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.
Julianna, Julianna, Julianna
Everyone gave Julianna Pena a hard time about the other team knowing our team picks for the girls. I don’t really know why everyone cared so much, especially the guys. They didn’t show what I said, but I basically said that I don’t care if the other team knows, I’m there to fight and fight whoever is in front of me. We didn’t even know if our team will win in order for us to get the fights that we want.
Julianna said in episode two that she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in a relationship or flirting with guys in the house, and that I was more open to the idea. I’m actually the one that told Chris Holdsworth that she has a boyfriend and that she lives with him and that he’s her coach. I do like to flirt, I do it because it’s funny, so it didn’t really bug me that Julianna said that about me, I just found it funny that she’s the one that said that.
With all this being said, I actually liked Julianna when I spent one-on-one time with her. She was a completely different person then and I liked talking to that version of her.
Fight time
Holdsworth and Chris Beal both have been through a lot, and have experienced tragedy in their lives. I think they are both extremely talented fighters and that it would have made for an even more entertaining fight if Beal had both of his hands.
I’d be interested in seeing how that would go. Beal seems so athletic in his movement getting ready for the fight, and I trained with Holdsworth so I knew what his game was like and how good he is on the ground. I was impressed with Holdsworth’s striking ability and how he was able to keep Beal at the end of his punches the whole time. A lot of people don’t know how to use their reach, especially if they have a reach advantage, so it was awesome to see him use it, and use it well.
Drama
The whole thing between Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate when we were out to watch the fights, I don’t even know what to say. I was water-loading because I thought I had a fight lined up, so I was constantly running to the bathroom and I was actually in the bathroom when the majority of this went down.
I heard a very different story than what I witnessed in this episode and I’m sure both stories aren’t 100 per cent accurate, so it makes it difficult for me to comment on it.
Behind the scenes
Biscuits for breakfast. Our coach and nutritionist Eric also lives with Chris Holdsworth in real life and I think Eric see’s Chris as a son, so he was so excited when Holdsworth won. He started yelling out, “that’s what you get for eating biscuits for breakfast!” It made me laugh.
It shows Beal running outside, we were allowed to run to the end of the block and back a couple times a week. That was the extent of our contact with the outside world or the knowledge of there being an outside world.
And what the hell is with me not being in any part of this episode? I guess it’s better than me looking like an idiot.