(Video courtesy YouTube/oKAINo)

Nick Ring will likely never get away from the insinuations that he is gay (not that there is anything wrong with that), even though he  has a girlfriend and he and several of his teammates on the show have stated on numerous occasions that he put on the somewhat feminine persona while he was on The Ultimate Fighter to screw with homophobic superheel, Jamie Yager.

In Ring’s defense, he’s taking the rumors like a champ (no homo) and rolling with the punches.

Here’s what he said about the act on his Heavy.com recap of the episode that started the snowball rolling:

"So here I am, it’s late and I am now happy and feeling good about my massage. My lower back is feeling good and it is definitely thanking me and I go to the washroom to brush my teeth and get ready for bed and McCray and Yager decide it is time for them gang up on me and "have a talk".

From their bedroom, McCray loudly asks me a loaded question that goes a little bit like "Hey Ring, Why would you get a massage from a dude at 3 AM?" I knew exactly where he was trying to go with this one so I thought fuck it – I’ll play, so I answered "because I’m a big queer".

They started laughing hard in disbelief at my remark, and I walked into their room and leaned my shoulder up against the doorway while I flossed my teeth.
I knew that my reply would likely take most of the wind out of their sails but being the couple of Neanderthals they are, they relented by saying that I’m standing gay and tried telling me that I need to change my posture blah blah blah. I just thought it was funny so just poured it on more until they dropped it…

I didn’t realize how funny that would actually look on camera, but I was just kind of doing my thang. Me and my friends always joke around like this and I guess some people aren’t used to that, I got labelled a queer in the house pretty fast due to some of the shit that comes out of my mouth hahaha. I wasn’t really too bothered by it though, I know who I am and my friends back home know me and will just laugh about it anyway.

All I can say is that some people look intimidating and some don’t and I guess I fall into the second category. But then again, I don’t spend a lot of time trying to look hardcore like a lot of MMA fighters, I been doing this long enough to realize that there are two types of guys out there. There are the guys who act tough and then there are guys who are tough. Acting tough and being tough are two completely different things and when I got into the house it didn’t take me to long to figure out who was going to be tough and who was just posing."

He had a pretty good point, considering Yager lost all of the fights that mattered on the show and he beat eventual winner Court McGee before being forced out of the competition with a knee injury. 

Well, the bright side of his act is he now has a brand new fanbase, but unfortunately they are mostly men who want his jockstrap to strain their tea through.

If he wants to shake his effeminate image, the first thing Nick needs to do is scrap his "The Promise" Ring monicker. Perhaps he could use "Lord of the" or "King of the" instead.

I have to admit, if I didn’t know any better, I too might have thought he really was gay (not that there would have been anything wrong with that).

Even his Facebook profile pic maintains the facade:

Don’t feel bad if he bamboozled you. Even "gay blog" (insert name of MMA website you hate here) OutSports.com, which can be found by a quick google search of "Is Nick Ring Gay," is unsure whether or not Ring bats for the other team.

"Nick Ring, a competitor on the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is either openly gay or so comfortable with his sexuality that he doesn’t care if everyone else thinks he gay. After all, no other MMA fighter, when asked if he was gay, would answer, “No, but my boyfriend is.” Nor would they have several stereotypical gay mannerisms down pat so well that it looks like it’s them, not an act."

Ring’s TUF 11 teammate Brad Tavares sets the record straight (no pun intended) in his own blog for MMAJunkie.

"Now, if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m sure Nick’s behavior in the staredown helped you realize that he’s a little bit different. In all honesty, [Jamie] Yager was very homophobic around Nick, and Nick used to chase him around the house in his boxers just to freak him out.

I knew that Ring was a good fighter, and as my roommate, I learned that he was a very intelligent guy. It’s just the role he plays. If you want to call Nick gay, then he’ll act that way, and that’s exactly what he did. In his interview to get in the show, they asked Nick about some of his effeminate mannerisms. He told them, “I’m not gay. My boyfriend is.” That’s just who he is. He has a real dry sense of humor, and he’s going to be himself, and he doesn’t care. He’s a good fighter, and he can back it up."

*editor’s note: Apparently Ring and Yager have settled their differences, now that "The Chosyn 1" knows Nick is straight and that he wasn’t really fixing to part his afro.

Yager posted this comment on a link to the "Oh No You Didn’t! video castmate Rich Attonito posted on Nick’s wall: