EXCLUSIVE | Dhiego Lima’s TUF 19, Episode 1 Blog

Fresh off the debut episode of ‘TUF 19: Penn vs. Edgar’, Atlanta’s Dhiego Lima, Team Edgar’s second pick, walks us through his first hand experience of what was seen on last night’s show.

Dhiego is one of the top prospects from this season’s ‘Ultimate Fighter’ reality series and will be blogging for BJPENN.COM each week following the TUF broadcast on FOX Sports 1.

Lets be sure to show some love to the latest edition to our family with a follow on his official twitter account.

His words:

After staying at the hotel for 4 days, without leaving and without knowing who we were going to fight, it was finally time to weigh in. Most of the guys made weight pretty easy. After weigh ins, we went back to the hotel, then went to the UFC gym for the first time. It was a dream come true walking in that place. Everyone was pumped and ready to fight! Just looking at all the pictures of the champions there made my day and I want to be in one of the pics on the wall, some day.

Fight day was the longest day of my life. We got to the gym around 10 am and we didn’t leave until 10 pm. Everyone was calm and just excited to be there. There were a couple of guys that were pretty nervous but most were good. My fight was one of the earliest fights, so my plan was to watch all the other middleweights and start game planning. My plan going in was to see who I could match up with really well, and ask for an early fight, so I’d have enough rest for the semi. It was really fun watching all the fights, there were a lot of good match ups. My favorite to watch was King vs. Talib, it was a good back and forth fight.

Spohn’s KO was pretty badass. That guy was out for so long, we thought he was dead. Corey vs. Kelly was a fight that everyone was talking about as well, because they were suppose to fight before, and because of all the wrestling stuff. And the biggest surprise was Ian dominating Lyman Good. People were expecting him to win the whole thing, but he didn’t even get in the house. The Irish guys got the luck of the Irish. Cathal didn’t get to fight, and Fields was losing, but his opponent got hurt. They’re both very tough but they had some luck on their side, especially Cathal. That fool is the luckiest pool player ever, haha! Nobody could beat the guy! The biggest thing was Todd recovering from that knock down, and when everyone thought he was done, he pulled that arm bar out of nowhere. I think it was faith that got him in; him being a preacher. It was meant for him to be in the house. I’m pretty happy being picked 2nd. I knew the wrestlers were going to get picked first and I’m really happy with my team coming in. I thought I was going to be on Penn’s team but it was for the best. Get ready for one of the best TUF seasons yet!