Justin “The Viking” Wren’s “The Ultimate Fighter 10” blog – episode 2

Justin Wren’s TUF 10 Blog: Starting to get interesting

Here we go again, for the second time around. Life as I know it has started to get a little surreal.

It starts off with Roy and I talking in the kitchen about how we would both like to fight Kimbo. From both of our perspective’s, Roy and I are terrible match-ups for Kimbo, and either one of us fighting him means that we get millions of new viewers and tons more exposure.

The beginning of the training session shows Rampage taking time to work on Kimbo’s weak points. One thing, from the show that I think more and more people will start to realize, as the show goes on is 1) Kimbo might not be the guy he has commonly been portrayed to be, and 2) That he really does want to learn how to be a mixed martial artist.

It then soon cuts to Roy talking back to the coaches… I kind of understand Roy’s point of view, but then again, these are some of the best coaches in the world and they OBVIOUSLY have a ton to teach us… all of us.

From Roy’s point of view he is a top 20 fighter in the world, and he did it all on his own, kind of self taught. However, I have been to most of the top training facilities in the world (Randy’s, ATT, Golden Glory, Cobra Kai, Striking Unlimited, etc) and honestly, we were fortunate to come across the absolute best coaches I have ever had.

I do think that Roy could have respected the coaches a little more, rather than goof off at certain times during practice. I was so impressed by the coaching that I am now part of Greg Jackson’s MMA and I am living and training full time in Denver.

The next fight was chosen and Rampage picked James McSweeney to fight Wes Shivers. James is a K-1 Champion Kickboxer, and is INCREDIBLY talented on his feet. Wes Shivers claims to be 6 foot 7, I think that HAS to be if he is slouching! That dude is one of the biggest guys I have ever seen… and he is an incredibly good guy as well.

Rashad and Rampage got in a little joking argument about training and ours running over. There were a couple of times that we had to run practice over…we didn’t get on the mats at our scheduled training time because of either the lights needing to warm up, the mats needing to dry from being mopped, or some odd ball thing. Makes for good TV drama though. :-)

The fight was… pretty boring to say the least, and I would honestly say that the first two fights were the most boring of them all…keep watching though, you might like what you see ;-) These guys did fight the same day as Jon and Abe, and they really only had a day to get used to all the cameras, stress, and empty gym that you fight in, (and that, as simple as it sounds, is weird to get used to) so I can see a little bit of the jitters shaking them up causing a boring fight.

I sparred with James, and the James that fought that day isn’t the same James I know from training. James in training is a beast, that throws ridiculous leg kicks, body kicks, knees, and head kicks. I was surprised that he didn’t finish Wes standing so great job to Wes.

If Wes had more gas in the tank he may have won that fight. I would say the most entertaining part of the fight was listening to Rashad coaching! Rashad is a great coach… and he makes sure that his fighters are mentally prepared. James was waiting way too much and watching the show I loved seeing Rashad’s passion from the corner…you won’t hear that same passion from Rampage.

After the fight, the show gets a little more interesting. Rashad picked Roy Nelson to fight Kimbo, setting up an exciting next episode!

One thing I wish they would have shown more of is how the fights are picked. We had the opportunity to suggest to the coaches who we wanted to fight, but it definitely didn’t always go our way.

You would walk out of the meeting thinking that you’re chances of getting your preferred fight was in your favor…not always the case…but, we’re fighters, and we come into the house knowing that we have to fight anyone at anytime…I’m very thankful for the opportunity.

None-the-less, now we get to look forward to an amazing, much anticipated episode of The Ultimate Fighter, maybe the most watched episode ever!

I want to say Thank You to PROMMA.INFO, for giving me the opportunity to share some insight!! I’ll talk with you guys next week!

You can follow Justin on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JustinTheViking.

PROMMA.INFO is very proud to be the home of the official “THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 10: HEAVYWEIGHTS BLOG OF JUSTIN ‘THE VIKING’ WREN.” Justin’s blog will be published on PROMMA.INFO following each episode of “The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights” which airs every Wednesday night on Spike TV.

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