From Hilo to Vegas: My TUF 8 Experience - Shane Nelson’s Blog

By Shane Nelson

To me and a lot of other guys on the team it kind of seemed fake how the red team guys were acting towards each other. When certain people were not around on the red team they’d talk about each other and when they are all together they eat dinner together every night.

And they had the first practice each night- they trained at six at night and we trained at eight so we’d come home from practice and they’d all be at the dinner table and there would be no room for us to sit down and eat and it just became pretty irritating after awhile because they weren’t all the best of friends as they were made out to be. There was a lot of talking behind people’s backs and what not and they were pretty much fake to each other all the time.

Coach Nogueira

So far watching Nogueira coach he’s a real hands on guy, training with all the guys. I guess he really takes it to heart training these guys, he’s real serious. It’s more than just a job to him. I like his style of coaching on the show and how he treats the guys on his team so it looks like both guys ended up being excellent coaches.

Vinny’s predicament

From just watching that part when Frank was asking Vinny you could pretty much predict what was going to happen next. Everything is being recorded, every second and it was just a matter of time until someone got a hold of what was said and went back and repeated it.

Brazilians are real tight, you know? Brazilians look out for Brazilians. Vinny just being on Team Mir as already awkward. I thought that for sure Nogueira would have picked Vinny first being that Nogueira is Brazilian, Vinny is Brazilian and Noguiera knows how good Vinny’s ground game was.

I think that put a damper on their relationship from the start. Vinny was a little hurt because Nogueira didn’t pick him first so he had some things to say that maybe he shouldn’t have said on camera. And Noguiera has made a lot of accomplishments and shouldn’t have been put down in any way.

I think that the red team kind of explained it wrong to Nogueira in saying that “Vinny said this.” In actuality it was Junie that told them that “Vinny is better than Nogueira,” and this and that. Which, if you look on paper Jiu Jitsu wise Vinny has had a lot more accomplishments than Nogueira, Jiu Jitsu wise, but as far as I know the words didn’t come directly out of Vinny‘s mouth.

It as from a third party which was Junie telling the red team that Vinny would beat their coaches in Jiu Jitsu and blah, blah, blah. But it didn’t directly come from Vinny, it came from a third party and by the time it got to Nogueira it was all bent up unnecessarily. It could have been easily avoided if people would have kept their mouths shut and gotten their facts straight before talking to Nogueira.

If you watch closely and listen when they are telling Vinyl’s they are saying that Junie said this and Junie said that. I think Nogueira may have missed that part or I don’t know what else they cut and edited but I clearly heard them say “Junie said…”

Krzysztof: Fighter/Prankster

The thing with Krzysztof that kind of bugged me and some of the guys on the team was - they showed him hurting his thumb but it actually wasn’t in practice, he hurt it in his first fight so his thumb was hurt the whole time - he was always avoiding training grappling or any kind of Jiu Jitsu. And having the coaches he had, Robert Drysdale and Demian Maia, I wouldn’t see why he would try to avoid getting his training in with two of the best grapplers.

But his thumb was hurt from the beginning and he could do all of the boxing drills we did, he could do all of the stand up stuff but as soon as it came to grappling his thumb would always be hurt. So to a lot of us it just looked like he was dogging the grappling and he spent a lot more time on pranks than he did on training.

In a few more episodes I’m sure they will start showing the segregation on Team Mir’s team where Eliot and Krzysztof basically trained together on their own away from the rest of the team and that’s kind of the ay it stayed for the rest of the season.

Vinny vs. Jules

The fight went pretty much how I expected it just took a lot longer than I thought it would. Everyone knew how good Vinny was on the ground you know, he is a multi time world champion in Jiu Jitsu. Jules, on the other hand from what the red team would tell us, which is a sign of what I was talking about them not being a team - they were talking behind Jules’ back - they would be telling us, “Jules is the weakest link on the team, the lightweights could beat him,” and all this stuff. That’s what upset a lot of us in the house, one of their own teammates they were saying he wasn’t that great and this and that yet here they all are baking cakes together, acting all lovey dovey but ten seconds before that they were telling us how much Jules sucked. It was just kind of awkward.

Life since TUF

My life is pretty much the same as it was before the show. Hilo is a small town so everyone pretty much knew me before I went on the show from fighting here locally. Maybe a little more people recognize me, I guess. I’m getting a lot more MySpace friend adds and comments and all that stuff.

The only major difference is that now I’m training full time. That’s the main thing and the biggest difference, that now I can actually give 100% to the sport and see where it takes me.

When I got back from the show’s taping I was hoping that I’d get a fight on the finale so my plan was to just train and focus for that fight, even if it means that I’ll be broke for a little while. It’s a sacrifice I’m making right now. I’m just making due, making ends meet and putting all my marbles into one basket and banking on the finale to really cement a spot in the UFC.

The first couple of episodes I went to the bars and I did party and stuff but now I’m not drinking so I try to stay away from the bars and the alcohol and all that stuff. If I stay away from it I won’t do any of it. Like I said, I’ve just been training for the finale, I’m not drinking and I haven’t been drinking for awhile, I’m just waiting for the call to get a fight on the finale.

Every time I watch the show I want to go back to the gym and train, you know? It gets me pumped. I just really want to show the fans how good of a fighter I really am and that the mistakes that I made in the house are not the real Shane Nelson.

So my goal is to win over some of the fans who were upset with the way I behaved and drank and all that stuff. I’m just motivated to show that I’m a great fighter, have a good attitude and I’m just human - I made mistakes in the house.

Now I’m just trying to go back and chase the dream and stay in the UFC hopefully.