By
Sucker Punch Entertainment
Oct 30, 2008
A record number of applicants
turned out at the Crown Plaza in Chicago on Monday to tryout
for the 9th season of The Ultimate Fighter. There were
nearly 800 applicants which would make for a very long day.
Levon “The Maynman” Maynard
The best unsigned lightweight and
welterweight fighters in the country showed up to compete.
It was great to see how SuckerPunch fighters stacked up.
Zach “The Groundhog” Davis
Phillip “The Wicked” Wyman
“Antmo” and “Bang Bang”
Mike Stumpf and Patrick “Paddy
Mike” Curran with “Big Frog” on the side
All the SP fighters set up camp at Jeff Curran’s state of
the art gym a few days before the tryouts. It was like
Curran had a TUF house of his own with 6 signed SP fighters
and 1 prospect sleeping in the the dorms on the second floor
of Curran’s academy. It was interesting to see how the SP
fighters from different camps mixed living together in the
gym. Curran was extremely excited when he saw the hunger and
drive these athletes had. Some had driven 14 hours to be
there.
The tryouts were a hurry up and
register then sit around and wait game. After registering,
the fighters grabbed a nap while they waited for the first
elimination round. Grappling was first and each athlete was
randomly matched up with another applicant in their weight
class for a one minute round of grappling. Talk about a high
pace! With only 1 minute to show you can control and
dominate at this level, fighters were going for broke!
The second round was stand
up/striking. If you made it past the first round, you got
wait another several hours for all the rest of the 700+
applicants to have their 1 minute grappling bout. The
striking round consisted of fighters hitting pads with a
provided pad holder or you could bring your own out on the
floor. 4 fighters at a time started working various strikes
in the center of the ballroom while the UFC’s Joe Silva
walked around with a producer whispering “yes” or “no” into
the producers’ ears.
By the time the striking round was
over we estimated the nearly 800 applicants was cut down to
around 100. All that was left now was the interview process
and nobody knows how this went. It was now nearly 1 AM and
everone was ready to get out of there including the judges.
All in all the UFC did a great job handling the crowd and it
looks like it will be a very interesting season.
As for how far the SuckerPunch guys
made it at the tryouts, we can’t say… but next season looks
like it will be explosive. Stay tuned!
Responses
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Responses
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1. Sarah Curran says:
October 30th, 2008at 2:17 pm(#)
I see Jeff doesn’t have his splint on…he is so horrible with
that thing. I’m going to superglue it to him!
2. Rob says:
October 30th, 2008at 2:45 pm(#)
Great job everyone! I look forward to hopefully watching you
guys on the show.
Rob
3. mmablaster says:
October 30th, 2008at 3:29 pm(#)
I could see TUF using Pat Curran. He looked good in his
episode of Tapout, I’m sure the TUF guys would like that.
4. Tyburn says:
October 30th, 2008at 4:04 pm(#)
My bet is that they all made it hahahahaha. I know it sounds
callous, but I hope only one or two suckerpunch guys get
into the house…coz I dont really want to see them forced to
fight each other. I hate having to choose who to support. I
will go and say perhaps 4 got through, perhaps three will be
on TUF next time, hopefully they can avoid fighting other.
One lost in prelims, one lost in final rounds
and one to go into the final and win…huh Levon?
5. THE KID says:
October 31st, 2008at 8:51 am(#)
good job guys that rocks
6. Phillip "The Wicked" Wyman says:
October 31st, 2008at 12:40 pm(#)
I had a great time, thanks for all the support.
So Brian when are you gonna make the big announcement of me
signing with SPE? Can’t wait to mix things up on the 15th of
November when I fight Don Bailey at Cagefest Extreme.
I deffinately want to go back up to the Big Frog’s and train
with them.
Until then….Be Wicked!
7. Brian Crenshaw says:
October 31st, 2008at 9:00 pm(#)
Congrats to all the Sucker Punch fighters…everyone did well
and got home safe. All the VA guys are back in the gym and
hitting it hard this Saturday with big training session.
Keep up the hard work and it will surely pay off….
8. Angelic Wray says:
November 1st, 2008at 1:05 am(#)
I’m so proud of all the Sucker Punch fighter especially
Antmo from philly doing his thing out there showing what
Philly actually made of. I wish I was there to watch the
action in place but hopefully I’ll be there to see my boo
from philly Antmo, I just know he made it. Well good luck to
everyone else who made it.
9. big frog says:
November 1st, 2008at 9:25 am(#)
I think its important for everyone who reads and has been
following Suckerpunch fighters/news to truly understand what
these guys are going through to make a name for themselves.
When i was a young fighter (11 years ago), we had our own
battles/challenges to live with. but, Today, fighters stand
in line with 800 other guys for 15 hours long hoping that in
the total 3 minutes they have to show their stuff to Joe
Silva that they don’t faulter. ALL, suckerpunch guys
represented…I am proud of everyone and really enjoyed all my
new friends from out of town living in my gym. (eventhough
you all smell really bad, lol). Open invite to you and your
friends anytime. Way to go guys and i wish you all the best.
We should have some news soon to see who is actually moving
forward to the next step on TUF. Proud of you all. And
special thanks to Brian for helping bring us all together.
Jeff
