Akira Corassani's The Ultimate Fighter 14 Blog

Hey guys, what an end to the season! Two fights to finish it out. The first fight between John Dodson and Johnny Bedford went just as I thought it would. Bedford had height but Dodson was just too fast for him. It might have been a mistake for Bedford to want to fight him over something that happened in the house. He didn't take the easy path for sure. I knew Dodson was going to do what he did and the TKO was going to come. Maybe a decision win for Dodson but I was confident he would win the fight. We were all joking about Bedford waking up and saying he was in Ohio. I guess he lived there back in the day. Dodson sent Bedford back to Ohio. That's what happens when you get knocked out.

I was surprised to hear Brian Caraway talk about wanting to quit MMA. It's natural to feel that way after a loss but not before the fight. That's not a good mindset before a fight. Not being confident. His mind was playing ghosts on him the whole season. The party wasn't that big a deal. We made sure that everybody was quiet for Diego. I was in charge of keeping the order so everyone left him alone. He was all pumped up for the fight and getting pissed off about the noise. We just made sure to keep everyone away from him so he could sleep. I was kind of like a bouncer.

The fight went how I thought it would go down. I knew it was going to be very brutal. I just thought it would be quicker. I was shocked Caraway made it that long. He was wobbling all over the place but he was hanging in there. I don't know why Diego got in Dennis Bermudez' face after the fight like that. What can I say? He was always pissed off about something. I think he was hyping the fight up and sending Dennis a message that he's next.

For the fights in the finale? I'm going to pick Dodson and Diego. Dodson by TKO. Diego by quick, quick end. It'll be very quick. Fast KO or TKO. Bermudez is not going to survive this fight. He barely survived the prelims in the elimination round and then we saw him against me. May the best man win but I think Diego is going to win a very quick and brutal fight. Bisping will win by TKO or decision. Miller isn't going to be able to take him down.  

It was a great season. It's totally different to be on it then watching it. Don't believe everything you see. It was a great experience. I'm very happy to have been a part of it. A historic season for number 14. I'll have memories for life. Would I ever do it again? Not now! But maybe in a couple years. Thanks for watching all season guys and remember to tune in Saturday night! Remember we are all one world. We are all one. Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.     

Hey guys, nothing too crazy in this episode. The two big things were the coach's challenge and the fight between T.J. Dillashaw and Dustin Pague.

We had no idea what the coach's challenge was going to be or even where it was. It was great to be at the Palms Casino up in the Ghost bar. That was the first and only contact we had with any people from outside the show. Even then we were still sort of hidden as we got shuttled through the casino. We were just staring at random people. We were like "holy s**t! Other people exist?!" We were thrilled just to see anyone else. I'm not talking just cocktail waitresses. I mean anything. Just people. We couldn't even use our coaches to get information from the outside world. The they couldn't even give us the score of a game.

We couldn't believe the challenge was air hockey. You can win $10,000 playing this stupid game? Sign me up! I actually thought Miller would take it. He looks like an air hockey guy. Maybe more of an arcade style. Dana said this was a time for us to relax, but I can tell you it wasn't relaxing for us. We wanted to win that money! It was a blast but for sure we wanted to win. It's always good seeing Dana in laid back settings. He's a very cool dude. He's a guy you can have a beer with.

I thought Bisping was going to die when he fell. If he had hit the back of his head on the table he would have been out. Good thing for us he bounced right up. I was laughing so hard because he was still holding onto that money like it was a baby or something. He slammed his back but the money never even moved!

We all knew what T.J. was going to do in that fight. Obviously he didn't want to stand with Dustin so his plan was to take him down and do what he does best. Just wrestle, stay on top and grind. T.J. did a great job executing the gameplan. He did what he had to do and it got him into the finals. It was a great fight for him. I knew he was going to win. It was dominant.

So yea, Bedford vs. Dodson and Caraway vs. Diego next week. Stay tuned! Both fights are very good. Remember we are all one world. We are all one. Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.    

Hey guys! You like that one? A lot of me this week. I'm that guy this season!

I was talking to my friends about Dennis Bermudez. Imagine being that guy. Six weeks in a house and you're sitting there with your girlfriend watching for yourself. "Yes! Now! Oh, I'm in the background. S**t. Oh, here I am. Nope, background again. S**t!" It would be a nightmare to be in the house for that long and not be shown at all.

