(Photo courtesy of MySpace.com/effyescudero)

Efrain Escudero is a 22-year-old Southwest MMA product who has built up a flawless 10-0 record fighting primarily in his home state of Arizona. Every Thursday morning, the TUF 8 lightweight will be blogging his reactions to each new episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir for CagePotato.com. There wasn’t much to discuss in last night’s episode — other than the fact that Efrain earned a spot in the house with a quick choke-out of Ido Pariente — but going forward, Efrain will give us the inside scoop about what happened on and off camera, and his experience living with 15 other crazy sons-a-bitches. To learn more about Efrain, check out EfrainEscudero.com.

***

After sitting and waiting through all the other fights, I was getting very anxious to step into the cage and earn my spot into the house. As more and more fighters got their names called I had only one thing on my mind: WINNING. Sitting there, I started to think about my upcoming fight and I began to worry. I found out that I would be fighting out of the red corner. The red team’s coaches would help me warm up and would be cornering me throughout my fight. So the fights begin and I don’t know anybody there, I don’t know my corner men, so this is uncharted waters for me. But worrying is like a rocking chair — you can go back and forth but you won’t get anywhere — so I decided to start warming up for my fight.

Since my corner men were coaching fighters in the cage, I decided to hit the bag for a while, but I still didn’t feel like I was ready for the biggest fight of my life. I quit hitting the bag and started running to prepare myself and get focused. At this point I was stuck in my own world — I wasn’t even paying attention to the other fights going on. Next thing I know it’s my turn. Once I heard the cage door shut behind me, I knew there was no way I was walking out without earning a bed in that house.

A few minutes later I was walking out of the Octagon feeling like a million bucks because I know I’m going to the best place to be in the world. Being there while Dana was sending all the other fighters home was a crazy situation. I was sitting with a handful of guys who had their dreams crushed, who knew they might never get another opportunity like this. Looking around at the remaining guys I still had no clue about them and I couldn’t be happier. But enough about everybody else…it’s time to start training.