“The Ultimate Fighter 31” is underway with coaches Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler attracting loads of eyeballs back on the series.
This season, which features eight lightweights and eight bantamweights, debuted Tuesday on ESPN. McGregor’s team features eight fighters who have not competed in the UFC against Chandler’s team of eight UFC alumni.
Among those UFC alumni is Kurt Holobaugh, the lone fighter who had two previous stints with the promotion. Holobaugh went 0-4 over those stretches, but history shows a tough strength of schedule: Steven Siler, Raoni Barcelos, Shane Burgos, and Thiago Moises.
Now at lightweight rather than featherweight, Holobaugh devastated two opponents to get a third look from the UFC.
Each week here at MMA Junkie, Holobaugh will peel back the curtain and provide an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look and give insight into what may not have made the cut into the episode.
Check out what Holobaugh had to say about Episode 1 below:
Application and interviews
“My management team SuckerPunch Entertainment hit me up and said, ‘Hey, I just sent you an email. It’s an application for the next ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ I go and check my email and I start thinking, like, ‘Man, I haven’t fought in two years. Am I in good shape? Am I still good enough to do what I did two years ago when I fought? That’s always on my mind. I don’t want to be one of those guys who still think they can think at that high level but have to find out the hard way they can’t.’
“At the time, I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I should do this. I don’t know if I want to do this. I don’t know if I’m able to do this, being away from the family for six weeks like that.’ Then, my wife and them were like, ‘I think this is a chance you should take. Let’s do it.’ My teammates were like, ‘Just see where it goes, man. Check it out.’ I’m like, ‘All right.’
“So, boom. All that gets done. My management hits me up and tells me they got me an interview. ‘It’s for tomorrow at such-and-such time with the producers.’ I’m like, ‘All right, cool.’ We do the interview. Everything seems like it goes really well. I’m like, ‘OK, well this might be happening. Let me get some things in line, getting my gyms ready for me to leave and all that.’”
“… My manager Brian Butler hit me up and said, ‘You’re in.’ I said, ‘Oh sh*t here we go. I’ve got to pack my bags because I leave in two days.’ They actually pushed it a week back, so I got to stay another week to prepare leaving my family for six months. I just had to mentally prepare myself. They sent a camera out to do all our home video for the week and things like that. I gained a little more time just to prepare for it. Then, we’d go out there and there were more guys that you’d see and you don’t really know for sure.”
Eleven Days of Lockdown
“They didn’t want you interacting and nobody knew 100 percent that they were on the show. They flew you out to Vegas. They put you in a hotel. We actually stayed in this hotel for 11 days. I heard it had been longer before for guys on other seasons. (Brad) Katona was on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ before and he said they were there for two weeks and they took their phones for the whole two weeks. They were gracious enough to let us keep our phones for like 10 of those 11 days in the hotel. Then you start adding things up. You start seeing guys. I saw this guy. I saw that guy. It was like, ‘Well, there are only 16 fighters going into the house. That means eight lightweights and eight bantamweights.’
“It was like, ‘Well, I just counted 24 guys. So what’s the deal?’ You see guys in the hallways. You see maybe two guys in the workout room but they only let you go at certain times. You’ve got to go and ask. I heard some guys are alternates. I heard this guy was here. I heard this guy was here. I heard two were alternates. I heard two guys know they’re alternates and got a contract. I heard two guys don’t know their alternates. I wasn’t sure if we had to fight to get in the house. Nobody really knew.
It's time... to finally talk
“They took your phone the night before and said, ‘Hey, we’ll call you tomorrow.’ There were no phones. I sat at the hotel and I thought it was going to be early. They didn’t end up calling us until like 4 o’clock in the afternoon. They called and said, ‘OK, let’s go. Get all your stuff and be in the lobby in five minutes.’ Then, you go down there and they’re keeping everybody separate. They’re keeping all the prospects and vets separate. You can not talk. … Nothing without cameras on you.
