Sarah Moras of Kelowna, B.C., is one of four Canadians competing on The Ultimate Fighter 18. She will be writing weekly blogs for sportsnet.ca to share an inside perspective about what went on inside the gym and house on TUF 18.
When I first started watching this show, I was thinking “I can’t believe that people are taking time out of their day to watch my life from three months ago.” After watching this episode it’s starting to make a little more sense. I actually enjoyed this week’s episode.
Roxanne sheds some tears
In a weird and twisted way it was nice to see Roxanne crying outside away from everyone. To pretend that you are happy all the time, when you really want to cry isn’t good for you. I believe you should have and show a range of emotions. In a way she reminds me of my dad. He was always nice and friendly, never started an argument and just wanted the people around him to be happy. In the end, there were people putting him in extremely unfair circumstances, making him make choices that are so ridiculously crazy the choices shouldn’t even exist. Making him chose between his wife and his kids, when there was no reason he couldn’t or shouldn’t have both. By the time he finally had enough, he was too weak to do anything about it.
Watch The Ultimate Fighter 18 every Wednesday on Sportsnet 360 and get weekly episode recaps on sportsnet.ca
I fear that Roxanne is the same way. There is a saying I once read: “If you have enemies it means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” I’m hoping I’m wrong, but I think people have and will continue to walk over Roxanne if she doesn’t learn to stand up for herself.
Davey vs. Louis
I don’t see the big deal about fighting your roommate. It’s the third time it has happened out of four fights so far. We all entered that house knowing that it was going to be a huge possibility. The fight was impressive. Watching it on TV I saw angles and stuff I couldn’t see from where I was sitting in the TUF Gym. I’m actually quite impressed with Davey’s ground-and-pound.
When you watch a fight where you know (and live with) both people, you watch it differently. You sort of cheer for both of them, impressed when both guys throw sick combinations, or move well on the ground, and when someone’s not winning you hope they move and get on top. You just want to watch an exciting fight, yet it sucks because you know that someone you know is going to lose. Being in this house, makes it impossible to pick who you think is going to win, because we don’t fight the same way we normally do with our team that knows us and knows our game.
People think that this is an individual sport. I’ve always known you need your team, but I realized, more so than before, how important it is having your team and coaches there, getting you in the right mind set, and knowing how you move while cornering you. I think this fight would be interesting if it were to happen again. I think Louis would do a lot better and it would be a crazy battle.
Ronda’s mom
Ronda’s mom is very interesting and so similar to Ronda. It was quite interesting listening to her mom and I love her mindset. To some extent I feel I have a similar way of thinking and I think that most women in this sport feel the same way. For the women that fight or train and compete or take it serious, we all have to have that mentality. I’ve trained at many gyms and it is hard to get respect as a female in this sport.
When I started I felt like if I got injured or hurt I couldn’t cry or take time off and it didn’t matter how serious it was. Because I’m a girl I felt that they’d use it as an excuse for me to not be there. If you see a girl crying in a gym, you think she doesn’t belong there. If a guy is crying you think “holy cow, he must be hurt bad!” In the past I know I have trained and fought with stupid injuries that I had no business being in the gym or the cage with. I wouldn’t change it for the world though since it has definitely helped me get to where I am now and become the person I am today.
Next week
— Pennington vs. Duke… which means Peggy and I are the two females left to fight still. As Miesha says, both of these matchups were the ones that we wanted, so it worked out well for us, other than the fact that Miesha said she was going to get me to fight first rather than Raquel.
— Julianna tries to make Raquel and me her little princesses and I wasn’t as excited for that. I’m not a fan of makeup at all.
— We attend a pool party with the Hooters girls while watching some fights. It was UFC 161 with Rosi Sexton vs. Alexis Davis, so I was excited for that!
You can follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahcheesecake or like her Fan Page.