Chris Beal’s TUF 18 Fighter Blog Week 5: I Quit My Job To Do This

Like I said last week, I wasn’t surprised that Jessica beat Roxy in the fight, but man, it was rough watching Roxy deal with it on the show in this week’s episode. It’s no secret by now that pretty much everyone likes and respects Roxy, which made it tough to watch her deal with the loss.

I didn’t know that she had been outside on the ground crying during the time we were in the house, but I knew what she was going through, having lost my fight to Chris Holdsworth. It’s a crushing moment, having worked for so long and so hard to get to this point.

I wish I would have known just so that I could have given her a big hug, but I gave her a little space so should could deal with things on her own terms. But you know what? Roxy is a fighter, just like I’m a fighter, and neither of us is going away. She’s the Happy Warrior and will be back in the cage, just like I will.

This week, Davey and Louis were getting ready to fight. Davey is family guy and had these pictures of his girl and his kids, and man, that is where I kind of felt stupid.

I didn’t bring any pictures of my son Chris Jr. or anybody, and that was by design, because I thought it would help me remain focused on the task at hand. But after about a week or so in the house, I realized that was a mistake, because I missed my family, especially Chris Jr., something really bad. So I understood the powerful effect that fighting for his family had on Davey.

Before we get on to Ronda’s mom, AnnMaria De Mars, I just want to point out what B.S. Team Tate’s little “joke” on Edmund was. They put a little Count Dracula statue or whatever in our room, and hung up these pictures of the girl from the movie Dodgeball, the one with the unibrow, all over the gym.

It just goes to show how their coaches didn’t at all live up to their word. And as Coach Ronda said, it was kind of racist. We had all promised to stop with all that kind of crap after Dana had to talk to the coaches about it, but you know, their coaches’ word doesn’t mean crap, as they proved.

I don’t know how, but we somehow managed to keep Edmund from seeing all that stuff, otherwise, I’m not sure what would have happened. I think he would have lost it and there wouldn’t have been much of a way to stop him at that point. Things were already pretty heated at that point.

Enough their B.S. though. One of the coolest things was getting to meet Coach Ronda’s mom. Just like Coach Ronda, her mom is genuinely good people.

She came in and I wasn’t in the gym with them the first day because of my hand injury, but Ronda’s mom came up to me later and said, “I know your hand is injured, but I’ve got a move for you that you should be able to do even with your injury.” And it was legit man. It’s something that I’m going to be using.

Talking to her, I found out a lot about where Coach Ronda comes from. Coach Ronda is a bad ass, but it comes from her mom. I mean, she walked into the gym, ready to work with us, and dropped down into that armbar in the scene you see on the show, and if you didn’t notice, she did that while still in jeans!

Ronda’s mom was awesome man. She just had a lot of really inspiring advice and presence that instills confidence.

Moving on to the fight, again, it was no surprise. I knew Davey would be way too much for Louis. He’s too strong, too fast. He just manhandled Louis.

Part of that is on Louis too, though. He didn’t have enough energy to try and fight out of that submission, but then he jumps up and puts Davey on his shoulders and carries him around the Octagon?

Let’s face it, Louis lost his fight to get into the house, was given a get out of jail free pass, and was just enjoying his time on TV. There were some alternate fighters that were really itching for an opportunity, training and working on keeping there weight in check, and Louis – who still lives with his parents – just waltzes back onto the show after losing?

I quit my job to do this. I gave up a good contract with World Series of Fighting to come on the show and try to fight may way into the UFC. I put everything on the line. What does Louis have to worry about? He lives at home, has no rent; his biggest worry is missing his girlfriend.

I don’t think he was prepared to come and fight, plain and simple. Davey was, so Davey stomped him.

Next week, we get to see the fight between my teammate, Jessamyn Duke and Team Tate’s Raquel Pennington. This is a good match-up and one you don’t want to miss.

Jessamyn is an amazing athlete. She’s part of our Twin Towers, her and Peggy Morgan are so damn tall. But they are fighters too.

I’ve mentioned before how coming into the show I was hesitant about training with women, but Jessamyn and the other women on our team totally squashed any of those thoughts. She is in amazing shape and always gave me a run for my money. She’s an amazing training partner, just like all the other women on our team. I would train with any of them again, any day of the week.

Team Rousey’s Chris Beal is blogging exclusively for MMAWeekly.com readers throughout the Team Rousey vs. Team Tate season. You can follow him on Twitter @RealDealCbeal.