“The Ultimate Fighter 31” with coaches Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler came to an end Tuesday night, attracting more eyeballs back to the series.
This season featured eight lightweights and eight bantamweights. McGregor’s team was comprised of eight fighters who have not competed in the UFC against Chandler’s team of eight UFC alumni.
Among those UFC alums was 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 has peeled back the curtain to provide an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look and give insight into what may not have made it on the show.
Check out below what Holobaugh had to say about Episode 12, the season finale that featured Rico DiSciullo vs. Cody Gibson.
Crawfish idea conception
“That was my idea. During our interview process and everything from the show, I had pitched them on the idea. The producers, when they bring you in the room to interview you, they want to know everything about you and what you like to do and what your hobbies are – everything like that. I’m like, ‘I like to fish. I like to hunt. I cook crawfish every weekend.’ … They said, ‘If we get you some crawfish, you’ll boil them?’ I’m like abso-freaking-lutely.”
“That’s always been a staple. The first time I ever had crawfish, I had to be 4 or 5 years old or something like that. Man, I’ve been eating crawfish my whole life. I’ve really grown to love cooking crawfish. It’s one of the things I like to do. It’s a blast always, to have friends and family over, get a couple stacks of crawfish and throw them in a pot. … Only four or five guys had ever even tried crawfish. The rest of the guys maybe living up north never actually had spicy, cajun-boiled crawfish. Maybe some other places up north you might get them, but you can’t get them like we have down here.”
Drama in the kitchen – and its origin
“I was listening to it. Everybody was. That’s been the buildup the whole time. Not many guys like Brad Katona. But Cody Gibson is just not the guy who is going to hold his tongue. If he doesn’t like you, he’s going to tell you, ‘Hey, I don’t like you.’ They’ve had a little bit of beef going back and forth the entire time. Then after now, we know Cody and Brad are going to fight. Cody has had that little ill will against Brad the entire time.”
“… I think they were all roommates: Brad, Cody, and then I think maybe Hunter Azure. They were all in the same room. There were a few things that transpired. I want to say Brad left his window open one night, which Cody and Hunter did not appreciate. There were a few other things Brad would do, just little, irritating, knick-knack things that nobody really liked.”
'F*ck you' notes
“Cody wrote that – and that wasn’t the only note. When guys would leave a lot of trash out or leave dirty bowls out and stuff like that, Cody went around placing little notes on everybody’s stuff that they had left out, especially if he knew whose it was. He’d be like, ‘Carlos, clean your sh*t, wash your bowls.’ And then it was the obvious stuff, ‘F*ck you, Brad’ on the seltzer can. I don’t know. It was kind of funny.”
The team helps Gibson's bad weight cut procedures
“He had a hard weight cut and everyone was kind of worried about him on that first fight. Here’s the thing about Cody. Cody has never water-loaded before. He’s always kind of struggled. That’s been everybody’s thing. Everyone’s like, ‘Cody is so big. How does he make 135?’ He’s never water-loaded before. He kind of did his own thing.
“Before his first fight, he wasn’t feeling good. I remember before the first fight, after his weight cut he had to pull the van over. He got out and threw up, that kind of stuff. Everybody is like, ‘ Look, we’re going to teach you how to water-load for the next fight,’ and he did it. The difference how he felt from the first fight and the performance he had with Mando still, to the second fight, it was day and night. He looked good. He felt good. It definitely wasn’t a shock he got the win.”
A secret well kept
“(Gibson’s knee injury) was kind of kept under wraps, unless Brad went back and secretly shared some info. But if there was any info to share, it would’ve been from Brad sharing to the team. I think it was only us that knew and of course we’re not going to run out and say anything.”
Fighting a friend
“It was the same way I interacted with Row and Jason. I felt like we all four kind of made a bond. We all got along well. Most of the time it was the 155ers trying to hang around and train with other 155ers. There was only four of us, so I’d do a little bit with Austin, then I’d switch. I’d do a little bit with Jason, then I’d do some with Row. Of course, when some of the guys were fighting and stuff, we might mix around with some of the 135ers. But for the most part, we all got along. We all shared our personal feelings and stories with each other. I look at Austin as a friend, just like I do Row and Jason. I felt like we all got equally as tight. There’s no ill will and no bad blood. It’s going to be the same thing like it was when I stepped in the cage with Jason last week. Just this week, it’s Austin.”
Preparing for someone you recently trained with
“I don’t really weigh into it too much just for the simple fact that anything can happen in a fight. You just never know what’s going to happen. You can prepare for somebody for their special skill that you might think you know and then you might get knocked out with the first punch you throw. So you just never know. Yeah, I’ve got a good guess as to what Austin does good and what he does bad. He’s got the same. He knows what I do well and what I don’t do well. I don’t think you can look into that a whole bunch. A fight is totally different than just being in the training room.”
Closing time
“As soon as the fights were over, the show was over. They even told us that. They said, ‘Hey guys, pack your bags up. Do everything you’ve got to do, because after the fights are over, we’re going to do your last interview, give you your phone back, give you all your stuff, and take you to the airport. It’s kind of like a bittersweet thing. Everybody can’t wait to get out of the house, but at the same time, it was a good time, I want to say. It sucks Jason got transported to the hospital for a little while. But when we were waiting around, everyone was doing their interviews. They always feed you a little bit, whatever they had. Finally, I think Row said he had to have his Casamigos, so everyone could have a shot.
“I want to say we were sitting in the Apex for everybody to get done for everybody to head back to the house. They brought us back home. As soon as we got back home, they had a list of interview orders. I think I was the last one getting interviewed. As they interviewed you, they’d load your stuff up and the shuttle would take you to the hotel for the night. They interviewed you, gave you your phone back, you’d load up, head to the hotel, for flights in the morning.”
Back to earth
“That was actually pretty crazy. Realistically, when you don’t have a phone and you’re confident like I was with my wife and my kids and all of my instructors at my gym that they can handle everything and I don’t have to worry, that was one of the best parts about ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ house. It’s almost like you’re a kid again and there are no worries. You don’t have to worry about anything. You go home and you’ve got food and you’re getting shuttled everywhere. You don’t even think about what’s really going on in the outside world. Once you get your phone back and you start going through social media and you’re like, ‘Oh, this happened,’ or ‘Oh, this happened,’ or, ‘I didn’t know this happened,’ it’s kind of crazy.”
How 'TUF' changes you
“I think it changes you in every way possible. It makes you grow as a person. It makes you grow as a fighter, father, husband. It does a little bit of everything to you. I think it’s all for the better, too. Sometimes, I can’t wrap my head around a lot of the previous shows where guys couldn’t handle it for whatever odd reason and said, ‘Hey, man, I’ve got to get out of here and go home.’ I’m like, ‘You missed out.'”
Career revival
“I was on the verge of not fighting anymore. I was thinking about hanging it up. Next thing you know, boom, I’m fighting at UFC 292, TD Garden in Boston – one of the biggest cards of the year. I’m high on the prelim card vs. Austin. It doesn’t get any better than that. It almost feels like, in a sense, this is for a championship. It kind of is. It’s cool. I’m grateful for that opportunity, and I’m just here to have fun now.”
