Savage Truth: Kris McCray's Inside Look Into SpikeTV's "The Ultimate Fighter" Episodes 9 and 10

Editor's note: due to publishing issues, last week's episode recap was not published. A condensed version will be available here later today.

What's up, everyone? Sorry for the layoff, but thanks for reading my recaps here at BloodyElbow.com. It's been a long time, so let's get right down to last night's show.

First, my fight. I had no idea I was going to fight Noke before they announced. Noke and I had talked about it before, though. We both knew it was a possibility coming into the show. Once the fight was announced we didn't talk about it much before the actual fight. It was kinda assumed he and I knew what to do. Nothing left but to go through with it.

Heading into the fight I was pretty banged up. After all the training and at the time my fourth fight in 5 weeks, I was beginning to get rundown. I also knew a pro like Noke was dangerous enough that I had to drag him into deep waters. I had to get him tired and off of his rhythm to give myself the best chance of winning. I didn't want to get careless early. Noke can make you pay if you aren't playing tight in the beginning.

That's what I tried to do. I wanted to control the wrestling, control positioning on the ground and tire him as much as possible. By the time the third round came around I knew that was the critical time. I had to capitalize on all of the energy I made him burn in the first two rounds. He obviously made me tired, too, but I knew that third round was gut check time. From the beginning I pressed the action and made it my round.

Let's get to Yager's fight with Josh and then we'll talk what happened with Tito.

I told Yager before the fight to not sleep on Josh. I kind of made that mistake and paid for it. Josh is a veteran and loves to take guys deep before he turns it on. Against a guy like Yager who can get excited, I thought that could be a problem. I knew Yager could beat him, but he had to play very smart and not get carried away.

I thought the fight went as expected. Yager and Josh were able to split two good rounds of fighting. Yager got hit more than I thought he would, but he landed really well, too. When round three was announced, I'm not sure what happened to Yager. I know Jamie and he's a tough guy. He trains hard, he's a good teammate and is a dedicated athlete. I was surprised he didn't answer the bell. My best guess is he just got overwhelmed in the moment. To me it was inexperience. Sometimes you have to go through experiences to realize you can make it. I bet if that happened again Yager would answer the bell. I know he would.

This time he didn't. Tito was not happy. Neither was Kyacey Uscola. Kyacey was the first one in Yager's face when he got home. He taunted Yager a lot by mocking him a fake tough guy and worse. He even asked how Yager could rep black power tattoos and and quit like that. Others in the house questioned about Yager quitting outloud. That's why you saw me talking to Yager at the end of the episode. I had to tell him as a friend he riled up some of the guys in the house earlier in the show, so of course they were going to use something like that against him. He just had to learn from it and move on.

As for Tito, I was really bummed. Tito is a great coach, great corner man and was nice to be around. Plus he'd been there all that time. The other thing is when he left, so did all of his assistant coaches. The entire coaching staff just went ghost. It felt weird and kinda unnecessary, but I understand the UFC's got a job to do. I felt bad for Tito. You could tell he really wanted to stay. He had tried hard and everyone respected him for it. We were sad to see him go.

Rich Franklin was an exciting replacement. He seemed friendly when we first met him. He was also a champion, so we knew he had good advice for us. I felt like the UFC did a great job finding a good replacement for Tito and his coaching staff.

You all saw who is next in the semis. I'm going to get a rematch with Josh and Court is going to fight Brad. I remember when this fight was announced that I loved it. It was going to be my fifth fight in six weeks. I was getting burned out, but I knew this was a big chance. It not only meant a spot in the finals, it meant revenge.

That’s it for now. Be sure to support the people who support me. Make sure you’re paying attention to Ranger Up, Assassin Industries, Ultimate Warrior Challenge (UWC), Carnal Dammage and Team Lloyd Irvin/Gold Medal Grappling. You can also get at me on my website: KrisMcCray.com.

I’ll be back here on BloodyElbow.com next week. I’ll be on Twitter until then. Be Savage.

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