Tito Ortiz is good friends with Tiki and the guys in Huntington Beach so they brought him in. We didn't have any idea he was coming. It was all a surprise. He showed us some great stuff and also shared a lot of knowledge. Tito's been in the cage for so many years now. Remember he made his UFC debut in 1997! The God Father of ground and pound. He had a unique style of just taking people down and smothering them. It was insane.

The way T.J. Dillashaw said it was that he thought he was the top guy and wanted our coaches to push him to the finals and take the easiest fight. He was a great friend in the house but after that he was pretty much thrown to the lions. We knew that John Dodson was their top guy, so for me as a fighter, it made more sense for T.J. to fight him. But T.J. ends up fighting the one legged guy. Roland Delorme was good for the fight, and how much his foot affected him I don't know, but he wasn't their sharpest knife.

I don't know where Bisping got that I had said I was trying to knock T.J. out during training. I actually never said that. They must have made that up or something. I said we were going to give him a hard time. I said we were joking. Why would I knock my teammate out? We're also friends. What they didn't show was that there were rumors going through the house the whole time. T.J. saying this and that. It all started with a joke. That shot where Diego pulled me to the camera in the house you can see that I'm giggling and stuff. It was a joke that turned into reality. Crazy sparring session. It was fun.

Diego and I were talking and he wanted to fight Bryan Caraway. For me it didn't matter. Bermudez and Caraway are similar guys and I knew they knew about my standup. They're the same level and type of fighter. But Diego said he wanted Caraway so I said OK, cool. It's the same fight. Caraway wanted me and not Diego because he was scared. I'll stand by that. His nickname was "The Scare-Away" in the house. His confidence wasn't the best. He's a great guy but he talked maybe the least of anyone. You saw his nerves in the beginning of the show when he was going to vomit in the bucket. And he saw what Diego did to Siler.

The surprising thing was when Johnny Bedford picked his own teammate in Dodson. That stuff he did didn't sit well with him. You have to remember, Bedford is a stud and always stands by what he says. He's always honest about stuff. He picked the toughest fight. And of course Dustin says everyone wants to see me lose. I'm team Bisping! Nobody on my team wanted to see me lose. He's routing for his team so of course he wants me to lose.

They made sure to make sure everyone knows I'm fighting next week to keep the ratings up. People want to see me fight. That's what I give them. I've been getting a ton of emails and tweets and facebooks from you guys all letting me know. I was out in Vegas with Frankie Edgar this past weekend for the fights and the response was unbelievable. No haters whatsoever. Only lovely people. It shows that we're human beings and not blood sucking vampires.

Same old same old. Stay tuned! I'm fighting next week! It's very cool to say that. Remember we are all one world. We are all one.

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani

Much love.    

That was a calm one. The episode starts off with the same story as last week, but this time they showed the other camera angles!

This time they showed the situation from above. I have the .gifs on my website showing the different angles that clearly show that it was not a tap. It only looks like a tap from that angle they showed last week. If you see it from the other angles you see I never tapped. The reason it looked like a tap was because I shoved his feet over to one side.

He slipped so I got out. A lot of people have emailed me apologizing after seeing the video from every angle. I've gotten a lot of comments about it. Everyone from my Twitter, email and website. I don't even know who made the .gifs. I just got them from some guy off the Sherdog forums.

Me and Diego Brandao became very close, like brothers. We were looking out for each other and were the only non-American guys in the house.

He was talking with me about his life and background and I was just trying to support and comfort him. I lived in his country for a bit in 2006 so I understood him and where he came from. The show is edited here and there. Diego had good cardio. We all know it's a TV show. If you have more than a five IQ you'll understand what that's about. His cardio was fine. He was going hard all the time. Maybe too hard sometimes. His fight is a tough one because Steven Siler is a great fighter. I feel for Siler because he didn't even have a chance to throw a jab or show anything. You have to be ready when you go to fight. It's not often but when a guy charges you like that but it only takes one punch with those small gloves to put you out. He has to sit there and think "I should have done this or that" but he can't. You have to weather the storm to calm the situation. I just feel sorry for Siler. I saw that fight and just thought "Oh shit, man. That was his chance to get into the fighting game."

