Marcus Brimage TUF 14 Blog: Dodgin' and Dodson

Like you saw in this week’s episode, I was doing some sparring with Diego Brandao even though we’d butted heads earlier in the season. There’s no question Diego is a dangerous fighter. Some people might say his recklessness is a weakness but you’ve got to remember, Wanderlei Silva was the same way in PRIDE and we all know how effective he was. He’s got one of those “I’m gonna hurt you before you hurt me” type of skill-sets. That in itself is a threat, but at the same time if he learned to calm down – to keep his emotions in check – he might become an even better fighter.

His scrap with Steven Siler went how I expected it to. Team Mayhem pretty much threw Siler to the wolves just like our team threw John Albert to the wolves. There was definitely some draft dodging going on this season – where guys just dodge a fight, saying, “I don’t want to fight this person and I’d rather fight this person.” Siler was their last pick and they had him fighting our first pick. There was a whole lot of draft dodging in that scenario.

And Siler deserves a lot of respect for taking the fight. John Dodson said it too – nobody wanted to fight Diego on Miller’s team. But Siler answered the call so I’ve got nothing but respect for him. He may have beaten my ATT teammate to get into the house (Micah Miller) but the kid stepped up to the plate like a true fighter should.

The antics between Michael Bisping and Jason Miller were constantly entertaining. Bisping’s speech was hilarious. People might think he’s an asshole for his behavior but Miller was being a douchebag too. The difference is that Bisping is better at talking smack than “Mayhem” is so it looks worse when he’s doing it. I think his English accent pisses people off too – you know, “Cheerio” and “Chum” – so when THAT guy gets one over on you it really makes folks mad.

TJ Dillashaw is another draft dodger. Anybody who says they’re the best fighter in the house but should have an easier route is full of sh*t. That’s just lame. And like Siler, Albert deserves credit for taking the fight. “Prince” had an attitude where he was just there to throw down. He didn’t give a damn who he faced, yet TJ tried to manipulate his way out of fighting Dodson. Also, just a tease here since I can’t disclose specifics yet, but after next week’s episode I have something CRAZY to tell everyone!

But bottom line is – Dillashaw is a draft dodger and you’ll see more of it this season.

As far as Dodson’s fight with “Prince”, it was beautiful. It was tit for tat; it was fast; it was action-packed. Their fight was off the chain. I was actually a little jealous of how good it was. Neither of them was willing to back down. It looked pretty even, though I’d have given Dodson a slight advantage in the first round and then Albert started to fade a little bit in the second round. It opened the door for Dodson to cruise the rest of the way and pick up the win.

Dodson is a great guy. I still talk to him on the phone all the time. We play video games together online all the time. I can actually say I made a true friend by going on the show. He’s really nice – he just wants to have a good time and fight. Right now we’ve been playing Halo and “Castlevania: Harmony of Despair”. We love playing that – I’ll be Richter Belmont, he’ll be Julius Belmont, and we just go out and start killing vampires. And of course we’ll both be getting Modern Warfare 3. We actually both talked about it and plan to put our information out there for fans so we can take some heads off! It should be a lot of fun.

Halloween is around the corner and, like I hope you all do, I’ve got plans. I’ll be in South Beach Miami with my friend Emmanuel at E Hollywood Promotions who is throwing a big party at “305”. Wyclef Jean is supposed to be there as well as the Zumba fitness models. I’m going as a 90s rapper. I’ve got parachute pants, a high-top fade wig, and just basically a bunch of MC Hammer-style stuff. I’ll make sure to Tweet a picture of it.

That’s it for this week. Alabama plays LSU next weekend and you know its Roll Tide, baby! Nick Saban is going to lead us to that #1 spot, get another championship, and then run for President – in that order. Shout outs to my guard unit, the 117th, for allowing me to catch up on my drills and chase my dreams in MMA, to my old team at Spartan Fitness, my family and friends in Alabama, American Top Team, and a very special shout out to my homeboy Tommy Elliot at TE3 Athletics for helping me drive twelve and a half hours from Alabama to Florida

Thanks again for reading. I’ll be back next week with some more insight on what went down. In the meantime check me out on Twitter (@brim205) or learn more through my video blog.