With this season of The Ultimate Fighter winding to a close we are finally getting to the nitty gritty part of the season. Sixteen men were dwindled down to eight and last night one of those eight, Chris Cope made it to the semi finals for a chance to become a Zuffa contracted mixed martial artist.
Repping Team Lesnar, Cope sat down with us and talked about his experience on the show so far. He explains how it was like living day in and day out with 16 other people and how at times he himself would lose track of reality. He also lets us know how it was being part of Team Lesnar and how the way they would approach fights was akin to a college level program. Speaking of Lesnar, Cope recounts his experience rolling with the Brockness monster as well as other funny musing in this insightful interview.
FHTV: How did you feel about being picked to be on Team Lesnar, knowing that Arena MMA where you train is associated with Junior Dos Santos and have been ex training partners with Lew Polley? Was that a shocker to you not being picked by them?
Chris Cope: It was interesting to be picked. I train at the Arena here in San Diego and and a lot of the black house guys are associated with us here at the Arena MMA. Lew Polley and I trained for a year while I was at Team Quest. So he really knows my ins and outs and knows what I am about. When they said I was on team Lesnar I thought it was weird because I didn’t know Brock, Erik Paulson, Marty or any of the guys. They all took me under their wing. It was weird because team Dos Santos knew everything about my fighting style which made for a weird dynamic. It was crazy when we started practicing because I thought it was going to be some kind of balls to the wall training but they kept a really tight training camp with us not over training but keeping us in fighting shape.
FHTV: It seems like Brock Lesnar and his camp always run a tight ship with his training camp and in turn team Lesnar was ran the same way?
Chris Cope: Yeah everything is calculated with his camp and how he trains and who he brings in to train with him. Brock is not a coach but Brock brought in so much talent to help him coach his team and it was pretty amazing. Marty Morganson who was a wrestling coach for 16 years while in Minnesota and Erik Paulson who is a MMA guru. The camp was run like a Pac-10 blue chip football program. Everything was done to the “T” on how things need to be done. They ran the camp smart, knowing if they pushed us to hard that we would get hurt or injured. The weird thing about The Ultimate Fighter tournament is you don’t know when you are going to fight so if you get hurt you are screwed and they did a great job keeping us ready.
FHTV: You’ve had 5 professional fights with a 4-1 record. How did it feel knowing you had the least amount of fights in the house as opposed to the previous season where 5 fights would be the most experienced guy in the house?
Chris Cope: Yeah there was me and a few guys that hadn’t had many fight but we were either college division 1 wrestlers or high level Jiu-Jitsu guys who know how to compete at the highest level. The weird thing about the tournament is that the best fighter isn’t going to win the tournament. It’s going to be the strongest fight mentally who will eventually win out in the TUF tournament. It did feel weird knowing a lot of the guys had so much more experience then me. I just had to do what I had to do. As you have seen I have had a target on my back through the whole season.
FHTV: You seemed to embrace the fact that Brock picked you. Did your teammates embrace being picked by Brock Lesnar?
Chris Cope: What I can tell you is all the guys that got pick by JDS where stoked to be on his team. All the guys that got picked by Brock were happy but there were some that were kind of questionable about it. As I said before I was just more like “oh I thought I was going to be on Junior’s team.”
FHTV: In the first episode you said “I get to train with the alpha male!” What were your thoughts the moment he called your name?
Chris Cope: Yeah I’ve never met anyone who says or does whatever he wants to do without having anyone question him. As Joe Rogan has said before Brock is the type of guy that will come out on top if there was ever an Armageddon. You can see it in his eyes; he is a crazy alpha male. When you look in his eyes you can see that he is a competitor. No matter what he does in life he is going to win and you only see that in certain people and he is undoubtedly one of those people.
FHTV: Did you ever get nervous rolling with Brock? He could easily crush you?
Chris Cope: Rolling with him is crazy. We didn’t roll too much but he is like an iron blanket. When we would drill wrestle you would feel him. It’s like a small car bumping you. It’s scary. It’s like a polar bear being mad at you.
FHTV: He may grab your arm and chew it up like a piece of beef jerky.
Chris Cope: Exactly he has this killer look in his eye. It’s funny because a lot of fighters are very mellow but if you push him the wrong way he will definitely bite back.
FHTV: What have your friends and family said so far about the show?
Chris Cope: They know how hard I’ve been working. I’ve done martial arts since I was a little kid. They know how much time and effort I have put into this. To be honest with you it was nice that they have seen that my hard work is paying off. This is just the beginning and I keep telling everyone that. I wasn’t lucky to be put in this situation; I have busted my ass to get this. This is well earned and well deserved. I am grateful for my teammates and coaches for helping me get here. I will never be satisfied. I am not a natural athlete and I need to know that I need to keep working and trying to improve.
FHTV: What did the house do to you? They say it changes a lot of people….you are in there 35 days locked up with 13 other guys. No TV, no internet?
Chris Cope: It is draining because you work out then you go home and you sit around and talk about fighting. It’s just fighting and more fighting in the house. There is no music or any sort of media around. The only thing we were allowed to have was a note pad and a Bible. The one thing at the house was that nobody was able to sleep. We combined Robitussin, Tylenol and Benadryl to help us sleep. The problem is lights are not turned off in the house so you sleep with the lights on. We weren’t able to sleep and when we did we were having some pretty jacked up dreams. It is hard because everywhere you go there is a camera right in your face video taping you. There are even cameras right about the toilet so every time you take a dump the camera is there. We weren’t allowed to talk to the camera men who are around 24/7 which causes a weird dynamic. You start to lose since of reality and another weird thing is you are living with someone who you are going to fight. You are trying to eat knowing that you are going to fight that person in a few hours. You can’t let the stress get to you because if you do it will drive you nuts.
FHTV: Your last fight was at the Strikeforce: Fedor vs.Werdum and you got a good win talk about that?
Chris Cope: I am a recovering alcoholic. I had a fight fall through in Mexico City so I was pissed. I had gone to a club with KJ Noons and some other guys to celebrate his victory up in Los Angeles. I got completely loaded and blacked out, basically it was like The Hangover. I woke up in a staircase reeking of booze and I got a call that morning asking me if I wanted to fight for Strikeforce. I was thinking it was going to be on the Challengers series but they said no it was for Fedor vs. Werdum. If you know anything about Strikeforce Bob Cook pretty much runs everything and does most of the match making for Strikeforce. It is kind of a AKA fueled promotion. I was basically brought into fight and lose to one of Bob’s AKA guys Ron Keslar. In the first two rounds he just tried to take me down and grind me out. With 30 second left in the second round I landed a spinning back kick to the head and followed it with punches to the head. Next thing I know I am being pulled off by the ref and I was being introduced by Jimmy Lennon Jr. as the winner. Since that good things have been happening to me and I am thankful for all the good things.
FHTV: Would you like to thank anyone?
Chris Cope: Yeah I would like to thank all my sponsors: MMA Conditioning, Cradle to the Cage. My coaches, my manager Jeff Clark and everyone who has helped me get to this point. I would also like to thank my gym The Arena MMA and everyone for their support.
