Rich Davie
09-29-2011, 08:15 PM
http://mmajunkie.com/dyn/images/fighters/dennis-bermudez.jpg
by Dennis Bermudez on Sep 29, 2011 at 12:05 pm ET
Welcome to my first blog for MMAjunkie.com.
After each episode of "The Ultimate Fighter 14," I'll share my thoughts about what you see on the show (and some of the things that don't make it to air).
Since I didn't do a blog last week, I'm going to cover both episodes in today's blog.
Elimination round
In the first round of my elimination-round fight with Jimmie Rivera, I felt like crap.
I was flat, and my body wasn't up with my brain. It pretty much took me that first round to get warmed up and get rocking. I didn't really let my hands go, and I wasn't sticking in there to grind with him.
In between rounds, the corner was telling me what to do, and I looked at them both and I was like, "I got this." Then I went out and finished the fight with a second-round TKO.
I'm happy how I saw an opportunity and seized it and was able to finish the fight.
But I'm my own biggest critic. I'm always analyzing myself, and I like to win at all costs, but I felt like I was getting dominated more than I was dominating. So that doesn't sit well with me.
Living in the house
The other guys were sent home, and the guys who won their fights were taken to the house that night after the first round of fights.
The house was pretty big, but it was just the rooms that were big. There weren't really that many rooms. The good thing is I saw a nice little room with three beds near the bathroom.
I came to find out it's probably the best room in the whole house. The thing with me is I'm not a huge fan of living with multiple guys at one time. I've lived in dorm rooms, and I've never had more than three roommates. And even that was kind of crappy. If there were dirty dishes, it's like, "Well, it's not my dish."
I ended up rooming with Dustin Pague (who would end up on Team Mayhem with me) and Akira Corassani (who ended up on Team Bisping). Dustin and I were there for a purpose. We were there to train and fight and win. But a part of me feels like Akira was there for maybe some celebrity and attention. Sometimes that was a nuisance.
The thing is, I was so focused on the task at hand in winning every fight, so I wasn't really worried about it. I just kind of did my own thing and worried about me.
It surprised me when Jason "Mayhem" Miller picked me as the first featherweight on his team. I was one of the later fights in the night in the elimination round. I didn't see any other fights, so I didn't know what everyone else was capable of, and I felt like I got dominated for five minutes and then I dominated two minutes.
I was feeling a little iffy on how people saw that. As it turns out, the reason I got picked was because I told them, "I got this." It was a relief.
My will to win has always been strong. Growing up playing football, the guy could be about to score a touchdown, and I'd still tackle him. Wrestling in college, there were many times where I'd go into the third round, and I'd be down by eight points, but I'd come back and win. If I played defense in soccer, I'd run down and take it up front.
Whatever I had to do to win was what I would do.
The team picks
When the teams were picked, I definitely wanted to be on Team Mayhem. He's a pretty funny guy. He plays the character on "Bully Beatdown." His entrances in PRIDE were ridiculous. It's something I would do outside of fighting.
The thing about me is that I like fighting, but when I'm training, I don't like to be super serious all the time. Because training sucks. It's hard. Sometimes it hurts. So sometimes, to break up the grind, cracking a joke here and there is my style. I knew I probably wouldn't get that over on Michael Bisping's team.
Bisping is pretty much what I expected. When he was around a bunch of people, he would pick on the weak personalities. One on one, he's a real cool guy. But when he was around a lot of people, he picked on other people.
The vibe we had with Miller's team was really good. The very first session, we had all just fought, and Dr. Ryan Parsons, who's the scientist behind all of Mayhem's craziness and the brains of the operation, was like, "You guys have just fought. Take it easy today. There's no reason for you guys to get in here and beat each other up."
So we just moved around and worked on a little bit of technique. A lot of the team had each other's back from the get-go. It seemed like everybody Miller picked – excluding Johnny Dodson – were really low-key guys. They were there for a purpose whereas some of the people Bisping picked, like Louis Gaudinot and Akira, they all had these big personalities and draw a lot of attention and like goofing and pranks. Our team was like, "Let's get to the point."
