By Nick Ring
Nick Versus Court
Thanks for your kind words, Chuck.
I didn’t walk into the Ultimate Fighter house with an ego and I was quite respectful to Chuck, his coaches and the members of the blue team. I came into the house to work hard and do the best I could do.
I wasn’t bragging about myself, and I wasn’t acting like I was better than I was. I can see that my humbleness inside the house did not spare me from the negative comments of the coaches on the blue team, though. All I can see as I watch the show is Chuck and his coaches ripping into me as if I need to be knocked down a peg – WTF.
I was being completely disrespected by the coaches on the blue team. They were nice to my face, but so far, whenever they talk about me behind my back, all I have seen the blue coaches say is how much I suck and what a horrible fighter I am.
I also think for as much as Tito is portrayed as a bad guy and how Chuck is a portrayed as the good guy, I still haven’t seen Tito actually trash any of the fighters on the blue team (like Chuck and his coaches are doing with me). Win or lose, from what I have seen Tito has been classy with the fighters on the blue team and I haven’t seen him run any of them into the dirt.
In one of his confessionals Chuck says he wasn’t impressed with my striking and that my takedown attempts were terrible. Firstly, I just want to say that Chuck’s feelings towards my striking ability are 100% mutual. I have never been impressed with Chuck’s striking either — so I guess that makes two of us.
Secondly, I don’t know what the fuck Chuck is talking about when he says my takedown attempts were terrible. I didn’t go for any takedowns, you dummy.
I did not make even one takedown attempt in my fight against Court and it kind of makes me wonder what fight Chuck was watching. What I did was upper body tie-ups and clinches off of punch exchanges when Court threw punches at me, but no takedowns. When it came to initiating a clinch I was just about 100% successful in doing so…
I am glad you are a fighter and not a judge, Chuck, because from your comments I’m not sure you know what you are watching enough to actually judge a match correctly. Let me know if you want any tips.
Seth Baczynski Versus Joe Henle
We got Seth (Camozzi’s replacement) fighting the last preliminary fight and it is Joe who is his opponent. Seth is a tough and scrappy guy, and Henle is somebody I don’t know a heck of a lot about at this point.
Joe doesn’t really say a lot about his martial arts background when asked but then again, in a house full of potential opponents it is probably a good decision to not say too much.
And with Seth I found him to be a friendly guy immediately upon meeting him. Over a few short days I also discovered that he is actually really intelligent (despite his self-deprecating sense of humor and his inability to spell).
I had the pleasure to watch him interact with the others in the house and I noticed that he is very good with people and he has a very fun personality – the guy is almost never serious and he can win almost anyone over. He also has some really hilarious stories about some of the things that he has experienced in his past that will have you laughing your ass off. As a person, I found him easy to talk to and as a training partner he was really easy to work with. I was really looking forward cheering my new friend on in his fight against Henle.
Staredown
I found it more than a little weird that Henle wouldn’t put his fists up to face off with Seth. He just stood there and smiled at Seth…
Inside the house Joe had the nicknames of “Jesus” and also “Geico” for his resemblance to the both the “son of God” and also the caveman in the Geico commercials on television. To us they both seemed pretty fitting names for him and were both pretty funny.
After seeing Henle in the stare-down against Seth it looked to me like he had decided to put his Jesus face on because he only smiled. I honestly wondered if he was going to fight Seth or just turn the other cheek. I had this vision in my head of Seth hitting Joe in the face and then seeing Joe tell Seth that he would be forgiven for it.