'The Ultimate Fighter 22' blog: James Jenkins on episode No. 2

James Jenkins

I’ll pick up where we left off. The fights to get in were over, we said goodbye to everyone that came, Dana sent off the losers. I think I can speak for everyone that was there and say we all felt great. I was a little swollen up and had to get some stitches, but I still felt like I was on top of the world. The Europeans went into their van and we went into ours, and off to the house we went. Billy Q, Julian “Juicy J” and me all shared a room. I think I lucked out there because they were very cool guys. Some of the other guys in the house had some epic gas, snored and one even slept naked. It was nice not having to wake up to a naked Swedish guy every day.

Getting to hear what McGregor had to say, about us sticking together and chanting “USA” being a weakness, I couldn’t disagree with him more. I think we all knew what was at stake, and yeah, I was there for me first. I knew some of us might have to fight each other down the road. We all knew what we signed up for. Anybody there would fight me and try to put me out, and I would do the same to them. That didn’t stop me from being friends with some of the guys. I never felt the need to have to hate someone to fight them.

I was really excited to get into training, but the first two days we came out there, we did photo shoots and some filming. Finally, we had our first day of training. Faber didn’t want me to do too much because of the stitches, so I was pretty bummed about that. At the end of practice is when they hit us with the announcement of bringing the two fighters back, and that one of the winning fights would be scrapped if it wasn’t entertaining enough. I won’t lie: I was a little pissed about that. I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought this happened because McGregor wanted Artem back on the show. I thought, “What if my fight isn’t entertaining enough and I get pulled? I fought my ass off my first fight and I can get knocked out like that?”

Training was going good. Josh Emmett did some strength and conditioning with us. We had coach Ed Bilbasoo on the bag and really working some guys on the pads. His Instagram name is @Iliketokickpeople and it definitely shows because I saw him throwing up some mean kicks. Faber and Lance Palmer showed some great techniques. I never got to do two-a-days before. I work full-time, so being able to focus this much on training was great. My body was sore as hell. I was able to use the chiropractor they would bring down for us. I think my first trip to the chiro was the most painful thing I had gone through at that point. For the first time, I started using an ice bath. That was rough, but it really helped with my recovery. I was eating well. We had a list in the house and we would get pretty much whatever we wanted. Tom G introduced me to Ezekiel bread, and I started getting some supplements.

After a few days, they took Artem, Martin “Big Swede” and me down to the doc to get our stitches out. They put us in the van and the guy driving was pretty cool because he put on the radio. At that point, we hadn’t heard any music for a few days. You don’t realize how much you miss music until it’s gone. So we are in the desert driving around with a couple of Europeans listening to Biggie. I don’t even like rap, but that was a pretty surreal moment for me.

Ryan Hall was our first pick to fight against Frantz. I only knew who Ryan was because he stopped in my gym prior to the show. From looks alone, you don’t think Ryan would be a world beater, but everyone was talking about him and taking pictures with him, so I knew something was up. I went home and looked him up and found a video of him subduing a drunken idiot at a restaurant. I also saw he was a world-class jiu-jitsu competitor and he specializes in 50/50 – a jiu-jitsu technique he uses to set up his leg locks. Hell, his gym is named 50/50. I started talking to Ryan when we got into the house. Every topic I told myself not to get into on the show, I probably talked to Ryan about.

I think we saw eye to eye on most things and even if we didn’t, Ryan is a respectful guy. Ryan didn’t mind showing me or other guys in the house jiu-jitsu techniques or anything else you could pick his brain on. I thought that was pretty cool because we could wind up fighting each other down the road, but he didn’t mind sharing some knowledge. I would say he is definitely a student to the game. He was always, and I mean always, shadow boxing. I would see him working with Andre Fili or even Thanh on striking techniques. Making weight wasn’t an issue for Ryan, either. He was the lightest guy in the house, so he was able to have a beer just about every night with no worries. I’m pretty sure it was Ryan who got everyone in the house ordering sushi, too. Ryan’s an interesting character, plus the guy could recite Doc Holliday from “Tombstone” perfectly. How could you not like the guy?

The day of the fight came. This felt a lot more tense than the fight to get in. We were on our bench and the Europeans were on theirs. It was much quieter with no families and friends there. Right before Ryan came out, you could hear this loud yell from the back from Andre Fili. The fight kicked off and wasn’t long before Ryan was able to do what he does best. Frantz did a better job than I thought he would do defending at first, but still dealing with a guy like Ryan on your legs is a horrible spot to be in. Usually if you were to fight someone like Ryan you would have a full camp on working to avoid those situations, and even then you’re not in the clear. Next up, Faber chose Chris Gruetzemacher against Sascha.

Also see:

• ‘The Ultimate Fighter 22’ blog: James Jenkins on episode No. 1

James Jenkins (8-1), an American featherweight on “The Ultimate Fighter 22,” blogs about the season each week exclusively for MMAjunkie. Follow him on Twitter at @crzyjenks.