is a great start. Len fell to the ground yelling in pain, as you all saw. We thought he must've completely blown out his knee, but all of the major stuff wasn't torn. You saw coach Brock Lesnar not really react much to Len or Clay's injuries. It wasn't that he didn't care. I've said it before, he wanted to win. I think he was just frustrated about the situation. Having guys lose is one thing. Having them fall out with injuries like we thought they were about to is another. We were relieved when we found out both could fight again.

Finally, I got to fight! I knew I was going to be picked before they announced the match-ups and I knew I had to face another wrestler in Justin Edwards. I thought that was to my benefit. I wrestled in college and while I had heard Justin was 6-0 or 7-0, I knew I could hold my own. In fact, I knew I could hold my own no matter where the fight went, but I'd been working really hard on my hands. That was something I was investing time and energy into improving. I wanted to use this fight as a chance to put them to work.

It felt, I don't know, vindicating to hear Brock Lesnar speak about my abilities or say I could win the show. You've noticed I haven't gotten a lot of air time recently. I didn't go on that show to smoke and joke. I wasn't being a cut up behind the scenes. I tried to be positive with everyone and keep to myself. My mom always told me if you work hard and keep your nose clean, a little luck will take you a long way. I've never forgotten that. I'm not getting the kind of air some other guys are getting, but I'm not worried about it at all. When I am on camera, I'm winning fights. That's what matters in the end.

You saw that dream box I had? I still have it with me. I'll never lose it. I take it with me everywhere I go. I've had my dream inside of it for a while and I keep it around as good luck and a reminder of where I've come to. I'm serious about this opportunity and it takes dedication, belief and focus to get where you want to go. You can't lose sight of your dreams. That's why it's always there.

You probably also noticed I was wearing a suit before my fight. I've done that ever since my days in wrestling. Before a big meet or a fight, I always show up to the venue in a suit. I was raised to be a gentleman and I haven't lost sight of that. I don't want to be perceived as a clown or do anything to bring shame to my name. It's important to represent yourself well, be respectful of others and to act like an adult.

Overall, I'm pleased with how the fight went. I knew Justin was going to come out of the gate hard charging and I was mentally prepared for that. He got in on my distance and I noticed watching the tape I was dropping my left constantly. But I felt like I was using my hands, using my jab and throwing every kind of punch that's in a striker's arsenal. I can obviously do better next time, but like I said, I'd invested a lot in improving my hands, my head movement and stuff like that. Justin put a lot of pressure on me early, but obviously I was able to hang on.

I won't say I never get taken down. I got taken down twice in this round, but it doesn't bother me at all. I got back to my fight right away the first time and knocked Justin out cold the next. I think I'm a beast everywhere. That kick wasn't accidental either. From that position I've got a lot of attacks. I actually have a background in breakdancing and that allows me to position my hips a bunch of different ways to throw things at guys they've never seen. You notice that wasn't a straight up kick, bottom to top. That was a heel strike that moved side to side. That balance on my hips and the ability to still generate power comes from hard training and a little bit of breakdancing, too.

The other fight on the show was Chuck O'Neil against Zach Davis. Chuck's a great guy. Hard-nosed fighter with a lot of skills and a Boston accent. What's not to love? I didn't know much about him, but I knew he was pretty talented and very athletic.

I wasn't surprised Chuck lost per se, but I was very surprised at the way he lost. It was a good fight, although we all though coach Lesnar's advice in this fight was not very good. When he was yelling for Chuck to get his arm out of the arm bar, that's what help Zach set up the triangle. Ultimately, though, it's Chuck's fight and he knows he could've done better. He was really made at himself and really upset. More so than anyone else on the team when they lost. And that triangle was his move. You could see Chuck was a really lanky dude and he could throw up triangles from all kinds of positions. He got caught this time, but I'd bet it wouldn't happen twice.

I will also say I think Chuck deserved that wild card slot. Len is good, but you can see he's got an attitude problem. He was talking about how he was "confused" he didn't get picked. That just means he isn't paying attention.

I'm out of here for now. Thanks for all of the support over these past few weeks and watching me fight. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 5 Recap: Tony Ferguson's No Liar

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:11:01 -0000

What's up, everyone? I'm back here at SBNation.com with another recap of this season of Spike TV's 'The Ultimate Fighter'. Before we get into this week's show, there's week 4, week 3, week 2 and week 1 that you have to check out first. Now, onto this week.

