Team Australia blog: Chris Indich on 'TUF Nations,' episode No. 5

So here we come, catching up to the Canadians!

Great to get two wins on the board, and now we could feel that the moment for Team Australia was gaining and just needed to keep the ball rolling. The Canadians didn’t think that Tyler Manawaroa would beat Nordine Taleb, their “No. 1,” so to see their spirits deflated was somewhat satisfying, and we knew “Richy” (Richard Walsh) was going to put in a good performance against Matthew Desroches.

Coming back From Tyler’s fight, everyone was in a good mood, and as we got to see a bit last week, most of us Aussies have never experienced playing with snow. It was good to finally break the ice between some of the Canadians and have some banter with a bit of a snow fight. It was also good to see that Jake Matthews was willing to do anything to get his ass on TV! (Hahaha, nice one Jake!) I’m sure that won’t be the last time we see that side of him. As for Elias Theodorou‘s comment about “nailing us all,” somehow I don’t recall it that way, but hey, why not give them that win?

Now with one win under Team Australia’s belt and getting Richy ready for his fight, our coaches really wanted to make sure that our momentum kept going, and our aim was to step up the training even more. Although some of us had a few injuries from either our fights or training – or as Daniel Kelly put it: just having an old body – as fighters, it’s bound to happen. It’s still good to see how we were there for one another as a team and have confidence in our teammate Richy that he would win another one for Team Australia. And, now seeing the episode, it seems as though there may have been a few doubts that Matt would win it for Canada. Ouch!

Richy and Matt’s fight went to his game plan. To see Kajan Johnson predict that it was going to be an ugly and boring fight seems a bit ironic considering that the Canadians liked to talk about how they did their research on us. Rich is a seasoned fighter with technically sound skills, winning his fights several different ways. So he would have won this fight simply by being the better fighter.

Being there and now seeing the fight again, I wouldn’t say it was boring at all. There was always something going on. Richy took his time and had Matt pressured against the cage. There, he was able to use his strength and range to control Matt, and keep him where he wanted. Unfortunately for Matt, it just seemed like he was never able to put any combinations together and was just looking for that knockout. I guess we all can let the nerves get to us.

At the end of the first round, we could tell it may have been close, but it did seem that Richy was slightly ahead.

The second round started good, and Rich was really listening to the advice from the coaches, and you could see that he was in control of the second round. Matt landed a good one on Rich, but nothing enough to really affect Rich. He had a lot of composure and showed that he is a seasoned fighter, and he just outclassed Matt.

Walshy was able to get the win without having to show the Canadians all of his weapons. And he got the job done for Team Australia.

It was good to see and to relive a bit of the love-hate relationship between Dan and Brendan O’Reilly. Watching Dan’s facial expression while Brendan was preparing his foghorn out of the water bottle was priceless. Can’t wait to see how their love blooms though out the competition.

So as planned, Team Australia keeps control of the next fight pick.

Dan has been itching to have a fight, and he’d been hoping that he would’ve had his chance earlier. So to his liking, he’s up next against Sheldon Westcoot. So can the four-time Olympian keep our win streak rolling?!

You will just have to wait and see until next week.

Thank you to my sponsors: Round Table Roofing, Toys Collective, GOBsmacked sports mouthguards, Bodywork Integration sports and remedial massage, and Secret Harbour for you support and being a part of Team Indich. We have good things coming.

“TUF Nations” cast member Chris Indich (5-1) blogs each week exclusively for MMAjunkie. The Team Australia welterweight takes readers behind the scenes of the FOX Sports 1-broadcast series, which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET. Australian fans can watch the show every Thursday on FX at 4:30 p.m. AEDT. Catch Johnson on Twitter at @IndichMMA, at his site www.chrisindich.com, or check out his Facebook fan page.