Talking TUF With 'The Juggernaut' Mike Wessel

On this season of The Ultimate Fighter sixteen heavyweight prospects will be fighting for their chance at a six-figure UFC contract.  Former Light-Heavyweight champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans will coach a star studded cast including veterans, ex-NFL players and YouTube street fighting sensation Kimbo Slice.

Most of the hype heading into this season is placed upon those big names but one fighter that should not be overlooked is Mike “The Juggernaut” Wessel.

The Arkansas-based fighter has competed in the UFC once before in a losing effort against Dutch kick-boxer Antoni Hardonk. It was a fight that he took on short notice showcasing tremendous heart which has led to his recent stint as part of this season of TUF. 

In this exclusive interview Wessel talks about the experience he gained on the show, the rivalry between the coaches, Roy Nelson’s cheese addiction and much, much more.

Mitch Ciccarelli: How did you like living in the Ultimate Fighter house with all of those different personalities without having any contact to the outside world?

Mike Wessel: Being in the house with the guys wasn’t that bad it was being in the house [that was tough]. A lot of us knew each other I mean I knew Wes Shivers, Scott Junk, Justin Wren because at one point I was supposed to fight all of them at different shows but it never happened. For the first three weeks or so we all had the same attitude and the same drive but after those three weeks everything started to change. Everyone started acting differently and even I acted different than I normally would so honestly the house kind of sucked.

Mitch Ciccarelli: I guess as the show progressed it messed with your mind mentally and turned you into a different person?

Mike Wessel: Yeah, I mean you couldn’t do anything without getting in trouble. Someone was on your ass constantly and that wasn’t fun. It was kind of like prison and after three weeks we started acting like we were in prison, it just kind of got to each of us.

We started acting like we normally wouldn’t and there is a reason it’s Reality TV and they give you all the free stuff you want it’s so you can see people do some stupid [expletive].

Mitch Ciccarelli: You’re one of three guys on the show that has already competed in the UFC before. That was back at UFC 92 when you took a fight on short notice against deadly striker Antoni Hardonk in which you suffered a second round TKO loss. But you showed a lot of heart in that fight, is that why they called you up to go on TUF because they were impressed with you from that fight or did you go and try out on your own for the show?

Mike Wessel: Well that’s the way it came about, Joe Silva told my management at the time that I wouldn’t be fighting until August or September and that was back in February. The week after that I don’t know if they wanted me to fight early or something but my wife started getting sick and I wasn't ready to take a fight yet so that’s kind of what he said you know ‘August or September would be the next time I could get Mike on a card’.

Then the next week he called and told Roli [Delgado] to make sure that I was out there in Seattle to try out and I think that’s really what sealed the deal with going out to Vegas to do the interviews because I mean Spike TV has a lot to do and really you have to have a personality. You can’t just be some dead-ass that just sits there the whole time because who would want to watch that?

Everyone in the house that they picked all had different personalities and altogether there were a lot of good guys. I think the reason they picked me is because for one I took a fight on like 9 days notice against Hardonk and they were like ‘hey this guy can fight, why don’t we give him another chance and put him on the show?’ and secondly Spike saw that I had a personality and I wasn’t a complete retard.

Mitch Ciccarelli: What did you think of the overall cast in general? Were you a bit surprised to see veterans like Roy Nelson and Wes Sims on the show? Also what was going through your mind when they announced Kimbo Slice as the sixteenth heavyweight?

Mike Wessel: Well honestly here’s the thing, Roy Nelson and Wes Sims were in the same van that I was in when we drove from the hotel to the gym on the first day. I don’t know anything about MMA, I don’t know the background and I’m not one of those guys that will recognize somebody. I’m not a star struck person and I don’t watch anything other than UFC so if the WEC champion were to walk up to me I probably wouldn’t know who he was. 

I really only watch the heavyweights in the UFC so I know those guys but I didn’t know who Wes Sims was. I kind of knew who Roy was because of the [Andrei] Arlovski fight [in Elite XC] but the only reason I knew him was because I was watching Kimbo when Seth [Petruzelli] beat him.

