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The Ultimate Fighter season 14 contestant Akira Corassani shares his experience of fighting to be on the show.
Sep 22, 2011 - Hey everyone! We just had a huge party here in NYC to celebrate. Show's over. Knocked him out! It was a beautiful fight.
When I first got there in Vegas it was a very intense feeling. You could feel the nervous energy in the air and almost touch it. Here it is, everything you ever did in your whole career comes down to one single fight and you don't want to be that guy who disappoints people. They just get everyone in the cage in the beginning, call out the names and square you off. It was uncomfortable for everybody. No one had their coaches there. Nobody had any comfort whatsoever and it was a very intense situation for everybody. We just knew we were going to appear with shorts and gloves and that we'd fight somebody.
I didn't know anything about who was going to be there before I got there. Everything was a secret. All the way. You could sort of guess who would make it from seeing people at tryouts but there were a lot of guys I was surprised about. Most of the 32 I had never seen or heard of in my life. We were never given any information about our opponents or anything. I knew Brian Pearman was a tough guy with a good record and was a good wrestler but that's all I knew.
When the fights are going on it's super depressing. Super quiet. We don't have a TV on showing the fights or anything. Nervous as hell. People are just trying to warm up and running back and forth from the bathroom. Micah Miller was in my locker room. He didn't even warmup. He was super confident. He was sitting there with his legs crossed almost looking like he was smoking a pipe or something. And his name got crossed out by Dana White. The guy has a lot of skill and comes from a sick background and has fought in great shows but you can still lose. He didn't even come back into the locker room. He was out laying in the hallway with the medical staff. I also had the two brothers Josh and BJ in my room which was very cool. They were just sticking together and doing their thing.
You could see some of the fights were up and down because they didn't know their opponents. Nobody knew. It made it hard for the coaches to help. The locker rooms were divided in two. One was taken care of by Bisping's staff and the other was by Mayhem's. I had Razor Rob and Tiki in my corner but we didn't really have a gameplan. There were like 16 guys in one locker room and these coaches are trying to help everybody. You basically had to take care of yourself. Relax and just go in and do your thing. You take directions here or there. I would just ignore most of it. These guys are yelling out stuff to do and I'm thinking they have no idea who I am or how I fight. I listened to them in the bad moments, but in the good I just went for it. I knew Pearman's arms were going to gas out. The choke was really tight but after awhile he was loosening up. I knew I had my chance once we stood up to make an assault. I came to finish right away when his hands were down. It worked. Like I said, I'm from the streets. No matter what I'm going to go for it.
It felt great to win. It had a sort of main event feeling to it. This was the first time seeing it so it was great. I was cut and bleeding. It was wild. I'm just happy and I got my ticket into the house.
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.
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Akira Corassani:
The Ultimate Fighter 14 Episode 1 Recap: 'Your Whole Career Comes Down To One Fight'
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Comments
Hey man! Great fight there in the first episode, I think you definitely made an impression already. I’m Swedish too so it’s great to finally have one of us to root for in the TUF house, looks like it’s going to be a great season overall. I really enjoyed the first episode anyway, great fights, and of course it was awesome to see you win and get into the house. I’ll definitely keep reading this blog, cheers!
by Horselover Fat on Sep 22, 2011 9:31 AM PDT reply actions
Looking forward to hearing from you all season long.
The MMA Encyclopedia. Shooters: Pro Wrestling's Real Life Tough Guys Coming Soon!
by Jonathan Snowden on Sep 22, 2011 11:23 AM PDT reply actions
thanks for the insider perspective
"Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back." -Swearengen
by AwkwardwithwordmakingisGoldberg,huhJoe on Sep 22, 2011 4:36 PM PDT reply actions
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