Jesse Taylor was redeemed Friday night

Jesse Taylor was a castmember of season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter back in 2008. He fought his way to the finals, but in one of the great fails in the series’ history, he got stupid drunk and acted stupid, and was thrown off the series. UFC president Dana White gave him a shot in the UFC, but he got tapped C.B. Dollaway, and that was that.

Nine years and 36 pro fights later he returned, on The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption. He was 34, had been fighting for over a decade, and was 1-3 his last four, and 3-6 his last nine. It was the end of a long, tough career.

But Taylor won it all. And this time instead of the potential $100,000 contract he would have won on season 7, he won $290,000.

Maybe they’ll make a movie about it one day, said Taylor afterward, as transcribed by Fernanda Prates and John Morgan for MMAjunkie. It’s not about the money. Don’t get me wrong – it’s going to change my life and my kids’ life. But it wasn’t really about the money. It was about the story. About redemption. That’s what it was about. I just wanted to show my kids, to be a good role model.

Like, ‘Hey, you mess up in life, but you fix it, and you keep going.’ A lot of people mess up in life. I think I relate with people in that sense. I’m a pretty regular guy. Nothing too special about me. I just keep going.

Who knows? If I’d won back then, I might have been in and out and done with the UFC. And I just kept grinding, and kept plugging away, and fighting anyone, anywhere, anytime. And I think in the end, it got me a lot better. It made a better fighter and person.

I told myself, if it takes me until I’m 60, I’m going to get back in the UFC. And once they told me about this show, through Tom – Tom Gallichio was actually the first to tell me. I was like, ‘Man, that’s about me.’ Like Jim Carrey said in ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ I totally redeemed myself.

https://twitter.com/McDuckMMA/status/883530170954653696

Well, I did the strategy of taking a punch to the head, joked Taylor. And he came on me, and I created a scramble. So I guess the punch in the head worked because he just jumped on me, and that’s kind of what I wanted. I knew I could out scramble him, from training with him on the show. And they say it’s an old trick, but I’m a rear-naked-choke artist.

I think my jiu-jitsu is a little underestimated. I’ve been submitted a lot, but I think that’s life. I learned slowly but surely from my mistakes. I knew what it takes to win, and I trust in my jiu-jitsu.

I come out of nowhere to take it all. I want to make a run for this. Maybe a fight or two, but I want to get contender status, and I want to go get that belt.

That $250,000 was the icing on the ice cream – I don’t know if I’m saying that right. I think I messed that up on ‘TUF 7’ too, actually.

Image courtesy of Jesse Taylor.