It was just one of those things where I thought ‘who is this big dude that’s beating the [expletive] out of Arlovski, this is awesome’. It’s just one of those things where I do a lot of training and don’t really watch much TV. I don’t know enough about some of the veterans of this sport because I haven’t been doing it for very long. Roy ended up being really cool though and me and him have actually become pretty good friends through the show and enjoyed each other.

Wes is an idiot but I love him though. He’s a harmless guy that just has nothing else better to do than [expletive] around. When Kimbo came on it turned out that Kimbo was a kick-ass guy and I really enjoyed his personality. Half the people that don’t know [expletive] about MMA—which is kind of me besides being in it—would just say ‘oh this guy’s big, scary, he’s black with gold teeth and he looks like a bad ass fighting on youtube’.

The people that don’t know anything about MMA think he’s a bad ass and when he came on the show I was kind of like ‘oh well who gives a [expletive]? It’s going to bring in some ratings’.

People will ask me ‘well what do you think your chances are now that Kimbo is on the show’ and I’ll say ‘the same [expletive] chances I had before he was on the show’. I mean Kimbo doesn’t mean [expletive] to me and it’s not like I mean [expletive] to Kimbo. You know we don’t come in here because we’re scared of all of these fighters and that comes up with me on the show because if I were scared of someone I wouldn’t have taken that fight with Hardonk, you know?

Other people don’t personally scare me. Once I started training with Roy a little bit and kind of done some stuff with him in the house I was like ‘damn Roy knows his [expletive]’. Roy really knows his stuff and I have a lot of respect for him. He’s become a really good friend, the same with Scott Junk and some of the others that were there but after three weeks everyone went stir crazy and you get to know what somebody would do in a situation like that and how people really handle themselves.

The thing with Roy and Wes is I didn’t really know them and the only reason I knew Kimbo was from all the hype about him. It turned out that all three of them were pretty kick-ass guys.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Between Rampage and Rashad who did you most look forward to training with?

Mike Wessel: They are just two different personalities and when Rampage isn’t on camera he’s one of the coolest [expletive] dudes in the world but when he’s on camera he’ll sell everyone out to make himself look better and make himself look like a stud. I don’t like that [expletive] and that don’t fly with me but Rampage is honestly a cool guy.

Rashad is generally a down to earth guy and I mean I laughed at him back at UFC 92 when he was walking with his little entourage and he had his glasses on in the hotel, I looked at him and laughed thinking ‘wow that guy is trying to be more than he is’ but it turns out he’s a cool ass guy too.

As far as training with them they both had great coaches with them. I mean Junior for Rampage is one hell of a coach and Rashad had Greg Jackson with him so you can’t go wrong with either.

In the beginning when we first got there I was thinking ‘man I don’t know whose team I want to be on right now’ and as I saw the coaches go on I really wanted to be on Rashad’s team and I can’t say if that happened or not but that’s where I wanted to be.

I wanted to be on Rashad’s team because of the coaches he had surrounding him because they seemed far superior to Rampage’s coaches.

Mitch Ciccarelli: How intense was the rivalry between the coaches? Did you get the feeling that they truly hated each other or was it more of a way to hype up their fight?

Mike Wessel: Honest to God truth I don’t know if they truly hate each other or if they were just doing it to hype up the fight. They might just like running their mouth and you know what if they had the same mom you couldn’t tell a damn difference because they are exactly the same when they run their mouth except Rashad is a lot better [expletive] talker than Rampage.

Rampage sucks at talking [expletive] because he says the same damn thing over and over and over again and he thinks he’s funny. Rampage will just say the same damn thing like ‘come on Rashad, come on Rashad’ and he’ll say that for five [expletive] minutes where as Rashad kind of thinks about what he says but they rang their mouth to each other all the damn time.

