Andy Main – The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 Q&A Episodes 1 & 2
By Dave Carpinello
The Ultimate Fighter Season 12‘s Andy Main (Team Koscheck) will be doing a Weekly Q&A for the readers of PDG. Andy will give his answers to your questions weekly beginning on September 20th. Main is a 21-year-old out of Rockaway, N.J. with a record of 4-1 who fights out of AMA Fight Club and enters the house as both the youngest and most inexperienced fighter on the show this season. A former track star and skateboarder, Main has been fighting since 2009. Make sure to catch this weeks all new episode on Spike TV on Wednesday Night!
Questions Regarding Episodes 1 & 2 (September 15th & 22nd, 2010):
1. What did you think about the Ultimate Fighter house when you first moved in?
Andy Main – The house was unbelievable when I first walked in, I had never been in a house like that before, an old Spanish style mansion. It was huge and that was just the part that we had access to because of the production team was in the other half. There was a main lounge area with a pool table and a bar, a big kitchen full of food and a couple of big living rooms. The bedroom situation was pretty funny because the master bedroom had been converted and so there was seven beds in that one room. Not knowing, most of the guys ran up to the master bedroom to claim it and I had given my stuff to my friend Jeff Lentz because I ran outside and jumped in the pool. Jeff ended picking a smaller room for us that only held three people so it worked out great for us in the long run because the people in the master bedroom were hating life by the end of the third day. The backyard was huge with a big grilling area and the pool; it was definitely exciting walking into that place, especially since we were all coming off of the high of winning a fight to get there.
2. You defeated Jason Brenton by submission to get into the house; what did you have to do to get to that elimination fight?
Andy Main – As far as getting on the show, it took a couple of things. I went to the tryouts, which most of us had to do (some guys didn’t have to go through that). Then it was off to the casting finals and they chose 70 from over 500 fighters, then it was off for medicals, more paperwork and that kind of stuff. Once all of that was done they narrowed it down to the 28 fighters that you saw on episode one. As far as my preparation for that fight went, I treated it like a normal training camp. We didn’t find out until a couple of weeks before the fight that I had made it and I wasn’t even sure what day the show started. I am used to starting my training camp six weeks out before a fight, so it was kind of hit or miss because they gave a window from like May something to June something as for when the show would start.
3. What were your first thoughts of your roommates?
Andy Main – I was already friends with Jeff Lentz, who is also from New Jersey and everyone else was pretty cool. There were definitely some characters like Alex Caceres, who was trying to play off his persona, which was kind of interesting at first but it got annoying quickly. You’ll have to watch the rest of the season to see how the roommate situations worked out in the house.
4. ‘Bruce Leroy’ Alex Caceres had some interesting stories; what did you think of them?
Andy Main – I really didn’t buy into any of them at all, I had met Alex previously at casting finals and he was actually a pretty chill dude and down to earth. It wasn’t until the cameras came on that the ‘Bruce Leroy’ persona came on and it was literally like pushing a button and he changed. I tried to ignore it because I knew he was just making it up and lying. He was already getting a lot of attention for that and I wasn’t going to give anymore. I like the kid Alex but I think ‘Bruce Leroy’ is an idiot.
5. What did you think about being picked by Josh Koscheck and the rest of your team?
Andy Main – It was pretty interesting how the teams turned out but for me it was a disappointment at first when Koscheck picked me because one of my trainers is John Danaher. He is George St. Pierre’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach and he was basically brought in to run the show for Team GSP as GSP stated last week “I am here to be a training partner to my team and not their coach”. So I was really hoping to be able to work with John because I already had a comfort level with him. Going out to Las Vegas changes everything though with your training and you just have to adapt. As a fighter you get used to being in a rhythm with your training and then once you get to Vegas, it is almost like you are no longer in charge of your own training camp. At first it was disappointing like I said but right after words, I changed gears and I was looking forward to what Koscheck could offer in his training. As far as the teams went, it was an interesting line-up because everyone there was talented and you could see that at the elimination fights. After the teams were picked it was hard to look at one team or the other and say which one was better because all of the fighters had talent.
6. Jeff Lentz, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee before his fights; what did you think about that?
Andy Main – I would never do those things or recommend them to anyone considering a fight career as I take my training and preparation very seriously. That being said, there are fighters out there doing those things (not very many mind you) and Jeff has been smoking and drinking coffee since he started fighting and he has had a lot of success. I don’t think that it affected him in his fight against Alex or will it have an affect on him in the immediate future but I do think it will have a long term effect if he continues to do it and also continue his fight career. You saw his fight with Alex and he really pushed that whole fight and Alex really didn’t do much until the end when he caught that submission. Jeff showed throughout the fight that he had energy including when he got caught in that submission and he picked Alex up and slammed him (which was the wrong thing to do). I tell him all the time that he should kick that habit but he is his own man and maybe one day something will happen like a couple of losses that will force his hand.
7. How did the first training session go with your new coaches?
Andy Main – The first training session was pretty ridiculous, a lot of which had to do with not being used to the elevation and dry climate of Las Vegas. So almost everyone was getting tired faster and I was in the best shape of my life heading into that elimination fight and I was wearing down in that fight and in the practices. At that first practice, we went right into sparring and when you are training with all new people who you are competing with it raises the stakes and standards. So some guys were getting banged up in that first training session and it kind of set the pace for the rest of the season. Other than that it seemed that the coaching was going to be very good following that first practice but they definitely had a certain concept to their training approach – Wrestling wins fights, wrestling wins fights and wrestling wins fights. Which is to be expected with such sick wrestling coaches including Koscheck and Daniel Cormier but I think that had a negative affect on Jeff in his fight because he is a striker and he ended up drilling wrestling for like three days straight leading up to his fight. So he went out and tried to wrestle Alex and he isn’t really a wrestler, so he lost his composure on the ground and tried new things instead of posturing up and throwing strikes.
8. What was the immediate reaction of your team being down 1-0 to Team GSP?
Andy Main – It obviously takes a little bit away from the morale of the team but for the most part everybody is really there for themselves. It sounds selfish but if you are not there to win, then why be there. I felt bad that Jeff loss but I really wanted him to win so that we would have control over the match-ups.
Thanks for the questions, check out AMA Fight Club and Renzio Gracie – Andy
Send in your questions and enjoy this week’s episode. You can submit your questions for Andy 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 Andy Main at Facebook/AndyMain.
