Thomas sent this in:
News Flash – despite what you may think, Jamie Yager’s really not a bad guy. Yeah, he talks a lot and could be seen as abrasive at times, but those of us who grew up on the east or west coasts of the United States see and do that kind of stuff a lot, so it’s really not that big of a deal.
Pasadena’s Yager agrees, and despite his issues with the final cuts of season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter, he’s willing to let his present and future actions do the talking for him.
“Anybody who knows me will say that I’m a standup guy,” he said. “I take care of my friends and my family, but the show didn’t depict me like that. They don’t show me hanging out with the guys, having dinner, laughing, joking; they’ve been showing the times when I’ve been arguing or getting into a little bit of BS with people, and that’s gonna happen. If you have siblings, that’s gonna happen, and if you put 14 guys in a house trying to get one thing, and you take them away from their friends and family, of course that’s gonna happen a lot.”
It’s not surprising that the camera gravitated to the man with the best afro in MMA from the day filming started on the Spike TV reality show. And as soon as he knocked out Ben Stark in the first round to earn a place in the house and he started talking, it was clear that Yager was going to be a focal point of season 11, win or lose.
“I think my look totally sets me away from everybody else,” he said. “There are a lot of guys with the Mohawk or the shaved head, but there’s nobody with the ‘fro. (Laughs) I’m that guy, and I work really hard in the gym, so I’m in tip-top shape, so between my physique, my look, and my attitude, that’s gonna set me apart.”
His power did a good job of doing that as well, and when he followed up the win over Stark with another first round destruction – this time of Charles Blanchard – Yager looked to be a favorite to make it to the finals. But then things started going downhill for the 26-year old, first when drama in the house started overshadowing his fighting, mainly centering on his relationship with fighters on the opposing team, particularly Team Liddell’s Brad Tavares and Kyle Noke.
“I’m not looking to follow in anybody’s footsteps, and though I’ve gotten where I am because I’ve had a lot of help along the way, I’m a firm believer in walking my own walk,” he said. “But a lot of the guys on Ultimate Fighter were like ‘team, team, team,’ when we’re all here to fight for the same thing, and at the end of the day nobody’s really on a team. Tavares, (Kris) McCray, and Noke, we all had an understanding that if we have to fight each other we have to fight each other, but I’m gonna keep it real with you, and other guys didn’t like that. We were a band of brothers no matter what color you were on. We’re all friends and we had no problem keeping it real with one another. But the other guys were like ‘you can’t kick it with guys on the other team.’”
Next came Yager’s quarterfinal fight with Josh Bryant, which ended after two hard-fought rounds when Yager didn’t answer the bell for the third ‘sudden victory’ round. Coach Tito Ortiz didn’t hide his feelings about Yager’s decision to remain on his stool, and internet message boarders chimed in as well to thrash the Californian.
“I took some good shots in that fight and Josh tagged me,” said Yager. “I came back from it, but after that first one he got me with, I wasn’t the same anymore upstairs. It was like I was fighting ten different guys in there. I’m inexperienced and still learning the game, learning about myself and putting myself in different positions, so I think that fight ending the way it did, everyone’s holding me to high standards, which is great, but I’m a human being, and I can admit my wrongs. I went out there and I didn’t have a solid gameplan, but when he caught me in the crucifix in the second round and he was dropping some elbows, none of them looked really devastating, but a couple caught me in the back of the neck and I felt some numbness and tingling, and I had problems holding my head up.”
Understandable, but of course, the die was cast, and Yager took his share of heat, which got even hotter thanks to his pre-fight talking, but he’s not stressing over it now, especially since he will get another shot in the Octagon this Saturday, not against main antagonist Kyacey Uscola, but Team Liddell’s Rich Attonito.
“I was a little surprised,” said Yager. “I thought I was gonna get Kyacey for sure because of a lot of the build-up and the hype. The show is meant to pick one guy to go into the UFC and win the contract, and I thank Dana (White) and the Fertitta brothers for allowing me to get another opportunity to go out there and show what I’m capable of doing.”
And when you look past the ‘fro and the mouth, Yager does have the raw ability to make some noise in the middleweight division. Whether that’s immediately or in a year or so remains to be seen, but for someone who has only been training for a few years, he’s got plenty of potential, which is even more impressive considering that he came to the sport by accident.
“I got done playing college football (at Pasadena City College), and I had my son, so I dropped my scholarship to raise him, and I didn’t have a job at the time,” said Yager, detailing his early days.
Desperate for any sort of income while on the job hunt, a couple of his college buddies told him that there was a 160-pounder willing to fight the 220-pound former football player in a backyard for $500. Yager’s response?
“Where’s he at?”
Turns out, the 160-pounder was Savant Young, a pro fighter with fights against Kendall Grove, John Alessio, and Chris Lytle, just to name a few. Those names meant nothing to Yager, who said, “I didn’t know anything really about the fight game. I had seen Tito and Chuck fight a couple times, but didn’t know too much about MMA.”
Soon after, Yager happened to see Young at a gas station. He pulled his car over and approached his prospective foe. Young said, “Come down to my gym.”
Yager agreed, and the next day he walked into Antonio McKee’s Bodyshop Gym.
“I was just tackling these guys, football-style, but I didn’t know what it was like to protect your neck,” he laughed. “I had little guys choking me left and right. After a couple days of that, I said, I’ve gotta learn this.”
The rest is history. Yager worked as a sparring partner for members of the IFL’s Tokyo Sabres, working with Young, McKee, and Vladimir Matyushenko, “just getting my ass kicked every day.” But at the same time he became a student of the game, turned pro in 2008, and put together a 2-1 record before getting the call to The Ultimate Fighter. As for his now five-year old son, who he shares custody of, he’s come around too when it comes to his dad’s vocation.
“He used to say, ‘Fighting’s not a job,’” laughs Yager. “Now he’s like ‘Come on daddy, let’s go to work, let’s go to the gym.’ And I think it’s really important for a child to see how their father goes to work and what their father does to make the money and how the bills are paid.”
On Saturday, dad’s going to pay some more bills with his first UFC paycheck, but he’s also going to make the most of his second chance to make a first impression, and do his best to let the world know the same Jamie Yager that his son knows.
“I know it’s gonna take a couple of fights, but I gotta win the respect of the fans and show everybody what my true colors are.”
Cameron Richardson
Stacy Keibler
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