Really I think they don’t like each other because they both are the same and it’s just one of those things where there are too many roosters in the hen house that are the exact same. They had to keep putting the other one down to prove the other one was better.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Since leaving the show, do you feel like your overall game has improved? If so, what aspect do you think has improved the most?

Mike Wessel: I really do, I think I have gotten ten times better. I mean I knew how to train myself with conditioning and everything else before but now I’ve had the best in the world and I got to pick their brains with both coaches on both teams. It was cool to have both sides of coaches; you could ask anyone anything and as long as it had to do with fighting both sides were cool.

I’ve learned more on how I need to train and how I need to prepare myself and what needs to happen. How I was training on the show is how I really like to be trained so I’ve done that now and I’ve switched camps and now I’m training in Memphis and I’m actually going to train with Roy Nelson in two weeks out in Vegas.

I really liked the way the training was on the show and how everything was and so that’s the reason why I have adapted my training the same way.

Mitch Ciccarelli: I heard Roy Nelson ate everything up in the house including a shrub out in the backyard, is there any truth to that?

Mike Wessel: (laughs) That guy packs down more [expletive] cheese than anybody I’ve ever seen. Everything he ate had cheese on it and he ate a lot. That guy loves cheese! I can cook some dishes but between him and Kimbo they were the best cooks in the house.

Mitch Ciccarelli: How difficult was it to hang out and act friendly with some of these guys at the house and then end up having to punch some of them in the face in the Octagon?

Mike Wessel: That’s just business, man. That’s what we do for a living and there’s no bad blood between any of us. I mean as the weeks went on and on and the people that lost in the beginning of the show were still there—they had no purpose and they got kind of annoying but everyone else was cool.

All the guys on there I had respect for, all 16 fighters that they brought were legit fighters so there was a lot of respect there. The thing is you don’t actually hate these guys so it’s a little bit different than some sports I guess.

When I played football I never hated the guy I just wanted to make sure I kicked their ass as soon as the game was over so that’s the same way fighting is with me. I don’t think anyone that lost [on the show] took it personal, I mean of course you don’t like losing and of course you don’t want to go celebrate with a guy that just beat your ass but life sucks and this is what we got to do to be in the UFC so you better suck it up, you know?

Mitch Ciccarelli: Did anything crazy go on, like fights at the house or anything nuts like that? Did Dana have to show up at the house at all for anything?

Mike Wessel: Well Dana didn’t show up at the house he made our asses come to the gym. Dana said ‘[expletive] this driving 45 minutes your asses are coming here, don’t waste my God damn time’. There’s a lot of stuff that happens and I’m not just saying this because I was on the show but I was so glad that I was able to be there to watch these fights live.

Every fight even from the longest fight to the shortest was all kick-ass fights I mean everybody in this house want it. You see some asses getting beat and hell in one of the shortest fights it was a damn good fight but it was short, you know? The fights on the show will make the show now that other stuff that happens there is a ton of stuff that happens but like I said for the first three to four weeks nobody in the house did anything crazy because we were all focused and then after that things started changing and everybody started getting sick of being there but yeah there were a couple of scuffles, a couple of stupid-ass moments that I’m sure I’ll want back and a lot of other guys will want back too.

But that’s the point of reality television and I’ll vogue for everybody… they are not like how you’ll see them act on the show in real life. Everyone at one point did something so it just depends on what they show. It’s one of those things where you just have to deal with it but Dana came to the house once or twice—I was asleep once when he came—I don’t think it was to yell at anybody though and the other time he came was when he brought us to the gym.

The time he brought us to the gym everyone was wondering ‘who is in trouble? What did we do? What the hell is going on?’ and he just wanted to show us this kick-ass video of UFC 100. He wanted to talk to us about why fighting is so important and he changed my perception of him.

You know everybody gets mad at him because he says the F word all the time and he talks the way he wants to talk but he cares about his fighters and he cares about the people in this business with him. He really showed to each and every one of us how much he cares and how he loves this sport, he’s just very passionate.

