James Krause recalls drama behind scrapped first fight on 'The Ultimate Fighter 25: Redemption'

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On Season 25 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the “Redemption” season that kicked off Wednesday night, James Krause finds himself in a unique position.

All 14 fighters in the house have been on a previous season of the show. Some have even won their seasons. But Krause’s involvement is a little different because he was cruising along in the UFC on a two-fight winning streak, with no real need to go back to “TUF” for any kind of redemption, or so it would seem.

But Krause wanted a do-over with “TUF,” anyway. He had his shot on Season 15 of the show, but he lost his fight to get into the house. For that reason, the “redemption” angle played a big role for him.

On Wednesday’s first episode, Krause found himself right in the middle of the drama. He wanted to be one of the first fights for strategic reasons, he told MMAjunkie this past Friday in Kansas City, Mo., where he’s based out of, and where he was taking in UFC on FOX 24.

He was matched up against Hector Urbina on Wednesday’s debut episode, but when Urbina came in drastically overweight and eventually quit cutting, forcing him off the show, Krause’s strategy went out the window. No longer was he going to be able to fight on the first day of bouts. Instead, his first fight had to wait a week – meaning his hope for longer time in between his first and potential second fight was gone.

“I went from being the second (opening-round) fight, (first) day, to the last,” Krause told MMAjunkie. “I know that doesn’t seem like much, but it makes a difference. It plays out, especially later in the season. You’re constantly dealing with little things like that – and they’re not a big deal when you’re dealing with one fight. But whenever you’re trying to fight three times in a small amount of time, all that stuff matters.”

On Wednesday’s first episode, Krause was visibly upset when talking to coach T.J. Dillashaw about his new predicament – especially since he already had cut weight for the fight.

But when all was said and done, it didn’t matter – Krause went from an early fight in the opening round to a late one that we’ll see later in the season, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

“I feel like I handled it well – for the most part,” Kruase said. “We’ll see, I guess. There were for sure difficult times (in the house).”

Don’t miss our weekly recaps of each episode of “The Ultimate Fighter 25: Redemption” on Wednesday nights, and don’t miss our Thursday video recaps of the previous episodes with select fighters from the season.

Also see:

• Episode No. 1 recap: ‘The Ultimate Fighter 25: Redemption’
• ‘TUF 25: Redemption’: T.J. Dillashaw, James Krause break down season’s first episode

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.