When Dane Sayers took on Sako Chivitchian on this week's episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck, it meant that all 14 fighters in the house have had their opportunity to step into the Octagon.In MMAFighting.com's weekly interview with Team GSP's Michael Johnson, we asked how he felt he stacked up after having seen everyone in action, and Johnson said he liked his chances against everyone who had advanced to the next round of this season's Ultimate Fighter tournament.
Johnson also touched on Josh Koscheck's confrontation with a member of the Team GSP staff, and the annual Ultimate Fighter coaches' challenge. The full interview is below.
Michael David Smith: What did you think of the fight between Dane Sayers and Sako Chivitchian?
Michael Johnson: I thought it was going to be a lot more exciting fight than it was. There was a long feeling out period and I just didn't think either one of them ever got all that comfortable. Overall it was a fight that was mostly like a big grappling match.
All three judges gave both rounds to Sako. Did you agree with the decision?
I was thinking there would be a third round, it was a close enough fight and neither guy was really dominant, I would have liked to see if one of them could finish it in the third round.
Sako winning gave Team Koscheck its second victory, which made Team GSP 5-2 once all 14 guys in the house had been able to fight. Were you pleased with how your team had performed?
I thought it was great that we won the team competition 5-2. I think we had better coaching, better athletes and guys who wanted it more. I honestly thought we could have gone 7-0. I felt like we were unlucky in both the fights we lost.
What about yourself personally? Once you had the opportunity to see everyone else, how did you think you stacked up?
I thought I personally had a good chance to win the whole thing, just looking at the other guys -- I felt like I matched up well with everyone.
They'll be doing a wild card fight on next week's episode, and they chose Aaron Wilkinson and Marc Stevens as the two wild cards. Did you think those two were deserving?
I thought Aaron definitely deserved it. I was the No. 1 pick and he gave me a really tough fight for the first two rounds before I beat him in the third, so I think he was a good choice. But Marc Stevens, I didn't think he deserved the wild card at all. He got choked out in less than 20 seconds by Cody McKenzie and didn't show anything. I didn't think he deserved it at all. There were other guys who in my opinion were a lot more deserving. I think he got it because he was Koscheck's favorite.
There were a couple items of interest from outside the cage on this week's episode: For starters, there's a guy who's working as the medic for Team GSP, Brad Tate. He's a big, tough-looking guy, and I wouldn't want to mess with him, but Josh Koscheck looked like he was trying to pick a fight with him, calling him a "male nurse." What was going on there?
Those guys were going back and forth a lot. I think Koscheck enjoys stuff like that, and he probably enjoyed that Brad was talking back at him because when he tries to start stuff with Georges St. Pierre, Georges just doesn't talk to him.
There was also the traditional Ultimate Fighter coaches' challenge, which was a home run derby. With money on the line, were you disappointed that Koscheck won?
I wasn't too disappointed. Georges had never played baseball before and he actually did pretty well. But Josh had played baseball so it was no surprise that he won it. I think they wanted to give Josh something he could win because we were whipping them in the cage.
Check back every Thursday to get Michael Johnson's take on the latest episode of The Ultimate Fighter.
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