Elvis Mutapcic week 5 blog

Elvis Mutapcic

What’s up everyone!  It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written my last blog; here’s what’s been happening in my life since then.  As most of you know, last weekend I was in Los Angeles supporting my teammate Josh Neer in UFC 104, and trying out for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. 

I’d like to take a minute to talk about Josh’s fight, Saturday night, and say that I was very proud of the effort he put into the fight.  Even though the turn out wasn’t what we all wanted it to be, he gave it his all in the cage just like he does every day in practice.

On Monday I tried out for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.  My teammate and I checked into the Hotel that the tryouts were being held Sunday night, so we would be one of the first fighters there to check-in for the tryouts Monday morning.  We got down to the lobby at 7:00AM so that we could get in line and wait for the registration to begin at 8:00AM; I was the 57th Middle Weight to tryout.  Tryouts took a very long time. The Light Heavyweight fighters tried out first, then the Middleweight fighters tried out, each tryout group consisting of 40 fighters at a time.  My flight was supposed to leave the LAX Airport at 2:30PM; my tryout didn’t start until approx. 3:30PM (Yes, I missed my flight!!).  As we walked into the room that the actual tryouts were held Dana White, Joe Silva, the TapOut creators and the SpikeTV producers were all sitting at a very long table.  Once we all got into the room and situated Dana White explained how the tryouts were work:

      First Round – 2 minutes of Grappling 

      Second Round – Hitting Pads

      Third Round – Interview

There would be eliminations after each round.

As Dana White called Elvis and attempted to pronounce my last name I walked toward the judges table.  Dana asked me a few questions about myself and my career then I headed toward the mat as he called out my opponent.  After Dana was finished talking to my opponent we got ready to grapple.  We had 2 minutes to go all out and show the judges what we were made of.  I didn’t want to waste any time so I pulled guard right away.  With as many fighters as there were that showed up to try out I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to impress the judges in 2 minutes; I gave it my all but in the end I was cut.

After my teammate and I finished the tryouts we headed to the LAX Airport to try and find a flight home.  After many conversations with my family back home and problems trying to find a flight we finally booked a flight which left the LAX Airport at 9:00PM on Monday and landed in Des Moines at 2:00PM on Tuesday.
Thursday I went to Iowa City to weigh in for my fight for RCC.  Leading up to this fight I had two opponents back out so I ended up fighting a “young up and comer.”  He is a very tough, explosive and wild fighter; Andy Branson calls him “floppy.” I was the first professional fight of the night; following some very impressive amateur fights.  As I was walking into the cage the only thing on my mind was that I wanted the fight to last long enough to put on a good show.  When the referee called us to the middle of the cage to go over the rules, my opponent got real close and personal.  As the fight began he threw a few kicks that didn’t land solid.  About 30 seconds into the round he took me down and I was given an opportunity to finish the fight with a triangle.  He tapped 43 seconds into the first round.  
Next week’s blog I will talk in detail about my fight against Andy Branson during the MCC 21: Mickle vs. Marriott. 

Thanks for all the support!

Elvis “The King” Mutapcic