The episode again starts off with Len Bentley complaining about how coach Brock Lesnar talked to us. I covered this last week. Len's a cool guy. Don't get me wrong. I like him and he can fight, but he was being butt hurt here. I don't think anyone bigger than him had ever told him what to do or to get in line. Coach Lesnar's words weren't fun, but they weren't supposed to be. Like Clay said later, It was time to get down to brass tacks, right?

It was time for fight selection. As you saw, Coach Junior dos Santos picked Mick Bowman from his team and Clay Harvison from ours. The first thought that went through my head when he did that was "Damn, I wanted to fight." It's hard to be in a place to fight and not know when that fight is coming. It's constant anxiety and I was looking to relieve some pressure.

I didn't know Mick well, but he was always friendly. He's got good jiu-jitsu and is a patient striker. I knew Clay had what it took to win, but I respected his game. More on this later.

You've heard me talk about Chris Cope and how no one trusted him. It's still going on, which should tell you what a big issue this was in the house. This time it was about the message in the sand: "Chris Cope, Double Agent."

You saw it. I didn't write it. Mick Bowman copped to it. So why did Cope single me out? I'm not really sure. My parents used to let me write on the walls as a kid, so it's true I was always writing in the sand pit in the house. To me, that isn't exactly strong evidence, but whatever. My other guess is that I was first in the doorway when you walk in. Maybe he heard everyone talking and pointed to me because I was the first person he saw. I don't know and I don't care.

What the cameras didn't show was that I initially tried to walk away from it all. When Cope got in the room and started badgering everyone, I left. I went downstairs and tried to play pool. Cope followed me. I kept telling him to give me a minute, leave me alone. He just couldn't get it through his head. So when he accused me of lying after all of that, I didn't take it too well. Could I have handled it differently? Maybe, but I'm not embarrassed about it. Cope's a nice guy, but he's also a weird guy.

Cope would do weird things. He'd start conversations with "How are the Muppets today?" or "Who would win in a fight: Chuck Norris or Godzilla?" Sometimes we'd all play along, but it was corny and hard to deal with every day. When he eventually chilled out, I found out about his family and what kind of guy he really was. He's a likable dude, but when he's trying to break the ice? Not as fun to be around.

Before the fight they show the tattoo on Clay's side with his brother's ashes in it. I thought that thing was awesome. Clay is like a lot of fighters. He brings into the cage a lot of demons with him. Not the same demons as everyone else. People have their own problems or things they have to deal with. But a lot of fighters bring that with them to the cage when they fight.

What was the game plan for Clay? To win. That's it. There was no need to overthink it. We knew he could overpower Mick with his strikes. He was bigger, a better athlete and was a damager on his feet. As long as he kept the fight where it should've been, he was good to go.

You saw coach Lesnar in the back getting amped for Clay's fight when he was holding pads. That didn't happen at first, but when he setlled into his coaching role he did this more and more. Lesnar became part of the team and as part of the team, wanted to win. He was into it and you could see it.

I scored both rounds for Clay. He gassed a little in the second, but that was more an adrenaline dump than anything else. He trained hard and was in good shape, I can vouch for him myself.

You saw him parry that kick from Bowman that broke his finger. He said it just went numb in the fight and didn't really bother him. Like I said before, the adrenaline had really kicked in. When he took off the glove it looked pretty nasty. Believe it or not, we didn't think he was out of the competition at that point. We all thought he could pop it back in, stitch it up and put duct tape on it. He'd be good. We were none the wiser in that locker room. As you all saw, UFC had other impressions of the finger.

Most importantly, we had control and could pick our fights. More on that next week. Thanks for watching the show and reading these blog posts. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 4 Recap: Brock Lesnar Cares

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:58:08 -0000

What's up, everyone? I'm back for another recap. Before we get to last night's show, be sure to check out all of my previous posts. There's last week's, a recap from week 2 and week 1. Be sure to read them all and share them on Facebook or Twitter. Alright, let's talk about last night's episode.

Team dos Santos' Lew Polley starts off the show saying the difference between Junior and Brock is that Junior cares and shows he cares. I don't really know Lew personally, but the guy just talks out of his ass. Brock definitely cared. I don't know why Lew would say something like that. It's a competition and I get that, but whatever. Lew can say whatever he wants. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now.

