Fightin' Words

To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to make of Dan Barrera when I first met him. He’s a pretty wacky guy, and I thought he may have BS’d his way through the casting process to get onto the show. He’s really energetic, my team said he couldn’t even sit still in the house, so regarding his practice habits, I wasn’t surprised – some guys only have one speed. With guys like that, I think Hughes and Jared had the right idea – when coaching, if someone doesn’t listen to you verbally, you have to kind of get the point across one way or the other.

Ben Saunders I definitely liked from the get go. He’s not your typical, cookie cutter fighter. He reminded me a little bit of Luke Cummo in that sense, he’s a smart guy just trying to be who he is, no tough guy act about being in this sport.

Leading up to the fight, Dan had some weird stuff going on. To begin with, those trips to the bathroom…he must have not known there was a camera there. Then he had that crazy stuff going on with his wife back home. He seemed to let that roll off of him, though, he was definitely focused on the matter at hand when it came down to fight time.

Also, when I first heard about his hand, Longo told me it was broken, and I thought Ben would win by default and move onto the next round. I wasn’t happy the guy hurt his hand, just to be clear. I wanted what’s best for Ben, and, ultimately, our team.

As it turns out, Dan could fight, and Ben would have to punch his own ticket to the quarterfinals. I didn’t doubt he would – leading up to his bout, I’ve never seen anyone as genuinely excited as Ben was about fighting. He couldn’t wait to get in there. Smiling ear to ear, he turned to me during practice and said “This is the closest thing to being a superhero.”

Round 1, I actually thought could have gone either way. Dan definitely landed the biggest shot of the round, knocking down Ben with a hard right, but truthfully, he didn’t do much besides that. Ben was landing a lot of shots, and while I thought the judges would give it to Dan because of the knockdown, it could have gone either way. Still, if the round is close, as his cornerman, I have to assume a close round has gone the other way to prepare my guy for the rest of the fight.

Round 2, Ben dominated. He put on a clinic and made adjustments based on what we discussed between rounds. I was very proud of his performance and thought he’d do more of the same in the 3rd round…but that wasn’t necessary. As soon as they said there wouldn’t be a 3rd round, I turned to him and said “Congratulations Buddy, you’ve got this one.”

Turns out I was right, and that set Matt Hughes off complaining to the athletic commission about the judges. Dana White seemed to agree with him. Not for nothing, but I’ve been on the receiving end of some close decisions and wacky endings to fights. I never reacted that way, regardless of the outcome. Furthermore, while it was definitely a close call, I don’t think it’s a completely unreasonable decision. Of course, I could be biased as Ben’s couach, but watching it again on TV, it didn’t seem as ridiculous a call as Dana and Hughes’s reactions would indicate.

In any event, we clinched decision making rights in the quarterfinals, and celebrated our team’s win in Ben’s dressing room. I stepped out of our celebration for a moment to, with Matt Hughes’ permission, visit their locker room to give Dan his due. He hung in there and it was an absolute brawl, and Dana did the right thing in giving both those guys the $5000 bonus. The real reason I went in there, though, was to apologize to Dan for thinking he BS’d his way onto the show. I owed him that. You’ll see him again in the UFC.