Despite a very close 3-round fight in the most recent episode of TUF, much of this week’s conversation with Cody centered around single scene that showed a personal moment with Cody breaking down on Father’s Day. He discusses that scene as well as some unflattering comments made by Julianna in her own TUF blog this week. We also laugh about Cody’s “OOPS!” realization that he dropped a spoiler alert on us without even knowing it; and how he slyly side-stepped some controversy in Dodgeball-gate . Great stuff again.
The show opened with a cool segment on Father’s Day. Ronda brought a gift for you and the other dads. Did that mean a lot at that time?
Yeah, I really really appreciated it. She didn’t have to do that for anybody, let alone me. Especially because I wasn’t even on her team. I thought it was really cool—it was a really nice gift. I ended up breaking down over it, but it was really cool and it really really helped.
So when they showed you getting emotional on TV, were you prepared for it? Did you get emotional again when it aired?
I didn’t really get too emotional over watching it. It brought back some memories about how I felt at that time, which kinda sucked, but I had my wife and kid right next to me when I saw it again. So I just smiled. We watched it in front of a crowd of people. It wasn’t too bad at all.
How did your wife react?
It made her tear up. Yeah man, I got her, family member, random girls I’ve never talked to before hitting me up saying things like, “oh my god, I was crying for you.”
Speaking of that scene, were you able to run across Julianna’s blog today? Or Peggy’s?
I saw Peggy’s but not Julianna’s. I try to ignore her.
Well then I guess I get to break this to you. First off, Peggy totally talked about how heartfelt that scene was and how she felt the same way you did being away from her family. But Julianna on the other hand was way more skeptical. Quite honestly, she said she thought it was an act for the cameras…
Are you fucking kidding me?! Oh my god! Man…oh my god! Ah fuck her! Now I’m all frustrated. Whatever man. She’s fucked up in the head, she’s got some head issues. For her to say something like…I mean you saw in that episode when Dana White was giving Raquel a compliment saying that she just had the best fight of the season. And Julianna had to step in and make up some bullshit about how Dana White was rooting for her. You know, she always has to have the attention, the limelight. She was pissed off about something and attacking me in her blog.
I don’t know man, she’s sick in the head. Like I said, I try to ignore her the best I can. Even now, we’re not in the house. We are adults. Adults that don’t like each other usually just don’t talk to each other if they don’t have to and she’s still talking shit about me on podcasts and in her blog. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.
It’s interesting that just last week when we spoke, you actually complimented and praised Julianna, saying how nice it was of her to give the girls makeovers. You seem to be able to step away from the dislike you guys have for each other.
You know it’s like…Ronda hates Miesha and Miesha hates Ronda, right? They will NEVER compliment each other. They will never give credit where it’s due because they don’t get along. A lot of people are like that. That’s one thing that I don’t like. I mean, I can’t stand Julianna. She’s a horrible person. But at the same time, I have no problem saying she’s tough as nails for beating Shayna; she’s got heart; and she does nice things every once in a while. I don’t get why people can’t just be honest. I don’t get it.
Well we saw the Dodgeball/unibrow gag this week. We already discussed that, so it looks like VigilanteMMA got the scoop over everyone on that one! You didn’t get in trouble for that did you?
(laughs) No I didn’t and I’m glad I didn’t because I had no idea how pissed Dana White was over that. I just knew that they took down most of the pictures. And as they were talking them down, I noticed they missed one. Being Anthony’s friend—and I wanted team Rousey’s coaches to see it. I didn’t want Miesha and the coaches to have wasted their time doing (the prank); and I also wanted…it’s hard to explain…I wanted to see what happened from it. So I told Anthony that they missed the one in the sauna. So Anthony went and told Edmond. I had no idea it was THAT big of a deal. So I was really glad I wasn’t on camera when I told Anthony. (laughs)
So you never knew it was Dana who cleaned them up?
No, they kicked us out. I thought it was the production team that just thought it was dumb and taking it down. So I thought, well that’s stupid. The show’s been built around pranks for pretty much every season. You know, they took the time to do and I wanted Rousey’s team to see it and get mad so we could see another little fight. You know, we have nothing to do in the house so I wanted to see a reaction. So I had NO idea it was Dana White. If I did, I would’ve shut my damn mouth (laughs).
That’s awesome! So you spilled the beans to Anthony and slipped out the back door. Then here come the cameras and they show Anthony telling Edmond about it.
(laughs) Yeah, exactly. I’m glad I didn’t get caught up in that one.
Turning to the cage now. One constant has always been that Dana hates what he calls “boring” fighters. He wants finishes. Does that change your approach going into a fight on the show?
I mean obviously with him sitting there and knowing that he’s going to decide your career, you do have a little pressure to impress. But at the same time, you’re there to win. You’ve seen it before. If guys have to be boring to get to the finals, then that’s what you have to do. I don’t blame Josh at all. That’s his gameplan. He’s not going to evolve overnight. With brand new coaches, I’ve never seen that happen in the show. You gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I don’t blame him at all, but it would be kind of shitty to be that guy who Dana White didn’t like, style-wise.
During the fight we saw Josh go for that spinning back fist and missed. When Michael took him down after that, was that the end of Josh?
Yeah, up until then, the third round was dead even. He unfortunately missed. He got a little overzealous, and that’s where he lost the fight.
Lastly, we saw the fight selection. No surprise of course, but you’ll be fighting Anthony. Ronda mentioned that all the pressure is on you. Is that how you felt? Or is that just a strategy by Ronda?
Um, I don’t like badmouthing—especially Anthony; we became friends in the house—but it was obvious that I was one of the better fighters, skill-wise and all-around. At least to the coaches, I looked better. So going in there knowing you’re supposed to win the fight and get to the Finale. So in most people’s eyes, the pressure is on me to not lose to a guy who I shouldn’t lose to. I’m pretty sure that’s where she was going with that.
So if they think you should be feeling pressure, does that leave Anthony without pressure at all?
That’s a good point too. He had the pressure from himself, but he didn’t have it from everybody in the house. He didn’t have the pressure to beat me because…I’m trying to say this without sounding like a cocky asshole.
You’re supposed to beat him right?
Yes. That’s just something everybody in the house knew.
I was going to mention, those jerseys and shorts are pretty sweet. Did you get a whole new wardrobe while you were there?
Oh yeah man. I can’t go into too much detail without giving some stuff away, but yeah, I got a whole new closet at home now. I was getting down to the nitty gritty using my regular clothes as my training clothes and now I can actually walk around in some clothes that I haven’t been training in.
Well, the colors this year are cool so you must have got some good stuff.
The shitty thing this year though…the Rousey ones are legit. The Team Tate ones were supposed to be Team Zingano. They replaced them with like one day’s notice. The proof is that all of our jerseys have “Team Zingano” under them. So it’s a Team Zingano jersey with a “Team Tate sticker over it. The ones they sell are legit, but ours have a Tate sticker over it (laughs). Maybe I’ll take the Tate part off and have a little special edition.
Great job as usual Cody. We’ll talk to you in a week.
Hey no problem boss. Thank you for calling.
