Sarah Moras of Kelowna, B.C., is one of three 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.
I am here to write about the episodes and tell my thoughts on the situations going on, but with the first episode only being the fights it is rather hard to do. I was the last female fight to get into the house, and I was in the back getting ready to fight, and relaxing. I didn’t get a chance to watch any of the fights until the premiere episode, so in my first blog I’ve decided to write about how I got there, my feelings on the fight I had, the before, the in-between, and the after.
Tryouts
To start out, I don’t even watch UFC, so I wasn’t watching it when Dana White announced that there would be women on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. It didn’t matter though, because as soon as he announced it my Facebook started going crazy and I got a text from my coach telling me to tryout.
At first I wasn’t really interested in having cameras around all the time, dealing with idiots, and for the most part being away from my gym, my coach, and my team. It didn’t take more than a couple minutes before I knew I had to try out. I bought my plane ticket, booked a hotel, got the time off work, and invited my sister to come with me to keep me company.
Tryouts came fast. I was recovering from an injury and I didn’t have much time to get in shape and train at all, but I focused on getting better. With that being said I was still extremely confident that I was going to make the show. I passed the grappling and striking auditions and the interview even though I am Canadian (we are boring people apparently).
I went back home and wait and waited for a call. The longer I waited the more confident I got because I figured they were making cuts before getting to the final 16 women. I got the call that I made the show while I was in the middle of teaching kids class. I was stoked, and then extremely stressed. Not because I had to fight, but because I had very little time to sort out money and bills and everything that needed to be taken care of before leaving for possibly six weeks.
Fight Picks
Dana gave a little speech and then began to announce the fights and the order of the fights. I was thinking, “holy s–t this is actually happening.”
He kept listing off fighters and after a while I notice that there weren’t many female fighters left.
Dana announced that I was going to be fighting women’s MMA legend Tara LaRosa. I was so stoked. Terrified but confident if that makes any sense at all.
Tara was ranked No. 1 in the world in my weight class when I started training. I got a chance to talk with my coach because he came to watch me fight, and he told me this was just going to be like Rory MacDonald fighting BJ Penn. It was kind of crazy to think of it like that, and to think that this was all happening right away. I was excited.
I knew I was going to get into the house and that this was going to be huge.
Beating A Legend
When I fight I don’t really remember a whole lot of it until I watch it and then it sort of comes back to me, but I haven’t been able to see the whole fight so this is what I remember.
Tara hit me hard right off the bat. I knew she had good ground game and that her ground is what she is really known for. I have a good ground game too, so I decided to take the fight to the ground, and I was able to take the fight to the ground.
I remember being in top guard a lot and throwing some punches. I also remember the first round ending with me having her in an armbar and the second round ending with me having her in a triangle choke.
It was so insane, I had just won. I had just beat Tara LaRosa. No flippin’ way!
Reality hits
I’m not one of those people that likes to plan too far into the future. I like to go with the flow and see where life takes me.
When I found out I was going to be on the show, all I thought about was that I had a fight. It didn’t even cross my mind that I’d be on The Ultimate Fighter, or that I’d be in TUF House.
This all hit me right after I had won, and I was already in shock from beating a legend. Usually directly after a fight (or that time of the month) I get emotional. It is pretty funny, my coach always laughs at me. I cry more when I win a fight than when I lose a fight and for some crazy reason they like to do the interviews almost directly after the fight.
Seeing my interview where I was crying and trying to talk was so funny. I am such an idiot sometimes.
Team Selection
I was the third overall pick and Miesha Tate’s second pick. It was cool. I had trained with Miesha before, and to be completely honest I was hoping I’d be on Ronda’s team to get a chance to train with different people.
But after finding out who Miesha had brought in for coaches, I was pretty stoked.
Impressive fights
Watching the fights, I didn’t get the same view as all of you. I didn’t get to see them until after I already knew who had won and how they had won their fights. I took little notes while watching the show on the fights and here is what I thought:
— Davey Grant’s elbows and knees were very impressive. I liked his striking style. The whole illegal elbow and knee stuff was BS. I disagree with the rules. They shouldn’t be illegal and the knee wasn’t illegal. The guy he fought was being a little softy for acting like that in the fight. IT’S A FIGHT!!
— Jessica Rakoczy won with a crazy type of armbar type deal. It was pretty cool.
— Shayna Baszler had a sick takedown and a really nice armbar. I think she had an impressive game and an impressive win. Colleen Schneider was hitting pads extremely well while warming up and I thought it was going to be more of a battle, but Shayna is a beast.
— Louis Fisette’s dad cracked me up talking about not paying rent and buying all the groceries.
— Cody Bollinger fought a very exciting fight. I loved the punches to elbows while he had Rafael against the cage and Cody just picked him apart. I would love to do that to someone in a fight.
— Timmy Gorman is so funny. He tried out, made the show, won his fight to get into the house, and has no idea who Miesha Tate is. Amazing.
You can follow Sarah on Twitter @sarahcheesecake or like her Fan Page.