Justin Edwards – Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Q&A Episode 3 (Intro)
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 3 (April 13, 2011):
1. What can you tell us about your background and how you got onto the show?
Justin Edwards – I played college football and right after that I started training mixed martial arts. It was 2006 and I started training at the Ohio Fitness and Martial Arts Center and a couple of other gyms. Coming into the TUF house I was 7-0 with all of my wins coming in the first round (2 TKO’s and 5 Submissions). Before I got onto the show I was following my regular training schedule which includes very little time off and then I went to the tryouts and after they were finished I returned home to wait for the UFC to call. They flew me back out to Las Vegas for a second interview and to get my medicals done and then they flew out the original 14 cast members and kept me and another guy there in case one of them didn’t show up or couldn’t make weight.
Everything went smoothly though and they sent me and the other alternate home and he (Chuck O’Neil) got the first call to go back to Vegas and be on the show. Then I got a phone call because he was almost snowed in because they had canceled flights in Boston and so I thought I was heading to join Team Lesnar but he finally got a flight out and so I had to wait. Finally on the third call-back, I was told that Keon Caldwell was leaving the show and that if I still wanted to be on the show that I should get on the airplane.
2. When you got to Vegas; what was your reaction when you heard why Caldwell left the show?
Justin Edwards – I didn’t really know Keon that well but it was definitely a big opportunity in his life that he was giving up by leaving the show. It was unfortunate for him but it was great for me, so I was happy about it but I am sure that he will regret it in the future.
3. What was your initial reaction after being told that you would be on Team Junior Dos Santos?
Justin Edwards – I was ecstatic, before I even got on the show I knew who the coaches were and I was telling my teammates back home that I really wanted to be on JDS’s team because he is a very athletic fighter with great jiu-jitsu that has a really good ground game and uses his hands very well. Those are aspects I was really hoping to add to my game and so I was excited to be on his team. I didn’t have anything against Brock Lesnar because he has great fighting attributes but I definitely wanted to be a part of Team JDS.
4. The TUF house always looks badass; what did you think about your new living quarters when you got there?
Justin Edwards – The house was awesome, I mean it was like a mansion tucked away outside of Vegas, big rooms, hot tub, pool and just about anything that you could ask for. There was a meditation area, pool table and a lot more…it was like a giant bachelor pad with a bunch of guys and no girls.
5. On past seasons of the Ultimate Fighter, fighters talked about the abundance of alcohol available to the fighter’s at the house. How was this season’s stock?
Justin Edwards – Yeah it was good, Miller Lite was one of the product sponsors. If you wanted any kind of food or drink, you would just put it on a request list and if it was approved it would be there in the morning. As far as the beer went, there was an abundance of it and we even had a separate pantry that was filled with it. There were no complaints about that from the guys in the house.
6. What did you think of your first training session once you got onto the show?
Justin Edwards – I thought it was great but it actually caught me off guard because when I got off of the plane, I was told that I would have some time before the first practice but they took me straight to the gym. I got about ten minutes to meet the rest of my team and then I was doing hard sparring, so it was a lot at once but I liked every minute of it.
7. You walked on to a team that was already up 2-1 but their #1 pick had suffered a cut over his right eye (Shamar Bailey). What was the Team’s morale like when you got there?
Justin Edwards – When I first arrived it seemed like my team was much more serious and motivated and that we had the momentum. Team Lesnar seemed to be down in the dumps emotionally and even though Shamar’s eye worried him, no one else thought it was serious or that it would keep him out of his next fight. It really felt like the perfect situation to walk into.
8. What did you think of your assistant coaches including Lew Polley?
Justin Edwards – I know there has been some controversy regarding the coaches but Lew’s style of coaching is exactly the type of coaching that I am used to. Some guys don’t like it but you know what? We only had six weeks there at the show and I wanted to get better and take advantage of everything that was offered. There may have been some tension but I didn’t notice anything when I first got there.
9. Was there anything of note from last week’s episode that didn’t make it to TV?
Justin Edwards – Not really, other than that they kind of overplayed Ryan McGillivray’s weight cut drama. He had been there before and coach Polley knew what he was doing with the cut, he didn’t want Ryan to expend a ton of energy cutting weight by running or riding machines so he figured the bath was the easiest and less stressful way for Ryan to cut the weight and not be drained going into his fight.
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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