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The Ultimate Fighter 14 Episode 5 Recap: Lots Of Controversy

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The Ultimate Fighter contestant Akira Corassani blogs about his experiences shooting the fifth episode of Season 14: Bisping vs. Miller.

Akira Corassani
Akira Corassani

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.