Ryan Parsons is a great guy. I don't know what that was all about. Maybe he and Bisping just didn't like each other. Parsons was a great, humble person. He always talked to all the fighters and was friends with everybody. Bisping is just Bisping. Everyone is their own person. He likes to run his mouth and that's how he does it. He plays it very well. At the end of the day he's a great family man who goes home to his wife and kid with a bag of money and he's happy. That's what matters. Saying Bisping is the most hated fighter in the UFC? That's his opinion. Bisping isn't the most humble person and he's done a lot in his career to upset people but he's open about what he thinks. He doesn't hide behind a mask. People tune in to watch him. People should ask themselves how they're living their lives. They're hating everybody. They're hating me too! But the ratings are going up. They show my face all the time. People hate someone so much but still take one hour of their lives to watch that person. Then the next day they go to their job they hate, kiss their wife that they hate, want to kill, so what are you doing with your life?

For the second fight, I thought that John Dodson and John Albert would make much more sense. Dodson was quick on his hands and feet and did everything perfect. Prince was doing very well. He's very strong but Dodson just has so much experience. I won't say I expected it but the odds were on Dodson's side. I wasn't surprised. I thought Prince could pull it off if he stuck to the straight gameplan but he came up short. It's heartbreaking. I love the guy. He's a very good friend. Blood, sweat and tears. People don't understand sometimes what it takes to do this. How hard it is to put your heart on the line and come up short. Your whole world falls apart.

Stay tuned guys. It's going to get better and better. Just keep watching. They wanted us to go crazy and so I did. I went crazy. I'll be that guy this season. Drinks on me!

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.

Hey guys, lots of controversy. That was crazy.

The episode started off with Jason Miller's team messing with the picks. Miller was very smart to play that game. They knew they had the hardest guys left to fight. He took his last chance to utilize his little spy to tell us a story. Their whole plan was to make me as heavy as possible and get Diego Brandao thinking he was going to fight. They played us.They had John Dodson tell us one thing so I would be as big as possible. I'm a big featherweight. I cut about 22-25lbs for fights. The way the game worked was you get picked, make weight and then you fight. They didn't show any of it, but I cut 22lbs in 28 hours for that fight. 10 liters of water. That's a lot of water you have to draw out of your body. I was super miserable. That was literally the nearest death experience with dehydration I've ever had. I woke up and felt weak and sick. We weren't at home so we can't recover normally.

You're locked in. There's so much testosterone you have to keep going. I can't even imagine being in the house without being able to train. At the fight announcement Neace and I started going with some good old Mike Tyson trash talk back and forth. One guy was going to do this and that to the other's wife. One guy was going to do some such act. It was all BS. It wasn't until he shot for the double leg that I was like "what the hell man." From instinct I just sprawled. I was like what the F are you doing? It was crazy. The production team loved it. We were only wrestling so that's OK. Nobody was elbowing or punching anyone in the face. Miller called me a wackjob but he's one himself. It takes one to know one. Whatever you do, good or bad, you will get comments. I just do my thing.

I was almost gassed just walking into the cage. Whatever, I'm a professional and I got the job done. I had double vision the whole fight. I actually don't remember anything from that fight. I just remember two things. One is the knockdown. The other was that when he had me in a heel hook it wasn't there. It wasn't in. If you watch the video again you see my knee pop out because he slipped. He lost his grip. I was thinking "holy shit he's got it!" I changed my mind the moment he slipped. I've watched it maybe 100 times and I know for myself that I never tapped. Herb Dean has refereed thousands of fights and he didn't see a clear tap. Usually it's a horror scene when somebody taps from a heel hook. People start screaming and crying. I raised my hand and tapped one time on his thigh but it wasn't one of those dramatic taps like a metal drummer. It slipped out and I just went up on him. I would be honest and say I tapped if I did. I know the feeling that went through my body saying "this is going to hurt, I'm going to tap." But then I got out. One hit and then I'm out.

Once I dropped him in the second I used my last power to put the pounding on him. You ask any fighter, cutting 22lbs in one day is not healthy. Everything I had left I was using. I was very happy to get out of there with a win. There's a lot of excuses you can come up with but I knocked him down. End of story. Our job is to fight and the ref's job is to ref.

I've always been a fan of Rambo and old school Al Capone movies. I don't know where I was. I just had a scene from Road to Perdition in my head and I messed up. I had to do the machine gun. I'm not proud of it but what can I say? The machine gun just came out. The commissioner was totally right. There's a lot of emotions after fights. There was just so much leading up to this fight with the weight cut and the shit talking. I just had to machine gun him. I would like to apologize to Dustin Neace. He's a great fighter and he'll have a great future in the sport.

