Justin Edwards – Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Q&A Episode 6
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 this weeks all new episode on Spike TV on Wednesday Night!
Questions Regarding Episode 6 (May 4, 2011):
1. What did you think about the end of Lew Polley and is there any inside information that you can give us?
Justin Edwards – Towards the end you could see the tension between Lew and the other coaches and then there were some comments made here and there and he felt like an outsider with the Brazilian coaches. I also heard that there were some issues outside of the gym from the Alliance Training Center where all those guys were training before they came on the show. I don’t know all the details since I was getting the information second hand but it sucked for me when he left because I like his style of coaching. Since I come from a wrestling background that is the coaching style that I am used to. I don’t really have any other information on the subject and since I was there to train regardless of who the coaches were, it didn’t have any affect on my gameplans or preparation. I can say that Lew didn’t really have any goodbyes for any of us because of how upset he was.
2. What were you thinking after your fight against Tony Ferguson was announced?
Justin Edwards – I thought it was a good match-up for me because there was only two guys left, Tony and Chuck O’Neil. I knew more about Chuck, that he was a well-rounded fighter with good striking and jiu-jitsu. So I was thinking that Tony was going to be the easier fight even though he was a good wrestler because I heard he had good boxing but not a lot of power. I would have taken either fight but pre-fight I was definitely thinking Tony was the better match-up for my style of fighting.
3. Can you break down your fight against Ferguson?
Justin Edwards – I thought the fight was going in my favor, I wanted to stand and bang with him at the beginning to test the waters. At one point I felt like I was chasing him around the cage, he would engage a little bit and then back away. I heard Brock Lesnar yell something about me blowing my wad but I wasn’t tired at all, my coaches were telling me to fight smarter. I have never been out of condition for any of my fights and in fact I was in the best shape of career for that fight. So I was hoping that if I stopped chasing him he would have to engage more and I would be able to work my takedowns. Then I was able to walk through one of his jabs and get the first takedown and then after I got the second one, Tony caught me with that heelkick.
After the fight I wasn’t hurt or anything, I was just very disappointed about how it ended. After he hit me again following the upkick I had completely recovered and so I just wanted to hang my head and get out of the cage.
4. Did you also fight a cat? What the fuck were all those scratches on your neck?
Justin Edwards – Yeah back at the house the guys were joking saying that Tony had talons. All of the marks were from Tony’s fingernails when we were on the ground and then when we were fighting in the clinch. He didn’t have real long nails but they certainly left some deep gashes in my neck.
5. Why did the Athletic Commission give you a 90-day suspension?
Justin Edwards – In Nevada it is an automatic 90-day suspension if you get knocked out in fight. I didn’t do anything wrong on the show or anything illegal in the house, it is just standard practice for the state of Nevada. They didn’t show it on TV but right after my fight I talked to a doctor and he said that it was a flash-knockout and I wasn’t suffering from any after effects and that I didn’t get a concussion or anything serious like that. He told me to take seven days off and go right back to training and I told him that I couldn’t do that because I had a wildcard fight in three days. He said that he would clear me for that fight if he was asked and when I talked to Dana White and he said I was suspended I tried to argue and get the doctor in there but being that Las Vegas is the home of MMA and the UFC they weren’t going risk anything and let me fight so soon after a knockout.
6. How disappointing was it when you found out that you wouldn’t be fighting on the show again?
Justin Edwards – I felt like I lost twice! I tried to find the right words when I was talking to people but all I could come up with was “Are you fucking kidding me?” You have your dream right in front of you, you have two of the top heavyweight contenders in the world saying you are one of the better fighters here and you deserve a second chance; they put it all on a plate for you and then someone snatches it away. It is just one of those things, if I would have fought better on the ground (which is one of strong points) and didn’t leave myself open, I wouldn’t have been put in that situation to begin with.
7. We are accustomed to seeing drunken house parties on the show; have there not been any yet or are the producers leaving them on the cutting floor?
Justin Edwards – Some of the guys on Team Lesnar have been drinking a little bit but Junior Dos Santos told us that he really didn’t want us drinking. So far there really hasn’t been anything too crazy and I guess you’ll have to just keep watching to see if anything happens…
8. Great tattoos Justin, who did all of the work?
Justin Edwards – Jason Adkins has done most of it and he has done a lot of work for fighters including Jorge Gurgel, Dustin Hazelett and others. He tattoos out of All or Nothing Tattoo & Art Studios in Atlanta, Georgia and he comes up to Cincinnati when we need work done. All my tattoos are a work in progress and I am looking forward to my next session. He really does great work and I would recommend him to anyone.
Thanks for the questions guys, check out the Ohio Fitness and Martial Arts Center – Justin
Send in your questions and enjoy this week’s episode. You can submit your questions for Justin by sending them to admin@punchdrunkgamer.com and he will answer them each week following the next show on Spike TV! You can also find more information on Justin Edwards on his Facebook page.
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