Besides, everyone saw coach dos Santos have to check Lew on occasion for trying to run the show. I think Lew's got a lot of ideas about things and that's his right to have them, but it doesn't make them true.

The show then moves to a team practice with coach Lesnar calling the four of us who were left The Four Horsemen. I don't know why that name among all was picked, but I liked it. It also added pressure. We were the only ones left from our team and we were being talked about as a group. That kinda makes you feel like if the group falls apart because of you, you're the worst of the bunch. I didn't want to have that feeling. It didn't matter, though. We went from being The Four Horsemen to The Three Wiseman, anyway!

As you saw, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes showed up on Brock's request to help us train. Hughes is a cool guy. He's always been one of my favorite fighters. He wasn't there very long with us on the show. I'd say maybe an hour and fifteen minutes. However, he did spend the entire time giving advice and showing us technique. I was thrilled to be able to roll with him. He accidentally uppercutted me when we did, which is a favorite memory of mine from the show. He's also as tall as he is wide and really, really strong. I was 'surprised' at how strong he was, but when you feel it for the first time it definitely opens your eyes.

It came time to pick who from our team was going to fight next. Honestly, I never would've suspected they'd pick Charlie Rader. We called him 'The Superstar'. Rader's not only a great dude, but a great fighter. He's aggressive and was a state wrestling champion. When they announced he'd be fighting Ramsey Nijem, I was a not expecting that. I thought against anyone on their team Charlie would do well. He was feeling great when the fight was picked, so I gave him a very good chance of winning the fight.

Speaking of Ramsey, I don't have anything bad to say about him. He was as light hearted as you saw on the show. I don't know about the toenail painting thing. Maybe he was trying to cover up fungus or something. Whatever he was, he never bothered me and was genuinely a kind guy.

In fact, it turned out to be a small world. I knew Ramsey was a college wrestler and what not, but when we got to talking I found out I fought his roommate! His name is Brock Jardine and we fought for four rounds for the Pure Combat welterweight championship at Pure Combat 12. For the record, I won! The thing is when we found that out together that that was who I fought, he was still cool with me. That tells you what kind of guy Ramsey is.

None of us coached Charlie on what he had to do like it was a real training camp, but the coaches definitely had some things they wanted him to do. The game plan was for Charlie to drive forward with punches and stay on the offensive. We knew if he spent the entire time trying to defend the take down or play defensive it was going to be hard for him to win. The coaches told him to have faith in his wrestling and push forward. No back pedaling.

For whatever reason, Charlie just couldn't do it. I said it before, he's a great fighter. In training and at the show trials, Charlie was a beast. I don't know what it was. He just kind of lost composure or let the moment get to him. We're all trying to go after a six-figure contract with cameras in our faces. Some guys don't handle it all that well.

On top of that, Charlie got a stinger in his right shoulder from one of Ramsey's take downs. If you've ever played football and had a stinger, you know you lose feeling in your hand or arm for a little while. Charlie landed on his shoulder in that second round and it affected him when the choke came. Dana White is right that Charlie didn't fend off the choke very hard. Sometimes, though, you've got a little window and sometimes you don't. If you're already down an arm because you can't feel it, that's going to make stopping any choke pretty hard.

After the fight was over they showed coach Lesnar throwing the stool into the cage after Charlie lost. I believe Dana White is right. It does show Brock cares. He wants to win, badly. Nothing that happened on the show told me he didn't take his job seriously. Throwing a stool maybe isn't the most professional thing ever, but so what? I liked that Brock cared. That's what mattered most to me.

As for Brock's speech after Charlie lost, it was tough love. He wasn't being nice, but he wasn't trying to be. He didn't have to be. He was tryin to get us fired up. He wanted us to take winning seriously. Everyone saw Len Bentley walk out of the room after the ass chewing was in full swing. Len is a great fighter and a tough guy, but he's sensitive, too. Maybe the emotions were raw from losing his fight, but I didn't have any problem with what coach Lesnar said. I don't think Len takes criticism as well as others might.

All right, that's it for this episode. I can promise some big doings next week, so you have to be sure to tune in. Thanks for watching the show and reading these blog posts. If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 3 Recap: Len Bentley Falls

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:43:15 -0000

What's up, everyone? Happy to be back here on SB Nation MMA for another week of recaps. I hope you're enjoying the show and while I haven't been front and center on the show just yet, be patient. It's coming.

