Inside the Serengeti: TUF 14 tryouts
TUF 14 Tryouts, Napoleon Complex x 500 From: TheBass Member Since: 11/4/07 Posts: 507 So I went to Jersey last…
TUF 14 Tryouts, Napoleon Complex x 500
From: TheBass
Member Since: 11/4/07
Posts: 507
So I went to Jersey last weekend to partake in the TUF 14 tryout shenanigans and it went a little something like this.
Sunday morning at 630am I boarded a plane from Sav, GA to NJ… after an 18 hr road trip with 5 hrs of driving each way to see 2 of my team mates fight. So I get dropped off at the airport at 545am Sunday morning right as we get back into Sav and I’m running on no sleep cuz my 2 co-pilots wanted to get drunk and so I had to drive the whole way. Anyway, blah, blah, I arrived in NJ and finally closed my eyes after 29 hrs awake and rested a little before the tryouts the next day.
Monday morning: I woke up early thinking if I got there at 7:20 am instead of 8 when the registration was set to start I’d beat the traffic…..wrong. There were already close to 200 ppl in line in front of me. Long story short, there were about 500 applicants. I finalllyyyyyy made it in to stage 1 of the tryouts, grappling, around 6pm.(Forgot to mention Mohawk ratio was around 1:15, around 30 mohawks present)
Grappling: So they took my group of featherweights, 50 of us I believe, into the room and DFW gave us a quick beef up speech about making a good impression and a few ground rules: no leg locks, “No fucking slams!” and 2 measley minutes to work. And then the Sarenghetti joo-jissu ensued. They pulled 2 ppl on the mats at a time and those 2 would grapple til DFW said stop but they didnt announce names for the ppl to move on to the striking til after everyone went. They ended up picking around 25 of us, oh, and they were paying $100 a submission. I was the 2nd group called and me and my ground karate buddy had a little half guard stalemate battle, each of us fighting for the sweep or the pass to no avail but with some good work regardless. At the end of the grappling I got the call to hit pads and hastily wrapped my hands and started shadowboxing.
P.S. That was my stopwatch DFW was using to time the grapplers, apparently theirs crapped out during the first group and so they sent one of the UFC’s helper bees to find one amongst the fighters. He offered to buy one from the crowd and several douches offered one up for $100 so I told the guy to hang on and Id go grab one from my room. It has my initials scratched on the back of it, SB,hopefully I’ll see it again one day cuz I’ve had it for over 4 years and have bought and returned 3 stopwatches since giving it away and still don’t have a good replacement.
Striking: Rule #1: If you bring your own pad holder and opt out of the pad holders the UFC has there for you then you better look good (which was not the case for a few of the guys in our group from what I saw). I just whacked away at the padholder I was given and got the nod at the end to move on to the interview with around 9 more from our group.
Interview: So me and the other 9ish guys get herded into a room with a few guys at a table and a camera man behind them where we get another short speech that started with “any boring fucking canadians in the room?” , ha! and about how this was not a fucking job interview and if we came in all yes sir and no sir and boring as hell we’d be sent out before we sat down then they took us out and called us in one by one. The guy doing most of the talking was on point and all business about what he expected to see. It was some pretty basic background stuff and a little shooting the bull to get a feel for personality and then he notices my occupation on the registration paperwork which reads Pro Fighter/ Personal Trainer / Karaoke DJ and asks me if I can sing. I say yea a little to which he replies by matter of factly, telling me to sing him a song. I asked him if he was serious and he said Would I have fucking asked if I wasn’t serious? so I fidgeted for a sec and then belted out a few bars of Desperado by The Eagles. We all got a good laugh and I let him know it sounded better when Jager was involved, a few more words were said, and I was out of there and on my way back to CTC Savannah son!