The mood was much better after getting our first win. You'll just have to stay tuned and see what happens. I was the first to get a win and that's what counts. I have to say that was one of the best episodes in Ultimate Fighter history. People might start blasting me on Twitter but I love it. I love everybody. I love you all!

The season only gets better guys so please keep watching and remember we are all one world. We are all one.

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.

Hey guys! Two fights this week! Not so much drama this time. Much more about the fights.

I still don't know why Bisping didn't show up to the fight announcement. I don't remember. Some of the guys minded but he's not our father. He's not our coach even. Our real coaches are at home. He was our coach for the season. Of course we respect him for that and we stick with this guy whatever it takes. The only thing those coaches could do was amplify our skills and help us out in the corner. That's what I was after. Just help add to the training I have worked on for the last seven years.

Dodson was also snitching all the information. You have to remember he had been a teammate with Diego for four years before the show so of course these new friends are not going to come in between their friendship. Not only that but Dodson was really one of us. He was hanging out with us all the time. He really never hung with his team. He was one of the guys who never cared about the team stuff. He was one of my absolute favorite guys in the house.

Everybody thought Stephan Bass could perform well in that fight but Dennis Bermudez is a very powerful wrestler. Stephan is just one of those guys who doesn't want to be taken down. He didn't stick to the game plan. He said it himself. He's a terrible listener. Maybe also some over training too. People don't think about the 12 week camp we did before we got into the house. Then we have to fight again.

Normally we take two weeks off and rest right after. But three days after you get into the house you might be fighting again. Bermudez did what he had to do and put it on Bass. I have to give it to Bass. He was hanging in there. We never fully heard what was said between he and Bisping. There are two sides to every story. At the end of the day he didn't go out and win that fight. You are responsible for yourself inside the cage. The corner can't fight for you. One little tiny thing blew up into a huge drama.

I actually thought Louis Gaudinot was going to beat the shit out of Dustin Pague. I was surprised by Dustin's skills. The gameplan was not to stand. The plan was to take him down, but he didn't. Dustin displayed great Thai boxing skill. That knee to the nose was the beginning of the end. He broke his nose and we lost another fight. Louis fought great. It wasn't his best but you could see he was a real fighter. Now we're down 0-4. Still very focused on our objective at this point.

If you have greater than a five IQ it's very clear that Bisping and Miller have a very different style of coaching. The most preferable is Miller's way of coaching. Methodic, slow and positive. Bisping was more just yelling "get the F up!" How am I going to get the F up? Tell me how to get up. Different styles. We're not there with our normal coaches so I would never criticize Bisping for that. He just wasn't as clear and methodic. His gameplans were always great. He can just be emotional during the fights. Miller did a great job though.

I can't say anything about next week but I can promise some real craziness! You'll have to stay tuned.

I promise the season only gets better guys so please keep watching and remember we are all one world. We are all one.

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.

Hey Guys! That was a pretty crazy episode. A lot of Drama. You would think it's weird to see yourself on TV like that but what can you say? Everything is weird about 16 guys being locked in a house in the middle of the desert.

It started out with some sparring and me putting the fear into people. You could hear them in the beginning saying 60% power, technical sparring. That's what Bisping said. You have to remember Marcus just lost his fight. Imagine losing and being eliminated from the tournament. Maybe Diego hit him first and it escalated? Maybe it was just one of those days everyone was pissed off. Everyone had 12 week camps before they fought to even get into the house. Then you have to fight again and diet. People are always talking crap and the sparring situation was all a result of stress. You could see me going 60%. You could catch my kicks. Maybe when I said I like to put fear in people it was out of context. It wasn't even the same day.

My thinking behind the intimidation to put fear into my teammates was that it was a small house. Everyone wants to win and you have these eight guys who are going to be your friends for the season who you trust with your life. I don't think so. People are talking and spreading information so when I punch my people hard in the stomach I want them to go tell the other guys I'm dangerous. The whole thing with the show is how you want to see it. Do you see the subliminal messages and what's really going on?

The pool balls and stuff is how I really am in real life. I am a prankster and I like to have fun. I'm not taking myself seriously whatsoever. "Being that guy. I hate that guy!" It's an opinion. I'm surprised he got to know me so well in five days he got to hating me. I stand for everything I did in the house. Would I do the same thing today? I don't know.

