This week was the time for ‘The Magician’ to glove up and fight again on ‘TUF 14.’ | Photo: Dave Mandel
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 14 bantamweight John Dodson (www.twitter.com/JohnDodsonMMA) will blog for Sherdog.com all season long, giving his thoughts, reactions and behind-the-scenes insights on the show. “The Ultimate Fighter 14” airs Wednesdays on Spike, 9 p.m. ET/PT.
John’s also the first guy to ever really take me down in an MMA fight, so I congratulate him on him being the first. I didn’t think he was that strong, but he was there to prove me wrong. I don’t know why he would ever think that he would have to get a real job ever again after that fight, because he fought his heart out and I know he will have a big future in the UFC. So, Prince, train hard and we’ll get another chance to go at it again.
At fight picks, Bisping had a speech that I think he wrote out and practice thousands of times in the mirror. He knew it might be the only fight pick he made, so it didn’t want to look like an a------. I was thinking that I was gonna fight T.J. Dillashaw, but he draft-dodged me and threw Prince at me for the fight. He’s been telling everyone that he’s the best and the he could beat anyone in the house, so why didn’t he want to fight me first? Don’t say that you’re the best if you don't want to actually fight the best.
My fight with Prince was back and forth. He keep coming after everything that I threw at him. He landed some big shots, but I did what I always did and took ‘em with a smile. I like fighting because it’s fun, so I'm happy that Prince gave me exactly the fight that I wanted. It was paced, but it still was a war. He took my back a couple times. He gave me a lot to think bout with his size, and I think it was a great fight to get me thinking about what I should do with my next opponent in the semis.
Akira, thanks for saying that I’m the main shark on Mayhem’s team. Let’s see if I can live up to the image that y’all have of me. For all the people that hate me out there, that’s fine, but you should be a big fan of Prince, because he’ll be doing big things real soon. If you ain’t following him on Twitter, you should be. Find him on Facebook, let him know that he fought hard and that y’all have his back.
Getting to Diego’s fight ... man, this dude is crazy, but you gotta love the way he fights. He has one mode and that is to kill everyone in front of him. He models his fighting style after his favorite fighter, Wanderlei Silva. I can tell you that he hits as hard as some of the welterweights that we have at the gym back at Jackson’s. When Diego is in this mode, nothing is going to get in his way. He’s fighting for his family back at home in Brazil. He wants to take care of all of them and make sure that they are well-off, so that they don’t have to worry anything ever again financially. As everyone heard, he had a hard time growing up in Brazil, but changed his life when he decided to fight. He has been away from the people that he loves for so long while chasing this dream -- this is that chance for him to go home, see his family, and let them know that he made it.
Steven Siler is another one of those good guys that was in the house, getting along with everyone. He stayed to himself most of the time, but he knew what he wanted to do and that was to test himself in this house. He said that if he could make it out of here without losing his mind, that he’d become a better fighter. I believe him and I think that he will one day a champion, too. He wanted to fight the best guys, and he got both of them right away. He took out Micah Miller in his first fight but came up short in his fight with Diego. It was a good left hook that dropped him, but like Prince, I know he'll be in the UFC too.
I trained hard to make it into the house. All my hard training was done before I even got there, so I was ready for that first fight. Yeah, maybe I’m lazy, but on the show I was looking to have more fun than training. When I was in the TUF gym, I wanted to learn new things and try to see how could I absorb them and put them to good use. It was an entirely different focus for me while I was there.
Even though my teammates didn’t like me, well, they didn’t help me out that much. All the footage of me training with them, that’s all before the drama really kicked off. I really gotta thank all the coaches that worked with me the whole time. Jake Ellenberger was there to help out with Mayhem’s team, so I worked a lot with him. He’s a big dude, so I was trying to make sure that he didn’t just take me down and lay on me with all his fattiness.
Quick thing: Dana White, I know you saw the inside of the cage when I fought. If you look at it hard enough, you will see a big video game logo next to my feet. It's “Street Fighter X Tekken.” Since I won my fight, can I please get a copy of that game? Those are two of my favorite fighting games and they brought them together. I would appreciate it a lot if you could swing that for me.
Oh, and one for Marcus Brimage, as well. Thank you, boss man.