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Dave Kaplan's TUF 8 blog: Mischief abounds |
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MMA News Written by MMARR
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Thursday, 16 October 2008 |
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For The Ultimate Fighter's eighth season, cast member "Diamond" Dave Kaplan is blogging each week for Strikes & Submissions. His take on on the fifth episode: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about myself, and also the modern-day gladiators and social misfits that make up the cast of TUF 8.
This week’s theme was all about pranking and mischief.
The episode began with the aftermath of Junie Browning jumping into the cage and calling out Efrain Escudero. Everyone in the house was talking about it. Efrain said that he didn't mind and that he looked forward to meeting Junie in the cage. While Rolando Delgado and others discussed the possibility of Junie being bipolar, I sat at the hot tub with Junie and Shane Primm, eating my Pop Tart and listening to them talk.
Junie said that he'd have no problem with Efrain and added that if he couldn't beat the guys on the show he should get a job in a factory. This made me laugh a little, considering that this cast is probably the most talented in the show's history. Keep watching to see if Junie will be working for General Motors in the future.
'DIAMOND' DAVE'S TUF 8 BLOG: Lessons learned in week four
Next, Team Nogueira got an excellent opportunity to train with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, one of the best stand-up fighters in the world, and certainly one of the best fighters in the world, period. I'm predominantly a stand-up fighter myself, so he’s always been one of my favorite guys to watch.
The pranking continued at the house while the red team was out training. Some tricks were funny, others I found lame, but I can’t take credit for any of it — I had little-to-nothing to do with the pranks in the beginning.
Krysztof Soszynski and some other guys took Efrain's underwear and froze it, and put itching powder on some of the red team's beds. After Team Nogueira returned, they gradually realized what happened. This precipitated a counter-attack in which Kyle Kingsbury and others put canned fish under our mattresses and on the walls of our rooms while we were training.
As I say in the episode, it didn’t bother me at all. Hell, I kind of like the smell of smoked fish. I found it to be a lame attempt to get back at Team Mir, but Vinny Magalhaes didn’t take kindly to the fish prank and decided to make a deposit of his own in Efrain’s bed.
Things got to the point where Nogueira and one of his assistant coaches, Al Stanky, decided that they needed to visit the house to quell the mischief. You'll see what impact the coaches made, but all I will say is that Kingsbury was certainly prophetic when he said that the pranking was going to get out of control fast.
Eliot Marshall and Shane Primm were set to fight next. Eliot was one of my roommates in the house, along with Tom Traylor and Vinny, and he was one of the guys I was closest to. We would often have philosophical debates on topics such as the creation of the universe and other such pressing questions.
Shane Primm loves to talk, and I can still hear his country accent in my ears. I certainly won’t hold this against him because yours truly is also often quite garrulous, effusive, gregarious and verbose. If you have nothing to say, nobody is going to care.
Both men are very tough fighters and quite well rounded, but I thought Eliot would have a huge advantage on the ground because he's a highly decorated jiu-jitsu black belt, with a ton of grappling experience. And in fact, that ended up being the difference in the fight.
After a bit of stand-up action, Eliot got the takedown, took Shane's back, and eventually sunk in a rear-naked choke to get the tap, although I give props to Shane for fighting the choke for as long as he did. Team Mir is now in the driver’s seat.
Stay tuned for next week when we finally get to see Junie in the Octagon. This time he actually uses the door of the cage instead of jumping over.
You'll have to wait and see how the pranks progress. As for me I've got to get going — since moving to Las Vegas last month, I've inherited a pretty full social schedule. Right now I've got a limousine a mile long waiting outside with a bunch of lovely ladies just dying to see the Diamond shine.
Until next time, keep shining yourselves. I know I will. |