Dustin Neace was very proud of his third testicle. I was surprised he would celebrate that but he was talking loudly about being gifted in that sense. You have 16 guys in the house with no phones and some crazy stuff is going to come out. He was missing his girlfriend. It's a crazy environment. That's what they want. Roland Delorme says he hates "that guy" that likes to be center of attention. My question to him is what is he doing on TV? Why are you even fighting in the center of a stadium? He probably heard somewhere that talking crap will get you more TV time and he got his 20 seconds. I'm being more real just being myself. For a guy to go out there and say he hates to be the center of attention and then go on a TV show. What are you doing? Why are you fighting? You love the crowd screaming your name. You will have to stay tuned to see what happens with us.

After the fight was over we were starting to get down a bit. This is our coach and he picked the best team and now we've lost two fights? I wasn't worried because I was just thinking about myself. This is not a team sport. They just divide it in two for the fun of the show. I was more concerned about the energy. I didn't want bad energy around the team during training. I love the guy so it was depressing to see Josh lose. I still had to just focus on my objective.

I promise the season only gets better guys so please keep watching and remember we are all one world. We are all one.

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.     

Hey everyone! We just had another viewing party at Bar 157 in NYC for Ep 2. Team Bisping!

First we had a meeting about moving into the house. No breaking anything and fights in the house. We would be kicked out right away if we fought in the house. Just basic manners. Don't be animals and behave. When we moved in the house it was just a shock. Everyone was like WOW. This big mansion with pool tables and a big pool outside. Everyone was just excited after their win and there was a very good energy when we first got into the house. It was like space camp. I felt 15 years old again.

Everybody is friends at first but also checking everybody out. Then there's the whole team thing with the picks. It's like that movie The Experiment with the prisoners and guards. People got attitude right away. Guys would tell you not to come in here or there because we were on different teams. I wasn't paying much attention to it anyway because I knew we would all be fighting each other in the future anyway. That's how it goes. I never had this you vs. me or team vs. team feeling. I knew I was there for myself and the training partners. I had the mindset that at the end of the day I'm not here to make friends I'm here to smash people. If I made friends it was a bonus.

It was a surprise to see Miller come over with the suits. I don't know what that was. There's so much technology in this business now and for me it just looked like a couple of BS suits. It looked like one of those Ivan Drago in Rocky things. It doesn't matter what you do. It's much deeper than sitting in a suit. It's a spiritual thing and believing in yourself.

I was the second pick for Bisping. He told me that I was up there with his first or second pick but he had a feeling Miller would not pick me because I squirted water on him after I won my fight. I know Miller from before and was trying to hit a camera. So he said he took a chance between me and Diego. I was very happy to be on Bisping's team because of his mentality. I trained with Miller in 2006 and when I heard he was going to be a coach I said oh maybe I could be on his team. But I just liked Bisping's mentality and I've been training a lot in Liverpool for my camps. I know how the English are.

His coaching staff is amazing. The coaches were doing an amazing job right off the bat. Bisping has been training since he was seven years old in different martial arts and he comes with a lot of experience.

He is much more knowledgeable in coaching and fighting than Miller. Miller is a straight jiu jitsu guy. Bisping and his whole staff are an amazing mix of guys with experience in MMA but if you look at Miller's team you just had Miller, a striker, and a wrestler. They didn't have someone like Tiki.

I wrote that song during the weigh in with Josh Ferguson. I wasn't at all involved in the "bitch" part. That was Josh and Marcus that wanted that. I was the guy saying should we really use that? Marcus himself was like hell yea. We have to do that, I want that. I wrote the first verse and Ferguson wrote the second. Bryan Caraway is a very emotional and nervous guy. Nervous Nancy was a good nickname for him. His biggest opponent is himself so he's fighting himself. He has a lot of experience. He has like 20 fights and has fought in the WEC but his fight didn't look good. Marcus has four fights and if he had a little more experience he would have literally knocked him out. He was just making small mistakes by being too aggressive. The coaches were yelling at him not to run in. He just needed to be cool and calm. For me Marcus looked like a winner. Mark my words he's going to make a big boom in the MMA scene.

Watch for me with Dustin Neace next week. With 16 guys with egos and testosterone going you are not going to be able to love everybody. You will have to tune in to see what happens but I basically tell him that if I connect one time it's game over for you. A little joke became a big drama. Stay tuned.

I promise it's going to be a great season guys so please keep watching and remember we are all one world. We are all one.

Check out my website http://www.akirashow.com/ or follow me on Twitter @AkiraCorassani Much love.