Justin Edwards – Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Q&A Season Finale
By Dave Carpinello
The Ultimate Fighter Season 13‘s Justin Edwards (Team Junior Dos Santos) will be doing a Weekly Q&A for the readers of PDG. Justin will give his answers to your questions weekly beginning on April 13th. Justin has been fighting since 2006 and was chosen out of the alternate pool to join the lineup for season 13 of the Ultimate Fighter after Keon Caldwell quit the show to return to his family. Edwards has been training for the last five years under Scott Sheeley at the Ohio Fitness and Martial Arts Center and brings a professional record of 7-0 onto the show. Make sure to catch The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Finale Live on Spike TV on Saturday Night!
Questions Regarding Episode 9 & 10 (May 25th & June 1st, 2011):
1. What kind of rules did they give you guys about breaking shit in the house?
Justin Edwards – They told us that due to past seasons where upon the end of the show, they had to go in and renovate the house ($50-60,000.00 in repairs) that if we broke anything it would come out of any earnings we got while on the show. Although if we broke things that come out on TV as entertaining or funny, they would be more lenient about charging us but if we were just being dumbasses and tearing up the house we would have to pay.
2. What did you think of Chuck O’Neil’s rematch with Zach Davis?
Justin Edwards – I knew it would be a good fight but I wasn’t sure who was going to win. I did know that Chuck was starting to struggle with the constant weight cuts and that Zach was a game opponent. You could see Chuck’s confidence building with every fight and like I stated earlier this season, he was one of the better fighters in the house. Zach had some bad luck in first round when he tore the retinas in both eyes and he said afterwards he couldn’t see very well during the fight. I think that played a lot into the outcome of the fight but you can’t take anything away from Chuck’s performance.
3. What was your reaction when you heard the news that Zach Davis may have to retire because of his eye injuries?
Justin Edwards – Everyone was pretty bummed about it, Zach is one of the good guys on the show. Everyone in the house had sacrificed a lot for their dream to make it as a fighter and Zach was no different, so it was very disappointing. He had actually torn one of his retinas before the show and had it repaired so for it to happen again and be told he could blind if he continues to fight… I don’t know if I could have handled that news as well as he did.
4. At anytime during the show did you think that Junior dos Santos left ear was just going to fall off?
Justin Edwards – He had quite a bit of cauliflower that’s for sure but he didn’t take nearly enough punishment from us little guys to knock it off during practice.
5. Were you impressed by Tony Ferguson’s KO of Ryan McGillivray?
Justin Edwards – They made it look like Tony had a good fight but Ryan was still concussed from his previous fight. When we were at the house he would stare off into space when we were talking to him and they didn’t show that stuff on TV. Even in training he wasn’t all there and I dropped him just by bumping his head during drills. I hoped the best for him but I knew going into that fight he was pretty beat up.
6. Charlie Radar had no chance of making the TUF finale; why didn’t he throw Ferguson out of a window after all the shit talking Ferguson did about Radar’s son?
Justin Edwards – Charlie is a really good guy and I don’t think he wanted to hit Tony even after he had crossed the line. I think Charlie was thinking about the big picture as opposed to being kicked off the TUF show. A lot of people didn’t know that he had been in a bitter custody battle for his kid and they were already saying he wasn’t a fit father because he was a fighter. So if he had lost it and thrown Tony out of a window they could have used that footage against him in court. If it was me I would have fucking killed him!
7. Did you think Tony Ferguson’s apology was legitimate?
Justin Edwards – Yeah um… he came into our room and apologized saying he didn’t remember anything that happened but he knew who he had to apologize too so he must have known. When he was apologizing to our team he said to Mick Bowman and me “I didn’t do anything to you guys so I don’t owe you and apology”. I think the “I don’t remember” was just a cover for “I was drunk and I fucked up”. I think he definitely lost a lot fans when that episode aired on TV but Spike TV cleaned that whole situation up pretty well. By that I mean the producers didn’t want to reflect a bad image of the sport because his drunken tirade was an all night act. The incident with Charlie was early in the evening and Tony kept going until like three o’clock in the morning and although someone throwing him out of a window probably came close it didn’t happen.
8. What did you think of the semi-final fights with Ramsey Nijem beating Chris Cope and Ferguson getting the win over Chuck O’Neil?
Justin Edwards – I really wanted Chuck to do better but he had cut weight four times in four weeks and it took a lot out of his body. You could see it in him physically with the loss of muscle mass and Chuck is a guy who could fight at middleweight so making the cut to 170 lbs so many times took its toll. We’ll see how Tony does in the finals, he had one tough fight against me, a gift facing an injured Ryan and then another facing a depleted Chuck. The Ramsey-Cope fight went kind of how I figured it would, I knew Ramsey would keep the pressure on with his striking and takedown attempts and that he would be able to frustrate Chris. It worked and it probably made a lot people (although he is good guy so I don’t get it) happy that his Ric Flair impersonation was over.
9. After being on the show and then watching the episodes on TV, who was the better corner coach during the fights, Junior or Brock?
Justin Edwards – I will say that Brock got better as the season went on because when I first got there he didn’t have a whole of output that was helping his team. I think it was just because he wasn’t used to coaching but you could see the last couple of weeks he was definitely better. Overall though, Junior and his team were by far the better corner for the fighters.
10. What was it like when the UFC called you and told you that you would be fighting Clay Harvison at The Ultimate Fighter Finale?
Justin Edwards – Oh I was so stoked man. I was checking my email at work, which I am not supposed to do, when the contract was sent to me and it took everything I had not to stand up and yell. As far as facing Clay, I think it is a good match-up for me. His strength is stand-up and I feel comfortable standing and striking but at the same time I feel his weakness is on the ground and I feel that my wrestling and jiu-jitsu is better than his. Regardless of his gameplan I will be comfortable wherever the fight takes place. Don’t get me wrong Clay is a gamer and he will come to fight but he likes to come forward and so do I so expect some fireworks!
11. Thanks for this season’s Q&A Justin; what was your best and then worst experience of being on The Ultimate Fighter?
Justin Edwards – Thanks to all the viewers who sent in their questions and thanks to PDG for the opportunity. The best part of being on the show was getting the world class training that was supplied by the UFC and the coaches everyday that I was there even after the competition was out of my sight. The worst part was losing by that crazy upkick, being picked for the wildcard and then being told that I was suspended and couldn’t fight.
12. Was there anything of interest that happened on the season that wasn’t on TV?
Justin Edwards – If by interest you mean bizarre and funny. There was definitely some more Stripper Ramsey material that wasn’t shown on TV that would have elicited even more questions about his sexuality. Mick Bowman was taking an Epsom salt bath and Ramsey walks in, takes off all of his clothes and gets in the bathtub naked with Mick and it wasn’t a very big bathtub. So that is probably why they didn’t show it on TV. As far anything else, there wasn’t much and I remember thinking it was going to be a boring season for the viewers because everyone there was serious about being a fighter, there were no Junie Brownings this season. I can say that Dana White wasn’t happy about the time change for show because it meant that TUF was up against American Idol.
In closing I want to thank everyone on JDS’s team, the fighters and the coaches for all of their help and a big thanks to all my coaches, training partners and people from back home that have supported me throughout this experience – Justin
Make sure to catch The Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Finale Live on Spike TV on Saturday Night! You can also find more information about Justin Edwards on his Facebook page.
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