Earlier today, we published Roland Delorme’s (Pictured) first “The Ultimate Fighter 14″ blog for 5thRound.com. Now that you know who the bantamweight is and how he creatively raised the funds to enter the tournament, here is Delorme’s take on what went down immediately after making it into the TUF house.
Episode 2:
“We get into the house and get straight to business. The team picks are first on the list. I was hoping to get on Mayhem’s team. Before the picks, I was always a fan of his and knew he could help my jiu jitsu game, which is my strength.
The picks didn’t go exactly the way I hoped considering I got picked last, but I got the coach I wanted so it worked out for me in the end. We got to training right after the picks and began deliberating on who wanted to fight first. Right away, Bryan Caraway wanted to go first.
I’ve never met a guy with so much experience who gets that nervous before a fight. He’s literally throwing up before a fight. His nick name, ‘Nervous Nancy, suits him perfectly. He needed to fight first cause the stress of not knowing when he was going to fight would mean he’d walk around nervous all the time, so if he could fight first then at least he’d be able to relax for three weeks if he made the semifinals.
Bisping won the coin flip and chose to pick the first fighters, rather than the first fight. So we got the first fight pick, so it was nice to get the fight we wanted. Even though Bryan was crazy nervous before the fight, you didn’t see it in the fight. It goes to show that it doesn’t matter how nervous you get before your scrap, as long as you’re able to focus the energy in a positive way.
Bryan and Marcus Brimage didn’t disappoint and it had its fair share of ups and downs. Bryan’s cardio seemed to fade in the 2ndRound and Marcus started staging a comeback. Sitting cageside I started to get worried that Marcus was gonna wear Bryan out and drag it to a 3rdRound, but proof of Bryan’s character, he dug deep within myself and found the will to win even after being extremely fatigued.
He scored a late takedown and choked Marcus out. The disrespect shown at the weigh-in by Team Bisping seemed to fuel Bryan’s win and blew up in their faces. After that, there wasn’t much signing going on for Team Bisping.”
We were fortunate enough to get a hold of Delorme at the last-minute to exclusively blog for us. Starting next week, “Stunning” will release a new piece each Thursday morning on 5thRound.com. So hopefully you’re ready to be inundated with some more awesomeness.
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