Every Thursday morning, Team Nogueira member Efrain Escudero will give his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter on CagePotato.com. Here’s what he had to say about last night’s installment, from the team-picking to the drunken drama.

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After Dana sent the losing fighters home, we piled into the vans and made our first trip into the house. This was a great moment not only for me but also for the other 15 guys. When we walked into the house we were jacked. This isn’t some ordinary house — this place is LEGIT. We all took a look around and then rushed to pick our beds. I must say we were pretty slick to get a room on the bottom floor so when we’re tired from training or a night of boozing we don’t need to be struggling up a bunch of stairs. At this point I was still very happy, because I was a big fan of The Ultimate Fighter from the beginning and now I’m in the house where it all started. At this point we start bonding with one another — people start talking shit, joking around, just trying to break the ice and get a feel for each other.

After touring the house we go to the training center where Dana kicks Karn and Brian out due to injury. Brian’s injury was unexpected; on the other hand Karn was an idiot because he wanted to go to the doctor after they told him “Hey, your hand is ok!” He asked for a second opinion, and now he gets kicked out. GOOD JOB BUDDY, NEXT TIME THEY SAY IT’S OK THEN THAT MEANS IT’S OK. After that they brought back Kyle Kingsbury, and I was glad because he had a tough fight to get into the house. I really like Kyle — he’s a nice guy who loves to have fun, so why wouldn’t I like him? Now I have to thank Karn because if it wasn’t for him and his second opinion Kyle wouldn’t be with us in the house.

The second time we went to the training center for the team picks, Frank Mir was talking to Bader and I, telling us that he’ll be taking his team out to the river to go shooting and all these cool things, so at that point I wanted to be in his team; it sounded like fun. Ryan and I ended up getting picked by Nogueira, but I really didn’t care because I was ready to get after it.

After the picks, people started drinking. I had a couple of beers to unwind, and everyone was having a good time. On all the seasons of TUF there is always that one guy who can’t keep his liquor under control and wants the attention. This season was no different. Guess who wants to stand out this time around? Yep, you guessed correctly — none other than Junie Allen Browning. He starts talking shit to us and we just don’t care because we know that if anything happens we will get booted out and none of us wants that. So since nobody is paying attention to him he gets really sad and starts to cry. Eventually, after the dramatics, he passes out. Nothing major, but I noticed that he wanted the attention.

Back at the training center they picked the first fight and it was my teammate Ryan. I know that no matter who they throw in the cage with him it’s no worries. Ryan will kill anyone in there; he is a very mean guy in the cage. I knew he was going to win so I decided to start talking shit, saying how Ryan is going to win and stuff like that. Personally, I found it to be pretty funny because I was trying to get into their head and people were just getting mad at me. I didn’t care because at this point it is all about the RED TEAM! Lol. After Ryan dropped the hammer in his match I went and had a couple of beers with him to celebrate. After the liquor starts flowing in the house, guess who tries starting shit with me again and kept on for a good while??????

Well, that will be on next week’s blog…make sure you come check it out and find out what was going through my head at the time.

EfrainEscudero.com