Steven Siler’s TUF 14 blog: episode 1

The show started out with them showing us making our way into the Mandalay Bay and seeing Dana White standing inside the Octagon; walking inside there was a surreal experience just seeing Dana standing there and especially when he pointed out the flags of the previous fights that have been there.

He gave us a speech just telling us about the $25,000 dollar bonus and just trying to motivate us to wanna make us give it our all as if we needed it because I’m pretty sure everyone was already there ready to fight. After that is when we did the stare-downs for who we were fighting. At the 11th fight they pulled Micah Miller out and then selected me as his opponent which apparently I made a negative comment which I don’t remember.

Fights
The fights getting into the house were exciting to watch. This was my first time seeing the fights because between me being the 11th of 16 fights and then doing interviews and throwing up from being sick I didn’t get to watch any of them.

Most of the fights seemed very exciting, from the Taz, Marcus, Akira and Diego KO’s to Lil’ John Dodson’s body shot and the come from behind win by Dennis Bermudez. They also had a couple stoppages right as the bell rang with TJ and Louis, as well as close fights that could of gone either way like Dustin Neace and Dustin Pague’s fights.

I heard they were great fights and that this season is gonna have it all and by just seeing the first episode I now don’t have any doubt that this is gonna be the best season.

My fight
It was interesting to finally hear all the stuff Micah was saying about the fight about how good he was and who he has fought and all this stuff about me knowing him but him not knowing me.

The actual fight was a weird experience, it was weird to walk down the aisle with no fans and just a few people in the crowd. Usually it’s easy to feed off the energy of the crowd but this time it kind of felt like a high level MMA sparring match but with a lot more on the line.

We come out and I was swinging, I knew I was the underdog and had nothing to lose but didn’t wanna have to go home with my head down and have to tell everyone I lost. I was very confident in my skills despite what Dana White thought.

It was a high level first round. I was hitting him with a lot of right hands but with me being sick I didn’t wanna use all my energy and I kept going back to my roots of going to the ground even though I heard how talented he was on the ground.

I felt it was a back and fourth first round but I was mostly in control and got the better of the strikes. The second round I was hitting him a lot with the right once again but got lazy and got taken down where he controlled the action even taking my back attempting a rear naked choke and a guillotine choke.

After that round I knew it was going to the third and I went back to my stool and listened to my corner tell me to keep it standing and I would win the fight, but when he shot in the third I felt the choke went on tight and I finished the fight. I am sure he knows who I am now. ;)

“Super” Steven Siler’s TUF 14 blog will be posted exclusively on ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) following each Wednesday night episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Bisping vs. Team Miller on Spike TV. Fans can follow Steven on Twitter @SteveSiler and on his Facebook page.