After they picked the teams, people definitely acted like it in the house. We made a house rule: Nobody touch anybody's food or personal items. That was a truce between both teams.
I really wasn't messed with a lot. All my intentions were about rest, sleep, nutrition and training. When Marcus Brimage was putting on the sauna suit getting ready to cut weight, I was in the background grilling some chicken. I don't know if it's because I'm pretty low key, but I wasn't on camera much. I wasn't going to go out of my way to get attention, though, because I have family and fans back home. If I do something stupid, they're going to see it later. That's not something I want to be remembered for. I want to be remembered as a good fighter, not some guy slapping his nuts on the pool.
The first fight
When it came to who got picked for the first fight, like I said, I hadn't seen the other guys fight, so I didn't know who was going to be picked. I was just going off of pure image.
When Bryan Caraway got picked to fight Marcus, I thought he was the favorite. I had trained with him in Sacramento, Calif., at Team Alpha Male, and I knew he was a tough guy.
Through research on the show, I found out that Marcus was pretty green. Between a guy who's been in the game for two years as opposed to a guy who's been in for six or eight, I'm going to put my money on the guy with eight years.
Bryan had fought on big shows and been in that position of a lot of pressure. That being said, I definitely saw why they called him "Nervous Nancy." But it was kind of like that was his ritual. So I really wasn't nervous for him. But if I had just met him and I was coaching him, I'd be like, "Dude, you're making me nervous."
Bryan fought smart. He tried to take it to Marcus' weakness: Get the takedown and lay on top. He didn't do too much damage. I wasn't that impressed.
But he fought smart, and he got the win. It felt good for our team to get the first victory. Our mindset was just to keep the ball rolling and get those other guys frustrated.
I wanted to fight second. I hate being the first person to do anything. I just want to see what it's like and see how it goes before I do my thing. It's like watching a tournament the first year so you know what to expect when you go the next year.
But at that point, I was feeling good about my chances. I felt like I could beat both of those guys, and I was feeling good about the level of competition so far.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/25454/dennis-bermudez-blog-for-the-ultimate-fighter-14-epiodes-no-1-2.mma
by Dennis Bermudez on Sep 29, 2011 at 12:05 pm ET
Welcome to my first blog for MMAjunkie.com.
After each episode of "The Ultimate Fighter 14," I'll share my thoughts about what you see on the show (and some of the things that don't make it to air).
Since I didn't do a blog last week, I'm going to cover both episodes in today's blog.
Elimination round
In the first round of my elimination-round fight with Jimmie Rivera, I felt like crap.
I was flat, and my body wasn't up with my brain. It pretty much took me that first round to get warmed up and get rocking. I didn't really let my hands go, and I wasn't sticking in there to grind with him.
In between rounds, the corner was telling me what to do, and I looked at them both and I was like, "I got this." Then I went out and finished the fight with a second-round TKO.
I'm happy how I saw an opportunity and seized it and was able to finish the fight.
But I'm my own biggest critic. I'm always analyzing myself, and I like to win at all costs, but I felt like I was getting dominated more than I was dominating. So that doesn't sit well with me.
Living in the house
The other guys were sent home, and the guys who won their fights were taken to the house that night after the first round of fights.
The house was pretty big, but it was just the rooms that were big. There weren't really that many rooms. The good thing is I saw a nice little room with three beds near the bathroom.
I came to find out it's probably the best room in the whole house. The thing with me is I'm not a huge fan of living with multiple guys at one time. I've lived in dorm rooms, and I've never had more than three roommates. And even that was kind of crappy. If there were dirty dishes, it's like, "Well, it's not my dish."
I ended up rooming with Dustin Pague (who would end up on Team Mayhem with me) and Akira Corassani (who ended up on Team Bisping). Dustin and I were there for a purpose. We were there to train and fight and win. But a part of me feels like Akira was there for maybe some celebrity and attention. Sometimes that was a nuisance.
The thing is, I was so focused on the task at hand in winning every fight, so I wasn't really worried about it. I just kind of did my own thing and worried about me.
