The final episode of season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter aired tonight and my semi-finals fight was showcased. I fought the only Team McGregor fighter (with the exception of Brad Katona, who switched teams) left on the show in Rico Disciullo.
The episode begins by revisiting an aspect of the story that was revealed in a previous episode, the MCL tear I suffered in my quarter final fight. One component of the injury that wasn’t highlighted too much on the episode was the fact that the UFC doctors didn’t clear me to fight until a few days before the semi-finals.After I suffered the injury, I was originally under the assumption that the decision was ultimately up to me. While the injury definitely did leave me compromised, it was never a question in my mind as to whether or not I was going to fight. Doctor Davidson, however, had me meet with a knee specialist after his consultation and the physician surprised me while going over my MRI results when he said that the decision was actually his and that he didn’t think I should fight. After some pleading, I was eventually informed that the UFC would allow me to get a stem cell injection in the knee and was requiring that I attend mandatory physical therapy for the remainder of my time on the show. They told me that if the knee responded well to the treatments, they would consider allowing me to fight.
To say that this was frustrating and a bit of a mental roller coaster would be an understatement. One of the beautiful things about fighting is that at the end of the day, the outcome of a scrap is in your hands. You control your own destiny. When the decision to allow me to fight or not was out of my control, I was left feeling extremely frustrated with the situation and things were really up in the air for the remainder of the show for me. I was determined to fight, so I kept my focus on doing everything I could in PT as well as with recovery to try to nudge the doctors in my direction. In the end, they gave me the green light and I was cleared to fight a few days before the scheduled bout would transpire.
Another detail that was left out in this episode was some of the comments and observations I made towards my upcoming opponent. Rico was a good guy. I liked him and his spirit. But when he won his quarter final fight, we saw a noticeable difference in his demeanor in the house. He was very happy with his come from behind victory against Hunter. He celebrated the night of his win. He celebrated the next day as well. And the next. And so as our semi final fight approached, I remember watching him in the house and some of the decisions he was making as it pertained to alcohol consumption that really left me baffled at what he was there for. It didn’t seem to me like he was preparing for the fight of his life. To me, in that moment at least, it seemed like he had accomplished what he set out to accomplish. He won a fight. And so as the semi-finals approached, I had a renewed sense of confidence knowing that I had dedicated myself on the show (and for the last fifteen years) to this craft. I had made the sacrifices necessary to have success in this sport and it didn’t appear to me like Rico was willing to make those same sacrifices. At the end of the day, to each their own. But some of my comments about how Rico was going to learn a lesson in discipline (or lack thereof) needed context so I thought I’d share.
The episode also showed part of a confrontation I had with my roommate, former teammate, and now finalist opponent Brad Katona. Brad and I had several negative interactions on the show. He had been on the show before and that gave him an advantage when it came to how to navigate the production team to get the things he wanted in the house. While myself and several others were given a flimsy mattress, thin blanket, and uncomfortable pillow to accommodate us at night, Brad had somehow managed to get himself a tempurpedic bed, extra pillows and blankets, and a host of other amenities as well. One night, in the coziness of his arrangement, he decided to open the bedroom window. I woke up at 3am that night freezing. My other roommate, Hunter Azure, had a similar experience. We closed the window and asked Brad the next day not to open the window again because we froze when he did that. While he initially obliged, eventually he started opening the window again at night and it really frustrated us that he had such a lack of consideration for his bunkmates.
In addition, the night before the weigh-ins for the semi-finals, Brad had arranged special accommodations to be picked up by the UFC staff and taken to the UFC Performance Institute to cut his water weight, another amenity the rest of us didn’t enjoy. When he was woken up early in the morning by the UFC staff to take him to the PI, he was extremely loud and woke me up. While I applaud him for working the system, it was the final thing of a long list of things that I experienced with him that finally sent me over the edge.
Despite the drama that unfolded, I remember telling myself afterwards that I needed to shift my focus back to the task at hand, which was beating Rico and cementing myself as a finalist for the show. Going into the semi-finals fight, I remember feeling confident that I could get the job done, even if my knee was compromised and my training had been minimal leading into the fight. I decided that I needed to adjust my stance for the fight to ensure that I wouldn’t be eating any inside leg kicks where the source of my MCL injury had occurred. To avoid the potential for inside leg kicks, I decided to fight with a bladed boxing stance with my toes pointed inwards as opposed to straight. This is significant because although it did help keep my MCL safe from being kicked, it left me vulnerable to eating outside leg kicks and not having the positioning to check or ramp the kicks like I normally would have. Sure enough, as you saw in the fight, Rico capitalized on my stance and was able to land a few solid outside leg kicks early in round one. Luckily, a switch stance left hand attempt by Rico created a slip and I was able to capitalize and take his back with relative ease. From there, I went to work with my body triangle and ground and pound and was eventually able to secure an arm triangle choke to seal the deal and punch my ticket to the finale.
My coaches and I flew out to Boston today before the show aired and I am writing this last entry from my hotel room. One of the benefits of knowing the outcome of the show so many months ago was our ability to have a long training camp and come into this finale as prepared as I’ve ever been for a fight. We went through a tough thirteen week fight camp and I was able to utilize my summer vacation from work and train full time for this final fight with Brad. I also got a new strength and conditioning coach for this camp who I believe really helped me level up as an athlete and prepare my body for what is required in order for me to win this show and make a statement to the bantamweight division of the UFC. I’m excited for this weekend and proud of the work we’ve put in. My coaches at the Pit, my S&C coach at Headstrong Fitness, my teammates who all sacrificed their time and energy to help me prepare, my wife, who takes on so much to allow me to focus my attention on training and preparing. The work has been done. The sacrifices have been made. I go into this final fight proud of that work and feeling blessed to have the people around me that I do.
Thank you for following along this journey with me. It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride and I appreciate all of you for the support and encouragement as we embark on this final run of my career. Tune in on Saturday night at 5pm on ESPN to see how it all unfolds. Until next time,
Cody “The Renegade” Gibson
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