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Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira Profile - Phillipe Nover

By Thomas Gerbasi

www.8countnews.com-Article on me!!!

The Next Manny Pacquiao May not even be a Boxer

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 21:30:37
(http://www.8countnews.com/news/117/ARTICLE/1161/2008-11-25.html)


By

Dennis Guillermo

If you haven’t heard of him yet, you will soon enough. “I am the toughest registered nurse on the planet right now.” said Phillipe Nover after moving on to the semifinals of the Ultimate Fighter show in Spike TV. I must say, it’s hard to dispute that claim.

The great and current UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira described him as a lightweight that punches like a heavyweight. “I have never seen a guy hit as hard as you.” were Big Nog’s words for Phillipe before he went inside the octagon to face the highly touted Dave Kaplan in episode 8 of the Ultimate Fighter show. “When this kid fights, he fights for real!” he added. That’s high praise coming from one of the legends of the mixed martial arts game. Remind you of anyone in particular?

“From what I see in this kid right now, he reminds me of a GSP.” said Dana White, the head honcho of UFC.

Well from what I saw, he reminds me of Manny Pacquiao. No lie… he looks that good.

Born and raised in Brooklyn New York, the 24-year-old Fil-Am ER nurse Nover is as Filipino as it gets. I did say nurse didn’t I? Pardon the stereotype, but there’s more to Phillipe than his choice of profession that juxtaposes him to his Filipino roots. For one, he has that Manny Pacquiao power in his fists. And as much as there have been talks about up and coming Filipino fighters and boxers out there following Pacquiao’s footsteps, I have never been reminded of any fighter of Pacquiao more than Phillipe when Pacquiao first broke into the American boxing scene. This kid Nover is for real. He has the qualities that any fight fan will love and definitely get a lot of Filipinos to follow his career the way Manny Pacquiao caught the Filipino people and the world’s imagination.

I say that, not only because of the way he fights, but also because of the way he conducts himself. Nover is a humble and well spoken guy that does his talking inside the octagon. He is proud of his heritage as shown in the show when he introduced “balut” to his teammates and even displayed a little poster he made in their bathroom that said “Sipag at Tiyaga” written in the colors of the Philippine flag. His fights are always exciting and he really hits like he has brass knuckles hidden in his gloves.

Phillipe has an unblemished MMA record and will be fighting in the semifinals of the Ultimate Fighter to be aired on December 3^rd on Spike. I will be interviewing Phillipe this coming week to get his thoughts on his upcoming match, his background and pretty much anything under the sun so watch out for that.

I really have a feeling this guy will be something special. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day you see tens of Filipino flags waiving in a UFC event the way you see them in the most recent Journey world tour and Pacquiao fights the past 7 years. I may sound like I’m putting too much faith and pressure on a relatively unknown Filipino fighter, but I’m sure that’s nothing compared to the pressure an ER presents. With that said, I really believe this guy has what it takes no matter what pressure he gets put under. Hell, he’s an ER nurse and a heck of a mixed martial arts fighter after all.

Episode 10

I really enjoyed last night’s episode. The fight was exiting and it really showed the personality of both fighters. The fight was between the two nicest guys in the house. I would find it more difficult to fight someone who happens to be a really nice guy rather then fight an asshole.

George Roop is quiet and soft-spoken and has a really “chill” attitude about fighting. I could sit and talk to him and feel really comfortable.

As for John “the hug monster” Polakowski, he is just one big package of fun! How could you dislike the guy? Every day he would see you he’d start it off with a great big hug. At first it was kind of weird but after getting to know the guy it was fun. He gave such a friendly feeling to the house. John and I got along so well. He is so nice that I couldn’t imagine him hurting someone in the cage. The funniest thing I could remember is when he hugged Dana after his fight. That was hilarious!

I felt bad for Roop. Everyone knows how difficult it was to come that far and get into the house. Even though he hurt his thumb his spirit never shattered. From the looks of the thing and with my medical background, it appeared broken. His thumb injury just made him seem even more hungry for battle. Who would want to have the fight of your life with an apparent thumb fracture? He has the heart of a lion. Not to many fighters have that mental ability. That is what makes him scary.