Go here for last week's recap and here for week 1. Alright, on to the show.

Right away the show gets into the whole "chicken shit" thing. As you could see, none of us were happy about it, but it wasn't even the first time we had heard about it either. Chuck O'Neil, who came in as an alternate after the show started, said he found stuff online where coach Lesnar was referring to us the same way. I never personally verified that, but it didn't matter. Personally, I know who I am and I know I'm not garbage. I'm not going to be talked to that way. Most of the other guys felt the same way. After Chris Cope's win where Lesnar said it again, the whole team was kind of in shock and turned off. You saw us running in the parking lot when Erik Paulson said something to coach Lesnar about it. None of us were really talking to him (Lesnar) and he could tell something was off. I even yelled out during those drills "chicken shit!" to just be funny or whatever. When coach Lesnar finally pulled us aside and made himself clear, it made things a little better, but people were still on edge. More on that later.

You saw Lew Polley and Junior dos Santos butt heads over coaching. I never had a bad experience with Coach dos Santos, but I also didn't spend a lot of time with him. Same goes for Lew Polley. Coaches dos Santos and Polley would come over sometimes to the house to hang out with their team and grill out. I would talk to Polley in the kitchen and he was nice, but kind of a dick. He just didn't seem like he ever wanted to give anyone else the time of day. I can't really comment on him taking over practices. I didn't really see any of that, but that was my experience with him.

Fight selection time and coach Lesnar puts Len Bentley against Ryan McGillivray. Coach Lesnar says Bentley is on edge and needs to fight. That was true, but it was true for the whole team. After the "chicken shit" comment, we were all kind of on edge to get in there and fight. Len probably was more on edge because he was the first pick, but he all felt the same way.

One thing the show didn't mention was the military rivalry between Bentley and McGillivray. Bentley was in the U.S. Army and McGillivray was in the Canadian military. They would debate and argue over whose military was better. This all happened before they fought, so bragging rights were also on the line when they fought.

Then there's Chris Cope. Maybe it looked like our team was paranoid and maybe we kinda were, but not totally. There were times when the team was trying to bond and Cope was nowhere in sight. When someone does something like that, it's sends a message. On top of that, who knows what they are saying? Him not hanging out was strange, but in a house full of fighters with pent up energy and not much to do, it made us suspicious of anything. For example, during this whole time I lost some of my gloves and gear after I had washed it. I went around asking everyone if they had seen it including Cope and no one knew anything. On top of him not hanging out, I thought in the back of my mind Cope could've been the one to take it. It turned out as I learned later a producer had taken stuff, so I felt horrible even thinking people on the show were stealing. I apologized to everyone later. At the time, though, I didn't know what to think and I was not there to be played or messed with.

Before Bentley and McGillivray fought, I knew Bentley had the talent to win. He was the top pick for a reason. He was a hard puncher with good boxing and was tough as nails. We knew McGillivray was tough, too, and also a very friendly dude. I'll admit I thought Bentley had a big edge going into the fight especially since he didn't have to cut much weight. McGillivray had a big frame and was going to be at a disadvantage since he had to get sucked out like that.

I'll say I scored the fight 19-19 and thought there should've been a third round. The second round was McGillivray's. The first was close, but I thought Bentley did just enough. Only one of the judges agreed, but that's the way most of the team genuinely felt. Bentley's a good guy and a great fighter, but he had cardio issues despite not having to cut as much weight. I give credit to McGillivray for gutting through and finding a way to win even if I believed there should've been a third round.

After the fight hanging out in the training center you saw Dana White tell Len to gather his family around because his fight so great. I know it made Len feel better, at least for a little while. He was still mad about not having a third round and at himself for not doing what he wanted to do, but props to Dana for the confidence boost. Len needed it and it worked.

You guys see that tease for next week's episode? That's me doing the granby roll when rolling with Matt Hughes. I'll be sure to get all into it next week.

That's all for right now. Thanks for watching the show and keep tuning in to see more of me! If you want to contact me, get at me on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks again to SB Nation and I'll talk to you guys next week!

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 2 Recap: Turning The Tide

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:09:08 -0000

What's up, everyone? I'm back here on SB Nation to give a recap of last night's episode of 'The Ultimate Fighter'. If you missed my recap from last week, be sure to check it out.

