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Constestants of The Ultimate Fighter live a complicated life in the months following their time in the house.
They’ve gone through a life and career-changing experience, yet are unable to talk about it until after the show has finished airing.
I previously spoke to The Ultimate Fighter 20 contestant Alex ‘Astro Girl’ Chambers about her time on TUF, prior to the season airing.
On the seventh episode of TUF 20, it’s revealed that Chambers was defeated by Rose Namajunas via first-round submission in their preliminary bout.
With the episode now televised, I spoke with Chambers again to discuss her experience and fight with much more detail.
Jason Tulio: We last spoke before TUF 20 started airing. Have things changed for you since then?
Alex Chambers: I’ve been travelling a little bit so I’ve kind of only just settled into being back home after the whirlwind media tour thing that was going on. So no, things haven’t changed. Now I’ve got a fight on the finale and that’s what I’m focused on. It’s just back in to fight mode and that’s all my focus is right now.
Obviously, you can’t say who your opponent will be but could you tell us a little bit about what you’re focused on in training?
I can’t tell you who I’m fighting but I can tell you it’s going to be an exciting fight. I learnt a lot about myself from being through something like the experience of The Ultimate Fighter. I’m not just talking about the moves you might learn from the show. But just training with the other girls and having fought on the show, I’ve realised the value of the coaches that I’ve got here in Australia. I’m looking forward to focusing on my fight. I’m doing what I can and kind of sharpening my tools.
Now that the episode where you fought Rose Namajunas has aired, could you talk to us about that fight?
If you’ve heard the whole thing about MMA being 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical, that holds true. The fight can be lost or won before you even step into the cage and that’s what had happened with me, I believe, with that fight on the show.
My fight was one of the last preliminary fights so I didn’t fight straight away. I believe I would have been a different fighter stepping into the cage if I’d fought earlier in the show. My coaches on the show had worked with Rose for years before and so they knew what she was capable of. So I felt like the focus was all about her and you can see that when I fought.
I’ve learnt a lot and I’m looking forward to imposing my game and my will when I step into the cage for the finale.
With regards to your mental preparation, do you feel that the ‘Big Brother’ living situation had any effect?
We didn’t play any mind games or anything like that so it wasn’t about that at all but it was definitely different, with this format especially. From the very first day you know who you’re going to fight. So not fighting for weeks, going through that where you can’t talk to your coaches back home and your usual support group, it’s a lot to deal with.
It’s different when you’ve got a fight camp at home with your coaches. It’s great to know about your opponent but then it’s about focusing on yourself and I just think that I lost touch with my own game. I was focusing on her too much. It was different but every one of the girls was going through the same thing, I wasn’t the only one going through it. So it’s something that everyone had to deal with.
You know going into the house that you’re not going to be able to talk to people for seven weeks. You’ve spoken to your teammates who’ve been through the experience before so you kind of know what to expect from the experience but until you actually get in there, you think you can mentally prepare for it but you can’t.
But I loved the experience, I wouldn’t take it away and I’d actually do it again!
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