Pre-fight you saw Nogueira tease Roop. It was all fun and games. Big ‘Nog is a really down to Earth guy. As you can see he comes over the house every night before one of us fight. I’m glad he did. Even if his advice was really basic and not very strategic, it still raised our spirits and as a fighter you felt stronger and more ready. Again, might I add how happy I was to be on the red team!?

I thought the fight was pretty action packed. It was back and forth. I would have to agree with Dana and would have rather saw a third round. I guess the judges gave lots of credit for Roop’s takedowns. It was an all out battle and even though John lost I hope to see him still in the UFC.

In the post-fight carnage you saw John drinking for peace. John is really funny guy when he gets drunk. You can’t help but love the guy. Then you saw Junie get pissed at a few guys for throwing food at us in the jacuzzi.

Junie has a really short temper and sometimes people just want to push his buttons to have him react, as you saw in the previous episode where he’s trying to fight everyone in the pool. Spike didn’t show how that actually escalated. They continued throwing food as us and pretty soon someone got so mad that a beer bottle flew up into the kitchen and shattered on the floor. I’m not going to say who threw it. It just got worse from there.

For the semi-finals, as you all can see I chose Roop. It is my sole strategy to enter into the finals and take the easiest fight. I think Roop was the weakest link but not because of his skill level, as he is very skilled in all areas of fighting. I felt Roop was weak because he was injured. He had a hurt thumb and he had just fought. Look at his eye. He only had a week to recover from John before he fought me. If he was wasn’t that injured then I might have chosen someone else.

Dec 3rd viewing party!!

Directions:
Belt parkway to exist 11S. Go down Flatbush Ave and make a left at the third light right before the toll booths. After the left you'll come over a few speed bumps and a check in point to Floyd Bennett Field. There's no security officer in box, just keep driving in and make your first left again. Drive about 1/2 a mile in and you'll see it on your left. (There is a small red plane in the front.)

Seminar in Brooklyn

Come join me! Space is very limited!

My view on the use of Steroids in Mixed Martial Arts

As a professional athlete and a promoter of overall health and well being, I would like to announce my disregard for athletes who test positive for steroids. Athletes who take steroids are mentally beaten already. It would only mean they think that they are incapable of winning the fight as is. I have no respect for any fighter who ever took steroids or is currently taking steroids. And I have the up most respect for athletes who avoid the use of performance enhancing drugs.

I believe combat sports should tighten there laws on steroids. Fines and banning a fighter for 6 months or a year just doesn't cut it for me. This isn't baseball or basketball. People can get seriously hurt in the cage. If a fighter were to fight a tough battle and find out later on there opponent was on steroids, it would only make every injury sustained meaningless. It would actually make the entire fight meaningless.

The UFC represents the most elite athletes / marital artists in the world. Fighters on steroids take that image away. Fighting in the cage is a true test of ones ability. Man to man! All the blood, sweat, tears, sacrifices, and hours upon hours of studying the arts amounts to nothing when you include steroid use in your curriculum.

It is basically cheating! If a person were to walk into a casino in Las Vegas and cheat using loaded dice or some sort of machine or cheat in anyway to beat the casino. The person is banned from that casino for life and given plenty of jail time. No actual physical harm is done by the cheater and the cheater still gets jail time. If you cheat in the UFC and you beat the living crap out of someone while on steroids you get away with it with only a slap on the wrist.

This is Dana's reaction to Sean Sherk testing positive for steroids. Dana is very much against steroid use as well.

"Everybody knows our position on steroids. We invest a lot of money in these guys, then they get caught doing something stupid. It's going to happen. It's so hard to deal with. Should I call everybody every day and say, 'Don't snort cocaine, don't smoke heroin, don't kill anybody, don't drink and drive, don't do steroids'? It's common sense. Steroids are illegal. If you get caught by the athletic commission, you're getting suspended and fined and you'll never be looked at the same way again." -Dana White (http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/news/story?id=2956319)

According to Sherdog.com Chris Leban was busted for steroid use and only given a 9 month fight suspension after his fight on Oct 18th against Michael Bisping. That's basically nothing.

