John Dodson’s TUF 14 Sherblog

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“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 14 bantamweight John Dodson (www.twitter.com/JohnDodsonMMA) will blog for Sherdog.com all season long, giving his thoughts, reactions and behind-the-scenes insights on the show. “The Ultimate Fighter 14” airs Wednesdays on Spike, 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Roland’s foot was bad. The staph infection had taken him out for a week; he couldn't train to get ready for T.J. He hadn’t been rolling with any of the guys or even been at the gym. He had to basically just stay home and keep his foot elevated to make sure the swelling would go down.

Roland got antibiotics to help clear him up and get him back in training faster, but he only had a few days to train. He didn’t get much work in before his bout with T.J. I know that he said he wasn't feeling the effect of the infection, but we all could see it did. But, we all knew that Roland is one tough dude and wasn’t going to let this get him down.

During our training session, Rafael Cordeiro came in and worked out with us. It was cool having a legend of the sport stop in to help out us and show us drills that would help out with our footwork. He was showing me how to be a little more active with my strikes and the more important aspect of making opponents miss and making them pay for it.

Rafael was so laid back, and great as a trainer. If you had any little twist to your game, he wouldn’t try to change you, just work with you. Like any real artist, he would show us one thing and would want to see how creative we can get with it and make it our own. People see us as just fighters, but I look at the sport as an art, where we all learn the same brushstrokes but we create different masterpieces, depending on the individual’s style.

Like I said last week, T.J. is a draft dodger. There's no other way to say it. He made claims that he was the best in the house, and like I said before, if you're the best in the house, then fight the best. You can't just say something like that and think that you'll get away with it. If you want everything to be easy for you and have everything given to you, then so be it. You won't ever be able to beat someone that will have that drive to work hard. It's ok that you ran away from this time but we'll see what happens.

We had a meeting at the flyweight balcony. All us Death Leprechauns were talking about how T.J. threw John Albert in the line of fire when he should of stepped up. Diego and Akira had other plans for him, since both of them had lost some respect for the dude. A plan set into action that was going to teach this draft dodger a lesson.

Diego was seriously out for blood and was trying to break a limb on him. Akira was looking to knock him out. Everything was going to plan: T.J. was getting a beating and the lesson was being taught, and taught well. T.J. was pissed at them and brought those problems to my friend, Marcus.

Marcus is a simple dude, from a simple town in Alabama. He didn't want to have any part of T.J. getting his ass kicked -- he was trying not to. He told me the night before that he didn't want to get in the middle of this. It was Diego and Akira’s thing and he was going to let it be. T.J. was just raging and throwing hard with Marcus. If T.J. didn't try to throw down with Marcus, he would have been fine.

While all this was going on, Mayhem took advantage of the situation and pulled off a prank of his own, blocking Tiki's vehicle in. We all knew that Bisping wasn't the brains behind all the pranks, it was Tiki. Mayhem wanted to get him back and leave a message for Bisping as well, reminding him of the date that those two have.

Roland fought hard, but he got outwrestled. T.J. would take him down and ground-and-pound him. The second round, the draft dodger dropped Roland with a straight right. He continued to pound until he could the choke in. I do think the fight would have gone a different way if Roland wasn't sick and was able to train for the fight, but that’s fighting.

Sorry, Roland. Roland is a good dude and was one of the only guys I talked and chilled with from my team. He'll get another shot in the UFC and he'll show them all what he can do when he's not sick. Find this dude on Facebook and let him know that y'all want to see him fight again, this time without staph.

The semis were picked, and as y’all saw once more, he was trying to dodge me. I see that you want to make it to the finale, but you might want to fight the guy you think is the toughest dude so that you can get rid of him. That’s why I called him out and Johnny Bedford.