Leister Bowling’s TUF 16 Coach Blog Week 8 – Understanding the Snake Bite!

After my rant last week regarding the judging, I won’t go elaborate any further.

Dana going to the house was something that probably needed to happen. These guys look up to Dana as their potential boss and they want to impress him. This is a very even talent pool and when two guys are matched up evenly it won’t always be exciting. This is the biggest opportunity of their lives and they aren’t going to throw all strategy out the window and turn it into a street fight.

Dana coming in to the house was supposed to motivate the guys and it definitely did, but each guy was motivated in different ways. Michael Hill was upset and rightfully so. It wasn’t his fault the judges gave him the win even though everyone, including the UFC president, thinks he lost. He went out there and he fought. The decision wasn’t up to him.

Watching him and Julian start hitting the bottle ensures that something bad is going to happen. I have no idea why Hill called out Neil, who up until this point we haven’t heard say a word. Maybe he looked like a guy who would easily be picked on. And of course Julian couldn’t let someone else get crazy in the house, he has made it clear that he wanted to be “that guy”!

Mike Ricci summed up my feelings exactly while watching Julian act the way he did. This is a huge opportunity to showcase your skills and fight for the best organization in the world. It is a shame to be associated with guys who don’t take more pride in representing their sport, families, and themselves. They make people believe that MMA is full of a bunch of thugs that should be locked up.

The truth is that most MMA fighters have college educations, military backgrounds, families, etc. and they are stand-up citizens. Most guys are the type of guy you would want as a neighbor. I was glad to hear Mike speak up about it.

If Julian wondered why he was picked last, maybe after watching this episode he now knows. Everyone could see right through him from day one. We as coaches joked about wanting to pick him last because we knew that once we beat him and he was out of the competition this is exactly what was going to happen. He was going to cause chaos at the house. Hopefully, watching himself act like that on television will be a life changer for him in a positive way.

Manly vs. Snake (James Chaney)

Both of them are great guys. Snake got his nickname from Pat Barry during the warm-ups at the fights to get in the house. Snake was warming up, hitting mitts and he jumped on Pat’s back standing and choked him! Pat explained it as a Snake crawling all over him and he couldn’t escape!

James was a guy that caught my eye right away. He was very relaxed and confident. He was sipping coffee in the locker room with his hand wraps on. He is just a really mysterious and intellectual guy. Like Shane said, the improvements he made in the few weeks we were working with him were amazing. He picked up striking very fast working with striking coach Trevor Wittman.

Track and Field! Sounds like an easy win for Shane right? Well they made it look a lot easier than it was. I guess it would be hard to show, but we were out there in that heat for about four hours. Roy had some good throws warming up, and we kept hearing that he can actually run pretty well, so we were all a little on edge.

The best part of the challenge wasn’t shown. Roy actually had a pretty good long jump that would have been right up there with Shane’s except they count anything that leaves a mark in the sand. Roy’s mullet left a perfect impression in the sand and they counted it! The Mullet Mark!!! It was hilarious. Roy even laughed it off.

Roy’s team was pretty disappointed that he quit the race. Sure, it is only a foot race and he is a fighter. He was far enough behind that he would never catch Shane, but he had been telling his guys not to quit, so they were a little disappointed to see him quit the race and never cross the finish line.

Snake Bite! I know James is going to catch a lot of heat for this bite. I hope that everyone can end up looking past this and see James as the honorable guy he is. James was literally living on a mattress in a friends’ garage before this show. He gave up everything to make it as a professional fighter and he has been through a lot. This was his chance to make it big and change his life. He put everything he had into that triangle choke and didn’t get it.

When Manly locked up the guillotine, he knew his time was running out. His dream of winning this show and making a better life for himself was coming to an end. He was desperate to get out of the choke and he bit Jon. He could have denied it and said his mouth was just their and with his mouthpiece fallen out it just left tooth impressions, but like I said, James is an honorable guy. He admitted that he did it. That should count for something.

Regardless whether the bite was the right thing to do or not, this was a great fight. Yeah, it was short and I would have loved to see those two go at it for a couple rounds, but it was a very exciting fight.

Finally the accountant Mike Ricci vs. Roy’s No. 1 pick Dom Waters… See you next week!

Leister Bowling: Wrestling/MMA Coach at Grudge Training Center and Easton BJJ. You can follow Leister on Twitter @LeisterBowling or Email Leister3B@gmail.com for training tips/seminar information.

(Photo courtesy of Leister Bowling)