The UFC should upgrade there laws on steroids. How about banned forever and jail time!That's what I think. Professional fighters will think twice before taking these sort of drugs if the consequences are raised.

Episode 09

Dave’s reaction to the fight was surprising. He still could not accept that he lost. His excuse was using the wrong game plan. He said, “I wanted to take Phillipe’s best punches and show him that he can’t hurt me.”

Now that is just plain stupid.

No one plans on getting hit during a fight. In any fight each person tries to avoid getting hit. If that was really his game plan, then he’s a moron.

The night after the fight he made himself look like a fool. Drinking urine with Tom and getting punched in the face by Tom. It just made him look even more foolish. I believe he did this only to get camera time. Well, it worked — he got a few minutes of camera time!

What wasn’t shown was him holding the cup of urine and trying to chase camera men as if he was going to throw it at them. He got out of control. At one point an assistant producer had to remind him not to mess with the camera men. That was a specific rule we were to follow: “Camera men do not exist. Don’t look at them! Don’t talk to them!”

The pranks were hilarious on this episode. Making Krzysztof’s room the “UFC Storage Room” cracked me up. Notice no one really helped him clean the room up. I felt bad for him after that. But Krystof is a funny guy and his prank pretty much screwed the whole house.

I remember waking up that morning and walking into the kitchen to eat breakfast. Seeing the kitchen table missing, I knew something was up! Krzysztof, myself, and most of the guys were upset that no one cleaned their dishes after they ate. I was furious about this. I personally need to live in a clean house. I will never leave a dish int he sink overnight. People took advantage and lived like slobs. So Krzysztof’s prank sort of punished everyone especially those who didn’t feel like washing dishes was necessary.

The coaches challenge was a great surprise. I think Nogueira is a true sportsman. Even though he never played soccer before he still pulled out the win! As soon as we got there he started warming up. He put on the soccer gear; like knee pads and gloves and really got into it. He was dripping sweat trying to win the match. He jumped and leaped to block out balls. I was proud of him. He knew each fighter on the team could really use the $1,000 each and the pressure was on. Mir should have got into it a little more. I mean, it is an $18,000 soccer match!

Al Stankie’s is a great character on the show. He kept our spirits high and brought a sort of old school boxing environment to training. He doesn’t know much about MMA, takedowns or ground work. “Why go on the ground and smell all those farts when you can just beat him on the feet,” he said. I like working with him as did most of the guys on our team. His combos were more related to straight boxing though. It didn’t matter. I just needed to get my punches out for a few rounds.

Things you should know about Al: he screams out funny things during training all the time like “Manchita!” I think that’s his Mexican girlfriend. “Ain’t nothing but a party, baby!” Also “HOEEEE!” and much more!
Stankie loves flirting with young girls. He one time interrupted a cast meeting and ask one of the assistant producers to come home with him as a joke. He wears rash guards and beanies all the time even in public and at restaurants. His son was a New York Yankee, Andy Stankowitz. He has a great vibrating massage machine that feels incredible on my back. He talks a lot and sometimes doesn’t stop. But overall he was fun to be around and I enjoyed him as did everyone else on the show, including the production personnel.

Regarding the fight, I was sad to see Kyle lose. I agree with Nogueira that he acted like team leader. If you analyzed his attitude after the fight you can see what kind of a person he is. He was still proud to have fought Krzysztof. He accepted that he needs to work on his ground game. He is a good team player and has a great outlook on fighting. He took the loss gracefully. I’m also proud of Krzysztof. He is an excellent fighter with so much experience. I see him taking his career far. He also has a great heart fighting with what I thought looked like a broken thumb.

Episode 08

This episode was one of my favorite's so far, mainly because it was
the episode I fought on!. I'm greatly satisfied by SPIKE tv's editors.
They included some great clippings of my training and confessionals! I
believe that people got the chance to see an accurate portrayal of the
real me.

Now, let's start from the top..