I’m 31 years old and I don’t get too star struck by anybody or admire anybody because I’m too old for that [expletive] but Dana is one of those guys that I admire now. People that don’t know him that just read the articles don’t know that he’s really passionate about this. Then again when he gets ready to chew someone out and get on their ass he sure as hell let’s you know too.

Mitch Ciccarelli: I recently spoke with Wes Sims and he told me he doesn’t even remember half of the stuff that happened on the show. He's known for having one of the craziest personalities in the sport and is clearly insane. What was it like living with a unique individual like Wes Sims?

Mike Wessel: (laughs) Well like I said before Wes is harmless, man. He’s just an individual that makes sure he is never bored, he always has to make sure he is doing something to entertain himself or everybody else, you know? I don’t think there was ever one point where he was really ever serious.

Deep down Wes is a good dude and he doesn’t mean any harm. He doesn’t mean to start [expletive] with anybody he just wants to make sure he doesn’t stay too bored and keeps everyone else entertained. He likes to be the center of attention, he’s like that kid at the birthday party that is trying to get everyone’s attention and that’s just the way he is.

Mitch Ciccarelli: You were a former strength and conditioning coach for the University of Arkansas football team before turning to MMA, how did you make that transition into this sport?

Mike Wessel: Well I saw all these guys that I was coaching eventually go on to the NFL and they were still competing and I’m like ‘I’m not done competing’, you know? I loved coaching but I wasn’t done competing I felt like I can do something to still keep going.

I started doing a little MMA and kickboxing and I was asked to fight in Little Rock and I said ‘yeah might as well, I’ve got nothing else to do except coach’. I’m still friends with all the coaches from Arkansas and I actually just came from the game on Sunday and they all support me.

They were worried for me in the beginning, Coach Vaughn—a defensive coach there—said ‘Mike at first I didn’t know if this was going to be a good thing for you but it turned out to be a good thing’. They really started to come behind me and root for me.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Football was a big part of your life growing up so what did you think when you saw former NFL players Marcus Jones, Wes Shivers and Matt Mitrione getting their shot on TUF?

Mike Wessel: You know if you wouldn’t have told me they were NFL players I would have just thought ‘Jesus these are some big [expletive]’. I didn’t know Marcus Jones was a first round draft pick until one day when we were talking about it by the pool. I didn’t even know Matt Mitrione played, and I made it to the very damn last week with Brendan [Schaub] before I knew he played for awhile in the NFL so that goes to show how much I pay attention.

I really only watch my teams which are the Chicago Bears and really that’s all I do. Marcus was such a cool-ass dude and he’s such a Zen-type person, man. He talked about his damn flower garden at home and how he misses his flowers and how he hoped his son was taking care of them right.

Matt Mitrione is a really good guy but he’s kind of a little bit off. I think there may be a chemical imbalance there or something I don’t know. They all had the same thing I had though they just missed the competition and I could understand that. It was just one of those things where I didn’t know who they were.

Mitch Ciccarelli: What was the training like on the show compared to the training you normally get back at home training at Westside MMA with Roli Delgado and Chris Hamilton?

Mike Wessel: The sparring was a lot more intense and the guests they brought in—which I can’t say who but there were several of them—I sparred with them and they were all tough-ass dudes so it was a bit different than what I was used to. Instead of having guys who were amateurs or pros that weren’t that good here it was like either kill or be killed in training.

When you can get a team of eight big guys and do two hours of training twice a day you’re going to get better. We had good skilled guys and all of us were different fighters and everyone had a different game-plan so you had several different aspects coming together for six to eight weeks which was pretty cool.

Mitch Ciccarelli: Alright Mike well thank you for taking the time out to do this interview with me.  I’m looking forward to seeing you kick ass and take names on TUF.

Mike Wessel: Alright thanks brother, I appreciate it.

Catch Mike Wessel every week on The Ultimate Fighter Season 10: The Heavyweights, airing every Wednesday starting Sept. 16 on Spike TV.