Mike Dolce’s TUF 7 blog - Week 1
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- April
- 3
Mike Dolce is one of the middleweight contestants on “The Ultimate Fighter 7”. Mike will be sending me his a blog after every episode of this seasons “Ultimate Fighter”. Here is the first installment:
Imagine: You tell your boss to screw off, put everything you own in a 6×6 storage bin and leave your dog with your sister, “I’ll see you guys in six weeks, I’m gonna be the next Ultimate Fighter!”
Well, don’t unpack your bags just yet, Sport. Dana White has a little twist for you.
In season 7 of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter”, the cast members had to fight their way into the house.
Me, I expected to fight as soon as I landed in Vegas. Some guys were clueless.
Question: Why would the producers mandate, for the first time ever, that the cast members weigh no more than five pounds over this season’s class limit on the first day of filming?
Answer: Because you are fighting dumb ass!
Ready or not, you’re still fighting in 48 hours and have 24 hours to make weight. So pick your balls back up off the floor and get to jogging because your whole life will totally change its course in the next two days…or you could be going home with a broken arm.
The atmosphere was pretty charged up from that point on. You could tell who was in shape and who liked to fight just by the look in each guys eyes. There were some tough dudes here, a lot of tough dudes actually, and a couple of turds.
Making weight has never been a problem for me. I cut from 205 pounds to 170 pounds four times in 2007. A cut that big makes your soul bleed, trust me! Getting down to 185 is a walk in the park. I trained for eight weeks to show up here in the best shape of my life and it showed.
I only cut two pounds and even ate a light breakfast that morning. My weight was fine.
Some other guys like Steve Byrnes and John Clarke were over 200 pounds at Dana’s now famous fight announcement and had a long night ahead of them. Lots of sits in the sauna and many miles will have to be jogged in their sweat suits. And though both guys eventually made their weight like true professionals, each looked the worse for wear stepping off the scale.
Fight day was sick!
Picture 32 wild animals all locked in the same cage circling, waiting to tear out each other’s jugulars. No pussy-cats here!
My opponent was Prince McLean. Prince is a 6’6” Rich Franklin / Jorge Gurgel trained fighter from the Midwest. He’s an all-state wrestler known for his exceptional kickboxing.
Prince and I became friendly in December ’07 during the casting interview in Las Vegas. He and I were in the same van, along with Gerald Harris, Josh Hall, Tim Credeur, CB Dollaway, Pat Schultz and John Clarke. All good guys…then.
Today…they are hurdles. Rungs in the ladder of my own success and I had no problem stepping on each one to get to the top. Except for Harris. He’s my boy! A teammate at Team Quest and a good friend. If we had to fight, and we would definitely throw down, we hoped it would be in the finals.
Stepping in the cage, I knew the fight was won. I could smell it.
About a minute and a half later, it was, by knockout!
I’m moving into the house and onto “The Ultimate Fighter 7”!
As the weeks go on, I’ll be able to give you more behind the scenes details. Just wait until we get into the house.
That place was bleepin’ crazy!
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am by Larry Vollmer.
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Mike,
Way to represent the Garden State—you looked fierce in your fight and you knocked that boy OUT! Gook luck, and I look forward to your blog.
Mike,
Congrats man. From what we can get over here in England via the WWW you are doing a great job. We are very pleased to see you doing so well. Keep up the great work and kick some ass!!!
I love a guy who has confidence and a fierce mentality all of us are rooting for you mike in Louisville, Ky even though i think you might have a slight upper hand cause you have been fighting tough guys in the IFL but I welcome you to the big stage of the UFC cant wait till I see the rest of the series and see whats in store so please dont give us too much info on your blog. I really dont know everyone else story about where they came from and who they have fought but I do know you have the heart and will to take it to the finals and be the next Ultimate Fighter keep banging man. Good Luck remember you gots fans everywhere your fan David Baker…........
hey man rockin when i watched the show you were awesome lookin forward to your debut in ufc as real as it gets the folks in the uk are buzzin
Awesome knock out Mike!! That fight I think is really going to help set the stage for this season’s TUF. I can not stop thinking however that you are writing this blog because you were one of the two best and are now awaiting the chance to be atop the TUF 7 crowd and the new fighter among the ranks of the UFC. Can’t wait to find out if my theory is true!
getem Mike STRW 90-91
Mike looked good just hope he keep that confidence in all he do cause there will be hurdles and he will be tested pertaining to those other personalities in the house striving toward the same goal and the weidht of the top notch UFC thi is not the IFL!
Ufc not ifl gonna take more than just trainig for the big show, baby!
Hey Mike, big fan of MMA & The UFC. Been watching the UFC since the 90’s when it started and been a fan of martial arts, wrestling, and boxing since birth. You’re definitely one of the guys I’ll be rooting for. I liked your mentality from what I saw on the first episode, you looked like a beast. It was nice when you knocked out that guy. Keep it up, train hard, stay sick, and bleed hate.
I guess we know the winner of this show!!! WTF?
Nice work Playaaaaaaaaaahhhh!