Notes and quotes from fighters from The Great White North. This week: McGillivray, Soszynski & Ring.
In this week's edition, we look at three former cast members of The Ultimate Fighter from Western Canada who are competing the next two Saturdays on UFC shows. We'll start with the one from the current season fighting on Saturday's live finale.
The Kid misses his kid
Duncan, B.C.'s Ryan (The Kid) McGillivray knew it was going to be tough spending six weeks secluded in The Ultimate Fighter house without being able to see his two-year-old daughter Peighton. But the 24-year old admitted it hit him a lot deeper and a lot more often than he thought it was going to.
"Being away from my daughter was a really big struggle for me," McGillivray said. "Day to day, just mentally being by yourself, going through the ups and downs of being in the house, whether it was battling injury or training or fighting with somebody ... I think it definitely took me off guard in a lot of ways. But I grew a lot more as a person and a fighter than I ever thought I would. It was a lot more challenging."
It's not an entirely new sacrifice for McGillivray, who shares custody with his daughter after he and his wife of roughly three years separated about a year ago. He said he has already missed some important moments in his daughter's life, but that's what comes with being a fighter.
"I missed her first steps being in Brazil training for a fight," McGillivray said. "I missed her second birthday being on this show. And those are really big conflicts I struggle with on a daily basis, whether it's worth it or not. I sacrifice a lot of time with some very important people in my life to do what I do."
McGillivray, who moved to Edmonton when he was 12 and has been fighting as a pro since he was 20, said what keeps him going is the fact that he's trying to accomplish his dream.
"If it were easy, everyone would do it. And if it came without sacrifice it wouldn’t be worth it. I missed a couple key things in my daughter’s life that I probably will regret for the rest of my life but hopefully I can keep fighting and doing well and I can look back on it and say it was worth it."
And being on The Ultimate Fighter has certainly put him on that path. As the second pick by Junior Dos Santos (third overall), McGillivray defeated Team Lesnar's top pick Len Bentley in his first fight on the show. While he ended up losing his quarter-final bout with current finalist Tony Ferguson by TKO, he still earned himself a spot on Saturday's finale, where he takes on fellow castmate Shamar Bailey.
While McGillivray obviously would have been happier had he beaten Ferguson -- he said he "just kind of got caught in the fight; it happens" -- he believes he's already gotten more out of the reality show experience than he thought he would. And he's ready for Saturday's final TUF challenge.
"Bailey's a tough guy. He's a really strong wrestler who's going to try to take me down and grind out a victory. But I've been working really hard and plan to keep moving, whether standing up or on the ground if he is able to get me there. I'm confident that I'm well versed in either area."
No matter what, he will always look back and have some fond memories of being the house.
"The day after I fought Len was my daughter’s birthday and we ordered a banana cream pie and I put two candles in it and I lit it and as a team we sang happy birthday to my daughter. That was probably the most special and the most fun time I had on the show."
The "Ultimate" Experiment
Like McGillivray, Winnipeg's Krzysztof (The Polish Experiment) Soszynski felt the bigger stress as a member of Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter was more mental than physical. But he was coming from a very different angle.
The 33-year-old native of Poland, whose family moved to Canada when he was 10, already had nearly 30 fights under his belt when he joined the TUF cast in 2008. So Soszynski, who fell one fight short of the finale, losing to Vinicius Magalhaes in the semis after winning his first two fights, considered himself the "veteran" of that edition of the show.
"I definitely felt I was the more maturish fighter, and not there to make a fool of myself but focus on what I had to do," Soszynski said.
Of course Soszynski, who emerged as the prankster of that season, said it was a bit of a challenge to stay level while sharing a house with a whole bunch of young guys.
"You're stuck in a house for six weeks with the same people with lots of alcohol around and a bunch of idiots," Soszynski said. "(There's) no TV, no music, no phone, no books, nothing to do. I feel like I was pretty strong willed, with a good head on my shoulders, so I stayed away from trouble and just had fun in my way. The ultimate goal was to get to the UFC."
He ended up fighting on the finale despite the semi-final loss and beat Shane Primm by an impressive kimura that earned him Submission of the Night. Another submission bonus in his next fight and his UFC career was kick-started.
Soszynski, who faces Igor Pokrajac at UFC 131 next Saturday in Vancouver, said he doesn't watch the show close to his fights because he doesn't want to get amped up and just stay cool and relaxed.
But Soszynski, who now lives in California and trains out of Reign MMA, will definitely watch next season, which will feature teammate Jason (Mayhem) Miller as a coach opposite Michael Bisping.
"I'm looking forward to the next one with Mayhem ... I think it should be a fun season."
Soszynski also believes the concept of the show hasn't changed much over the years and remains a great outlet for the fighters involved, as well as the viewers.
"They bring in the top fighters to coach, which is really cool and gives the fans the opportunity to look inside their lives and follow them and get to know them."
Stay tuned for more from Soszynski on sportsnet.ca next week in Vancouver ahead of his fight at UFC 131.
The Promise of something better
Calgary's Nick (The Promise) Ring had a slightly different TUF experience. Well, half of one, anyway.
Ring's run on the 11th season of the show was cut short by injury, when after two wins he visited the doctor to discover he would require reconstructive surgery on his ACL. That meant he had to decide to forgo a quarter-final rematch with eventual champion Court McGee, whom he had already beaten.
The 32-year-old Ring doesn't regret the choice to pull out of the competition one bit. In fact, he can hardly call it a choice at all.
"I've gotten flack for that decision, but had I not done that, I would not be fighting in the UFC today," Ring said. "A torn ACL is a career-ending injury ... It's more serious than a broken bone. A broken bone will heal in six weeks. A torn ACL will heal never.
"If I would have tried to fight on that I would have wrecked my knee completely and I never would have fought again. So I think I made the right decision."
What was most difficult was whether you are still in the competition or you are out, you still have to stay in the house for the entire duration of the show, which definitely made the last three weeks there a drag.
"Now you get nothing to look forward to, so it gets a little tedious," Ring said. "You're always from the gym to the house (and back) and you've got nothing to do except to eat. So I spent that last three weeks in the house trying to get as big as I possibly could."
He said he had four or five protein shakes a day of about 1,200 calories each and ate as many meals as he could.
"I got my fat ass up to 224 pounds. It was amazing!"
Still, Ring said it was the most unusual living circumstance he's ever had to deal with.
"Each one of those guys (was a) potential opponent," Ring said. "You're in a house with people you wouldn't even hang out with necessarily in everyday life. You just have to have patience and not take things too seriously, eh."
The good news for Ring was he was able to impress the UFC brass enough in the first three weeks to earn him a fight following the show, after his recovery. And he made good on his chance, beating Riki Fukuda by unanimous decision at UFC 127 in Sydney, Australia.
Next Saturday, Ring, who was born in Iowa but has lived in Canada his whole life, will get a chance to fight in the Octagon on home soil when he fights James Head in Vancouver.
More on Ring's upcoming fight next week…