I still didn't get much TV time this episode. I know my time will come, so this is no criticism. It's just interesting how things plays out. If you notice they get a shot of my back in almost every scene! That was also me doing that Granby Roll on Matt Hughes in the tease for next week, so maybe I'll talk more about that later.

What can really be said about Keon Caldwell? He threw away the opportunity of a lifetime. What was weird for me was that one day he was gone. The teams were segregated more than people realize. We trained at different times of the day and lived on different schedules. So when he left there was no announcement. He was just gone.

Keon had a great MMA record and had done well at the TUF trials. I wonder if he was in shape, though. I don't think he was prepared for some of those workouts. My hunch is that was the hardest he'd worked out, realized this was too much for him and decided to use missing his daughter as an excuse. But like Dana White said, at least this happened early in the show. It's always better to give that opportunity to someone who wants it and loses than someone who is talented and doesn't want it.

We haven't seen a lot of the action in the house so far and that makes sense. At this point everyone is mostly getting along. Like I said, the teams live on different schedules, but up to this point when both teams are in the house most everyone is making an effort to get along. I won't say people are hanging out with the enemy, just more being cool with each other.

Speaking of hanging out with the enemy, some of us weren't sure what to make of of Chris Cope early on. I'll explain more of that in a moment.

Fight selection time came and because Shamar Bailey won his first fight, Team dos Santos was able to pick the next fight. They put their Javier Torres against our Chris Cope. At the staredown Michael Bowman said Cope's hands were shaking because he was afraid. I don't think that's true. When the fighters do those pose offs, they have to do them for a really long time. It's not five seconds. Cope might've been nervous about fighting, but not about fighting Torres. I think his arms were tired from being up there for so long.

Back to Chris. Before his fight with Javier you saw him training upstairs doing defensive drills and other stuff. I even helped out a little with that. But he was doing so much of it and was practicing for so long we wondered if he was hanging out with the other team like a double agent. Maybe we were a little too paranoid.

Chris talked about being a part-time fighter and training when he could. All that is true, but what people may not realize is that he had excellent cardio. We knew he could go the distance. He lacked some other stuff, maybe more refined technical skills, but he wasn't going to get tired. Javier had good conditioning too, but you could tell Chris' was better.

We, as a team, also didn't think the match-up with Chris against Javier was that much of a mismatch. Javier had good judo and some other skills, but he wasn't head and shoulders above Chris. Not by a long shot. Both guys were way more evenly matched than Team dos Santos ever realized.

No one wanted Chris to clinch, except maybe Junior dos Santos. Coach dos Santos was telling him to clinch, maybe to get a trip takedown or a throw. We were screaming to him to push off, use hand and kicking combinations.

It was kind of a weird fight. I think both guys had a lot of nerves going into it. There was a moment where in the second round both guys are talking to each other. Herb Dean and Dana White were telling them to stop talking and fight. Maybe the pressure was a lot for both to handle and the fight could've gone differently. Either way, I know both guys are talented and can do much better.

The mood in the 'locker room' after Chris won was awesome. We were all amped up. We were just so excited to get control. The aura in the room was amazing, definitely a lot better than the last time when we had that loss. Brock Lesnar gave his 'any given sunday' speech. The other coaches also talked to us and gave us feedback, not just that day but throughout the show, but coach Lesnar was the one who did most of the mentoring. After the speech we went back to the house, ate good food and enjoyed the rest of the night together.

I won't spoil anything, but tune in next week and I'll tell you about what I saw from coach Lew Polley and the nasty cut you see on Shamar Bailey in the teaser for next week's episode.

Strikeforce Challengers 15 Results: Josh Thornburg Knocked Out By James Terry

Anthony Ferguson — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 03:35:00 -0000

The second fight on tonight's Showtime broadcast is Josh Thornburg vs. James Terry. Thornburg is a Nick Diaz protege while Terry is coached by former middleweight champion Cung Le.

ROUND 1 - Thornburg starts in the southpaw position. Right hand lands for Thornburg after a double jab. Head kick misses for Terry. Outside leg kick to the lead leg of Thornburg. Right hand just misses for Terry again. Terry seems to be finding his range as right hands and kicks seem to all be finding the mark. Right hand foillowed by a left both land for Terry. Outside leg kicks and right hands land. And then a MONSTER right hand lands for Terry putting Thornburg to sleep. That's the fight, folks. It was timed beautifully off of Thornburg's jab.