It surprised me when Jason "Mayhem" Miller picked me as the first featherweight on his team. I was one of the later fights in the night in the elimination round. I didn't see any other fights, so I didn't know what everyone else was capable of, and I felt like I got dominated for five minutes and then I dominated two minutes.
I was feeling a little iffy on how people saw that. As it turns out, the reason I got picked was because I told them, "I got this." It was a relief.
My will to win has always been strong. Growing up playing football, the guy could be about to score a touchdown, and I'd still tackle him. Wrestling in college, there were many times where I'd go into the third round, and I'd be down by eight points, but I'd come back and win. If I played defense in soccer, I'd run down and take it up front.
Whatever I had to do to win was what I would do.
The team picks
When the teams were picked, I definitely wanted to be on Team Mayhem. He's a pretty funny guy. He plays the character on "Bully Beatdown." His entrances in PRIDE were ridiculous. It's something I would do outside of fighting.
The thing about me is that I like fighting, but when I'm training, I don't like to be super serious all the time. Because training sucks. It's hard. Sometimes it hurts. So sometimes, to break up the grind, cracking a joke here and there is my style. I knew I probably wouldn't get that over on Michael Bisping's team.
Bisping is pretty much what I expected. When he was around a bunch of people, he would pick on the weak personalities. One on one, he's a real cool guy. But when he was around a lot of people, he picked on other people.
The vibe we had with Miller's team was really good. The very first session, we had all just fought, and Dr. Ryan Parsons, who's the scientist behind all of Mayhem's craziness and the brains of the operation, was like, "You guys have just fought. Take it easy today. There's no reason for you guys to get in here and beat each other up."
So we just moved around and worked on a little bit of technique. A lot of the team had each other's back from the get-go. It seemed like everybody Miller picked – excluding Johnny Dodson – were really low-key guys. They were there for a purpose whereas some of the people Bisping picked, like Louis Gaudinot and Akira, they all had these big personalities and draw a lot of attention and like goofing and pranks. Our team was like, "Let's get to the point."
After they picked the teams, people definitely acted like it in the house. We made a house rule: Nobody touch anybody's food or personal items. That was a truce between both teams.
I really wasn't messed with a lot. All my intentions were about rest, sleep, nutrition and training. When Marcus Brimage was putting on the sauna suit getting ready to cut weight, I was in the background grilling some chicken. I don't know if it's because I'm pretty low key, but I wasn't on camera much. I wasn't going to go out of my way to get attention, though, because I have family and fans back home. If I do something stupid, they're going to see it later. That's not something I want to be remembered for. I want to be remembered as a good fighter, not some guy slapping his nuts on the pool.
The first fight
When it came to who got picked for the first fight, like I said, I hadn't seen the other guys fight, so I didn't know who was going to be picked. I was just going off of pure image.
When Bryan Caraway got picked to fight Marcus, I thought he was the favorite. I had trained with him in Sacramento, Calif., at Team Alpha Male, and I knew he was a tough guy.
Through research on the show, I found out that Marcus was pretty green. Between a guy who's been in the game for two years as opposed to a guy who's been in for six or eight, I'm going to put my money on the guy with eight years.
Bryan had fought on big shows and been in that position of a lot of pressure. That being said, I definitely saw why they called him "Nervous Nancy." But it was kind of like that was his ritual. So I really wasn't nervous for him. But if I had just met him and I was coaching him, I'd be like, "Dude, you're making me nervous."
Bryan fought smart. He tried to take it to Marcus' weakness: Get the takedown and lay on top. He didn't do too much damage. I wasn't that impressed.
But he fought smart, and he got the win. It felt good for our team to get the first victory. Our mindset was just to keep the ball rolling and get those other guys frustrated.
I wanted to fight second. I hate being the first person to do anything. I just want to see what it's like and see how it goes before I do my thing. It's like watching a tournament the first year so you know what to expect when you go the next year.
But at that point, I was feeling good about my chances. I felt like I could beat both of those guys, and I was feeling good about the level of competition so far.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/25454/dennis-bermudez-blog-for-the-ultimate-fighter-14-epiodes-no-1-2.mma