Michael Hill is one of two Canadian competitors on the 16th season of The Ultimate Fighter, better known as ‘Ultimate Fighter Friday’s’.
We at MMASucka are lucky enough to have him on MMASucka Radio weekly to go over the on going drama his season’s The Ultimate Fighter.
We will take 5 of his best answers and turn it into this little column called, ‘Five TUF questions with Michael Hill’.
Enjoy.
1. Have you and fellow Canadian Mike Ricci formed a bond at all in the house?
Yeah, Ricci is the other Canadian in the house. He actually trains with my brother from Toshido, Rory MacDonald. Rory moved to Tri Star a bit ago now and him and Ricci are best friends. It was just good knowing that I had another Canadian there and him knowing someone I knew. He trains with a bunch of beasts at Tri Star, like Georges St-Pierre and Rory himself. It was awesome. We talked about that [being on opposite teams] before teams were picked and it wasn’t going to bother us. Either way it was hopefully going to help us get to the Finale and to get better, so it was good.
2. At this point in time were you at all critical of Roy Nelson’s training style?
I think a lot of us guys at home have a comfort level with our team. We train hard and we’re able to train like that here at home. But, we’re only training for one fight every 6-8 weeks. In the house, we’re training for 4 or 5 fights. Roy has been on a season already and he won the whole thing. He knows what it’s like to be in the house, so I had full trust in Roy. It sounded good, but we all would have liked some more training. It just didn’t go that way. It bothered me [that Carwin’s guys were getting a bit more training than us], but the thought of over-training came in my head too. At the same time, I just had to let the season play out and see what happened. Like I said, Roy was our coach, he was our leader and we had to trust him. That’s what I did, I put full trust in Roy. He gave us the training schedule and I just turned my brain on and went.
3. It’s kind of like ‘Big Brother’ with the Drama in the house, do you think the hair was a big deal?
I don’t know so much about ‘Big Brother’, but those guys on ‘Big Brother’ aren’t fighting for a contract and they don’t fight for a living. So, you’ve got a bunch of fighters in the house and you can’t tell anyone what to do. I’m sure everyone is going to stick up for themselves. Julien and Matt both have a war of words, so they don’t want to back down from each other. That’s what they do; fight. That’s what they’re here to do. They can’t show any signs of weakness. That’s just what you’ve got to expect from a bunch of young guys that are training to win a contract and training to be in the UFC. That’s just what’s going to come from it. It is pretty funny at the same time and it’s pretty funny to watch on TV right now too.
4. Have you been amazed by the editing and wondered why they didn’t include some things?
Yeah, that’s exactly right. It’s only an hour long, ten minutes of that’s a fight and it’s got commercials and everything. It’s pretty funny to watch, but at the same time people you’re sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what they’re going to show. I just can’t wait for the next couple episodes. It’s going to be a good season, I’ll tell you that.
5. What were your thoughts on Roy Nelson’s fight choice and the fight intself?
Roy has been there before, so he knows how to game-plan. I put full faith in him. Cam is something else, that I have never seen before. That kids trains so hard, he’s so dedicated, he kept to himself, he ate properly, he drank properly, he stayed away from drama and he’s a perfectionist. He was ready to fight and you got the guy credit. Your coach says to you, “You’re first.” I don’t know if you’d back down and say you’re not ready, but he didn’t. He said OK, I’m going to put my whole team on my back and I’m going to fight this guy. Right away the guy earned so much respect from me for putting all of us on his back and going out there and trying to get that win. He was ready, he was focused and I believed in him. Other than him losing, fighting a hard fight, he did fight his game-plan. He made a few mistakes, but that kid is something else. You’ve got to keep your eyes on him, he’s got such a bright future. Even to lose the first fight, he’s amazing to watch, it’s unreal. Welterweights watch out.
That’s it… Five questions. To hear the rest of the interview with Team Nelson’s Michael Hill check out this weeks episode of MMASucka Radio here.
(Photo courtesy of MMAmadhouse.com)