If you're ever on a reality TV show, don't eat other people's food! I
learned it this the hard way. People ask me, "Didn't you taste it?"
and my answer is always the same,"No". I really couldn't taste the
urine at all. It tasted just fine. And, might I also add -this was
the first time I ate Tom Lawyers fruit. I never "pillaged" it with my
teammates before. I suffered the consequences though and took full
responsibility for it.

After the fruit platter incident I decided along with my teammates to
add some special white Wasabie sauce compliments of Kyle Kingsberry to
be added to my sushi. It was a disgusting idea. However the rule was
stated: "You shouldn't eat other people's food." So we went along with
it. I personally couldn't add my own sauce because I didn't think I
could let one out while thinking I was going to use it to sabotage a
sushi platter. Fortunately, my good friend Kyle had no problem with
that. The incident when Kaplan ate the sushi actually occurred weeks
after we fought. Editing made it seem that Kaplan ate it before hand.
Good job to the editors. It took about 3 to 4 days before Kaplan
actually ate the sushi but he did. He loved sushi just as much as I
did! Especially those Phillipe Nover California Rolls. =)

Side note to my Filipino readers. If you look at the bathroom scene
where we are setting up the sushi, check out the red and blue sign on
the left. It says "Sipag at Tiyaga" in yellow. (Hard work and patience
in Tagalog.) I made that sign out of foam. Although it fell apart,
when it was up I thought it would bring some good spirits to our team.

Can someone say "Balut"? Watching that scene made me hungry. This
unhatched duck egg / fetus is really tasty and I recommend all the
readers to go out and buy one! Side note. Nogueira and Leota Machida
ate them also on Big Nog's birthday before dinner. I remember Machida
Swallowed the whole thing with no hesitation! He's the man! He would
have eaten the shell to if I didn't tell him to peel it. Warrior's
food baby!

Junie did confess his thoughts to me about Kaplan. A small betrayal.
Surprisingly Iike I stated before. Junie and I got along just fine.
He's a good kid who "just needs some love." haha. Him giving me a
small snippet of how Kaplan fights and what his weakness were gave me
a boast of confidence. However, I think the fight would have gone the
same way even if he didn't mention to me how Kaplan fights.

People ask me. "Why did you submit him instead of grounding and
pounding him for a TKO?" You have to remember that you need to be
ready for the next fight injury free. I didn't want to risk hurting my
hand and be injured in the semi's. I went into this fight with
strategy. Making sure I can get the win without getting hurt. A
submission was the best way in doing that. I was surprised at Mir that
he thought I didn't use strategy to beat Kaplan. He said "Phillipe
just took something that Kaplan gave him." That's not true. Kaplan
didn't give me anything. I earned that victory with elements of speed
and power. No one can truthfully deny that and downgrade that victory.
This wasn't Bonner and Griffin. It wasn't close. It wasn't a war. I
walked over him in just over a minute. He should just accept it! That
is the only way to grow from a loss. Accept it and come back stronger.
I am a better fighter. Plain and simple. We could fight 10 times and
I'd beat him 10 times. I'm not saying Kaplan is not a good fighter. I
think he is. I think he is really good fighter for getting that far. I
just proved that I'm better. To this day Kaplan has not given my the
credit I deserve.

I can now see why Junie took my side before the fight. I agree with
Junie when he stated that Kaplan is a know it all and needed to be
humbled. Before every training lesson and fight I empty my cup and
fill it up again with even better more improved knowledge.
Unfortunately for Dave, his cup is always full.

As you all can see Dana was really impressed by me. I'm glad he
enjoyed the fight. After all, he's the man you want to impress! When
he said I remind him of a young GSP I thought to myself. Those are
some really big shoes to fill. The pressure is on now. I really want
to show the world that I'm not the next GSP. I am Phillipe Nover. I
want to pave my own path in MMA. I have a lot of respect for GSP as a
fighter. He is someone that I look up to and I'm glad Dana
can categorize me the way he did. But I still have a lot of growing to
do as a fighter and a person.

I would also like to shout out all the male nurses out there. Males
can be nurses and still be cool! Not everyone is a "Foker." Thanks for
reading my blog guys.

Halloween 08 with Nover!!