Justin Edwards – Ultimate Fighter Season 13 Q&A Episode 4
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 4 (April 20, 2011):
1. Was there any talk of you being picked (instead of Ryan McGillivray) by Brock Lesnar to fight right after you got off of the plane and onto the show?
Justin Edwards – I am not sure what Lesnar was thinking but a couple of guys on my team and myself were talking about it and we definitely thought it was possible but the thinking was that Team Lesnar would take their number one pick (Len Bentley) and put him against one our weaker fighters. Someone did mention to me that Len was hesitant to face me, I don’t know if he was scared or what but I was ready to fight the day that I got there. I wasn’t at home sitting around, it was just the opposite, I had been training everyday in anticipation of getting that phone call from the UFC and having to fight as soon as I got off the plane.
2. Once again this season there is the Wildcard; when did the discussion of who was a candidate begin in the TUF house?
Justin Edwards – Right off the bat after Javier Torres lost because of his performance against Chris Cope. A lot of us thought so far that he was at the top because Nordin Asrih was manhandled in his fight against Shamar Bailey. Talking with the other guys in the house when I got there though, the Wildcard talk started right after that fight but no one thought Asrih would have a chance at the Wildcard.
3. On the episode they showed some shit talking about Ramsey Nijem’s painted toe nails and his love of the TV show Glee; was their more smack being thrown his way that wasn’t on last week’s show?
Justin Edwards – Yeah, there was quite a bit but it was mostly from his own teammates. The fact that his toe nails were painted purple sparkly colors just made it worse and more feminine. Everyone gave him a hard time but nobody was really a prick about because we had to live together for six weeks. It was all done in good fun but I do think that most of the guys didn’t take him very serious as fighter.
4. Were lotion rub-downs a frequent event amongst your teammates?
Justin Edwards – Not in my bedroom, that was my first time witnessing that kind of behavior. Shamar is for lack of a better word a pretty homophobic guy and he makes it a point to not joke around like that. I sent him a text after watching that episode and he said “I think they (the producers) are setting me up”. He works at a firehouse and you have to have thick skin to work there and he was sure that they weren’t going to let him live down what happened. All I can say at this point is stay tuned because that was just the tip of the iceberg!
5. Who was the coach on your team that looked like a drunk Rich Franklin?
Justin Edwards – Billy Scheibe but he wasn’t drunk, I guess he just has that look to him. He was our Muay Thai coach and a lot of people have mistaken him for Rich Franklin. He is a very good coach and I got the opportunity to work with him quite a bit on the show. I actually train with Franklin in Cincinnati and although they may look the same, they aren’t but we had a good laugh about it.
6. What did you think of the Ramsey Nijem – Charlie Rader fight?
Justin Edwards – The fight kind of went how I thought it would. I knew Charlie was a good wrestler (I knew the fighters that were on the show and so I did some research) and that he was good at body locks and his stand-up was decent but he got away with it because of his reach advantage in most of his fights. I wrestle though with some world class guys and Olympians in my training and Ramsey was one of the best guys I have rolled with. I am a very good wrestler but he worked me when we were on the mat during practice. Like I said earlier, a lot of people under estimate him because he goofs off a lot but inside the cage he is an awkward opponent that keeps the pressure on his opponents and he is about twice as strong as he looks.
7. Your team is up 3-1 at this point, what was the team’s morale like?
Justin Edwards – Our team morale was awesome and we felt that we had the better team all-around. We were very comfortable being up 3-1 and we just wanted to keep the ball rolling.
8. At the end of last week’s show Dana White accused Charlie Rader of quitting when he tapped out so fast; what did you think of the tapout?
Justin Edwards – When I saw the fight it did appear that way because Charlie did tap pretty quick but he had to go to the hospital right after the fight because he tore some muscles in his shoulder. So he only had one arm to defend the choke with and so at that point it was hard for him to defend himself with an arm trapped and one that didn’t work. It is what it is and I have seen Charlie fight quite a few times and he is a better fighter than he showed for sure.
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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