After the replay on Showtime, it's clear the stoppage was justified.

Strikeforce Challengers 15 Results: James Terry defeated Josh Thornburg by referee stoppage at 4:38 of round 1.

The Ultimate Fighter 13 Episode 1 Recap: Taking Sides

Anthony Ferguson — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:32:12 -0000

What's up, everyone? My name is Anthony Ferguson and I'm a cast member on this season of The Ultimate Fighter. Some of you might know me, but if you don't, be sure to check this link out to learn more. I just want to say I'm excited to be a part of the show and able to share my thoughts here at SB Nation MMA.

As you may have seen, I didn't get a bunch of face time this episode. It's all good, though. I figure I'll get my time before the season is up. It's hard to introduce everyone on the show to America in one episode.

So, it's official: I'm on Team Brock Lesnar. I couldn't be happier about it. Junior dos Santos is an awesome guy and his coaching staff is top notch, but I seemed to get along really well with Lesnar and his coaches. When I was wrestling in college, I used to look up to Lesnar and coach Marty Morgan. Those guys were big dogs in collegiate wrestling and I wanted to be as successful as they have been. During the evaluations, we gelled. I wasn't their first pick and that's cool, but I had a feeling they'd put me on their team. When Dana White said my name and tossed me the jersey, I felt very confident I was in the right place.

Speaking of coach Lesnar, I was star struck. I don't say that very often. I don't say that ever. I couldn't help it this time. When he and coach dos Santos walked into the room I was so stoked. I couldn't believe for a moment I was standing there being a part of the whole thing. He's a larger than life figure. Being in the same room with him and working alongside him lets you know you're doing something very special.

The evaluations weren't hard exactly, but I wasn't surprised Myles Jury was injured. When coach dos Santos evaluated everyone he put them all in the cage at the same time. I'm not sure why they did that, but I guess it was so they could keep a close eye on everyone. That makes sense, but it also put everyone too close together. People were bumping into each other a lot. Myles is a cool dude and a good fighter, so I felt really bad for him. I'm not sure in made sense to have everyone in close quarters like that.

Brock and his coaches put everyone into teams and did things separately during their evals. I'll never second guess either coach, but for me, that system worked better. It was safer and the coaching staff got to get a closer look at everyone.

What I noticed during these evals was that I was doing well. I won't say I did better than everyone, but I did well enough to know I belonged in there. I was competitive with everyone and that gave me a lot of confidence early. The talent on the show was strong, but working alongside them told me I was definitely able to compete with all of them.

Call it a gut feeling, but I knew that coach dos Santos was going to put his best guy against our last pick. I don't know why, but I felt like they wanted their best guy to get early practice. They probably wanted to set the tone early, too.

Some of the other fighters talked about it on the first episode and it was true: Nordin Asrih did have jet lag. We were in a hotel secluded two days before the show kicked off, but Nordin had a hard time adjusting. I know that he didn't look his best in his fight with Shamar Bailey, but Nordin can strike. He's got powerful punches and kicks and is game to the finish. We knew Bailey's wrestling would be a lot for him to handle, but we weren't counting him out at all.

In the fight itself, Shamar smothered him. He never really allowed Nordin to do much. He definitely controlled Nordin and that's why he won, but there wasn't a lot of damage or guard passing. I understand that approach on Shamar's end. In six weeks, there's a lot of training and a lot of fighting. It doesn't make sense to take a bunch of risks early. We saw what happened with Myles. We know injuries happen, but no one wants to take unnecessary risks.

Nordin also couldn't catch a break. The gameplan by coach Erik Paulson wasn't to rush anything. We wanted Nordin to wait for Bailey to get close because we knew he'd close the distance fast. When he got at the right distance, we thought Nordin had the power to end the fight if he picked his shots right. He tried, but when he slipped on the kick we knew it just wasn't his day. Like I said, he's an awesome guy and a great fighter, but between Shamar's wrestling and the jetlag he had too much to overcome.

No one was happy about the loss, but I won't say team morale was down because of it either. It was early in the season. Speaking for myself, I knew I was in capable hands. I'm sure other guys on the team felt the same. Even if things didn't kick off the way we'd hoped, we believed it was only a matter of time before the tide turned.