This episode begins with the semi final match ups being revealed in the house. The bantamweight matchups surprised me. Just like Brad and Timur, I had asked to fight Rico. For me, it was more about how he was the only contestant left in the competition who wasn’t fully aware of my knee injury.
I also remember thinking to myself that if I was going to have to fight on a knee that wasn’t 100%, I liked the fight with Rico stylistically better than Brad or Timur. I didn’t think I was going to get what I asked for, so when it happened I was surprised. I knew I still had a dangerous guy in front of me. But I was pleased with how the dice rolled on the match ups and was then able to shift my focus on an actual opponent as opposed to not knowing who you were stepping in the cage with.We also had a lot of confusion in regards to how the bracket was delivered. From the look of it, it appeared that some of our guys had been moved over to the Team McGregor side of the bracket. It took a day or two before we finally got confirmation that none of our guys were being forced to move over to the other team for practices and coaching. The only guy on our team who wanted to make the switch was Brad. Once he didn’t get the fight with Rico that he wanted, he quickly jumped ship so that he could be with his coaches from home. I understood where he was coming from and he was never really part of our team vibe or atmosphere so it just meant more leg room in the van for the rest of us.
The fight this week pitted Roosevelt Roberts, or, as we called him, “Row”, against Austin Hubbard. I found Dana’s decision to put Austin and Row against each other interesting. Jason and Kurt were both natural featherweights while Row and Austin were both clearly lightweights. In the end, I think all four guys are pretty close in skill so it is what it is. I’m sure it was kind of awkward for those four guys moving forward in the competition. They had all roomed together in the downstairs room and were a pretty tight group throughout the show. We played a lot of cards together and told a lot of stories and had a lot of down time to talk and get to know one another. One aspect of the show that I don’t feel like gets portrayed is the mental part of living in a house with fifteen other competitors. The lack of many of the amenities that we all grow accustomed to like television, internet, and music. Layer on top of that the fact that we had spent two weeks in a hotel prior to filming beginning each isolated individually in a room by themselves and I hope I’m getting it across that this wasn’t as easy as it might appear. Row, like many of us, came into the experience not wanting to make any friends. I remember having the same thought process. Row, especially, seemed to struggle with having to flip a switch and fight someone he had grown close to and considered a friend. He tried to push past it as the final days progressed but it was apparent to me that it was something he was struggling with. Fighting is more than just a sport. It’s not a game in the same way a basketball game is or a soccer game or even a football game. The consequences are dire. The risks are real. We inflict a lot of pain on one another and for some people, I can understand how coming to terms with that could impact the psyche. Regardless, that is what we signed up for and we all knew it.
One of the scenes from the episode showed Connor and his team coming over on a Saturday to watch the fights and cook stew. I was annoyed that he was there for several reasons. To start, it was the day before the semi final weigh ins. I was starting my weight cut around 8pm that night. The last time I weighed in, for the quarter final fight, was the same night that Connor came over and partied until late in the night and kept me up as he ran and shouted throughout the house. I was worried of a repeat scenario. On top of that, the incident after Rico and Hunter fought where Connor ran around the cage and blindsided me was still fresh. I was sick of him and didn’t want to deal with him as I started my cut. Luckily, he came over to share the stew recipe with the cast and was pretty low key throughout the evening. He left early without incident so it turned out alright.
Another cool scene from this episode was when Austin and Row got to make their calls home to their families. The conversations were limited to ten minutes and by this time it had been nearly four weeks since we had talked to our families and six weeks since we had seen them. A lot had happened in that time and if the other guys were anything like me, you wanted to know how your wife was doing and you wanted to know how your kids were doing and you wanted to tell them all about the experience you had gone through. That’s a tall order for a ten minute conversation. I’ll save details from my conversation for my semi final fight episode but it was an emotional call for me to say the least.
We also saw Row miss weight on his first attempt on the scale. He had a very tough weight cut and was mentally and physically pretty worn down by the time he stepped on the scale. He didn’t want anything to do with a sauna again so he chose to cut his hair to make the weight. If I’m being honest, and Row has said as much in interviews, it was his fault that he had some drama at the scale. Jason and Kurt weren’t cutting weight like the rest of us. They were natural featherweights and were snacking and living the good life with our daily (and seemingly unlimited) grocery list order. I think Row got caught up taking one too many snacks from those guys and got a little bit heavier than he normally does.
The Fight itself had an eerie feel to it. Because both guys were from Team Chandler, and because none of the Team Chandler coaches wanted to give advice or input to one guy or the other, it was strangely silent, even for the Apex standards. I know the fight has gotten some immediate criticism from Dana White and others for neither fighter “going for it”, and while I can see that perspective to some degree, I still think they put on a pretty tactical fight that I enjoyed watching. Sometimes fights are back and forth with huge momentum shifts and crazy exchanges and pivot points and other times they are more like quiet chess matches that are only exciting to those that know the game they are playing. For me, that’s what this fight was. I appreciate you all reading along, until next time,
Cody “The Renegade” Gibson
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