“They load us all up in the vans, take us to the Apex. The first thing they do is put a microphone on everybody. Then, they’re like, ‘All right, you can talk.’ They brought us into the Apex. You can hear Conor’s laugh. You can Chandler back there talking. They opened the doors up and here comes Dana, Conor, and Chandler. That’s when they did the coin toss and kind of explained how the season was going to work with the picks and everything like that. It was cool.”
Superstars are just like the rest of us
“I think that’s the main reason I’ve been in the fight game for so long is I’ve been fighting at a high level for a long time all the way back to when I made my Strikeforce in 2013. When they brought us to the hotel and I got out of the car, the first person I saw was ‘Jacare’ Souza. I’m a little starstruck. Then, the next card I got to fight on was Jon Jones and I’m fighting at Madison Square Garden with Daniel Cormier headlining. Then I got to go to Brazil and I’m on the card with Anderson Silva and Jose Aldo.
“I feel like I’ve already been around all these guys. I stopped getting starstruck a long time ago. It was still cool. That was the first time I’ve ever met Conor. I’ve seen Chandler in person a few times. I never really met him. I’ve kind of stood side-by-side with him before at some other events. To me, I wasn’t really starstruck it was definitely a cool thing.”
“… I really wanted Chandler because I think Chandler has a lot more to offer me than Conor McGregor. At the same time, if I were to have gotten Conor, I was kind of all right with that, too, because of the ratings. All the eyes will be on you for being on Conor’s team. At the same time, I didn’t really want to be on Conor’s team. As soon as Conor picked the prospects, I knew we were going to Chandler and I was thankful and grateful. I knew my game was about to evolve, big time.”
Ranked No. 4-of-4 by coach Michael Chandler
“No, I wasn’t surprised by my ranking. All of these guys weren’t just in the UFC – they did really well in the UFC. Some of them probably got released and probably shouldn’t have. Things happen. Then, you’ve got Chandler who is great at giving these motivational speeches. It’s like, it doesn’t matter who you are. You can always can use a speech like that to get you pumped up and get you knowing what you’re there for. That was a cool thing and one of the best reasons of having Chandler. Man, he always kept you motivated. He always let you know how good you really were.”
Fight reaction: Roosevelt Roberts def. Nate Jennerman via knockout – Round 1
“That shows you how good Roosevelt Roberts is. You look at Nate Jennerman, he’s no slouch. He has a lot of fights. He fought in big organizations before – a lot of wins by finish. He’s fought some stiff competition over the past years and has been in the game for a long time. Look at how easy Roosevelt made it look.”
“… The weird thing about this is everybody says, ‘I’m not going into ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ to make friends. I’m going in there to win the show. I don’t care about anybody on the show.’ But as soon as we picked teams and then we got that first training session in and then we go into the house, we’re all bonding. We were playing cards. We were playing dominoes. We’re all cooking each other up some steaks and stuff. An instant bond formed right there. I’m like, ‘This really feels like a real team.’ It’s crazy how fast that worked and how fast we all bonded like that.
“Then once Row went out there and he got the first win, it set that off for us. Everybody was already so invested in our team, just over a day and a half or two days. Then, that followed us throughout the whole week. At that time, it’s crazy to say just how close we all were at that time. We were actually really close.”
Positive vibes and reinvention
“It’s going to be a fun season. For me, I’ve fought on some of the biggest UFC cards. I fought in Madison Square Garden. I went to Brazil and fought in Brazil. The craziest thing is that you get that one little time slot. You get those 15 minutes of fame when the UFC plays your fight. But with this season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ you’re going to get 12 weeks of this. It’s surreal for me.
“… For the first time, I’m feeling like I’m somebody in the fight game now. Even with my other fights in the UFC, I never felt I was big-time. I never felt I was in the UFC. It’s weird because I do now. I have no pressure on my shoulders anymore. I feel like I’m back to fighting for the reasons that I did 15 years ago. That’s to have fun – not for the money or the fame. It’s just to enjoy fighting and have fun. That’s what we did this season.”
