Despite wrecking his opposition during Season 8 of "The Ultimate Fighter," lightweight Phillipe (The Filipino Assassin) Nover's reality show run ended in a comprehensive loss in the showcase finale in December.
Efrain Escudero used his wrestling skills to subdue Nover for most of the fight. And Nover, who had been talked up extensively by both coach Antonio Rodigo Nogueira and UFC president Dana White, went down to defeat via unanimous decision.
Nover, a former emergency room nurse, has a good head on his shoulders. But even he admits he may have fallen prey to the hype.
"It might have got to my head a little bit," Nover said of the praise, which included comparisons to Anderson Silva. "(I was) maybe a little overconfident but that's no excuse."
Escudero's wrestling was more likely at the root of Nover's downfall. Escudero took him down at least five times, negating Nover's sharp standup skills. Escudero was also able to blunt Nover's jiu-jitsu on the ground for the most part.
Nover, who returns to action May 23 in Las Vegas at UFC 98 against Kyle Bradley, has had almost five months to ponder what went wrong. And what might have been.
"It's been a roller-coaster experience since taking the loss," said Nover. "I took some time to heal, I'd say more mentally than physically in the weeks that followed the loss. But I feel that I recovered quite well. Mentally I'm back in the game and I'm ready to go."
Nover remains a compelling character, with a good back story.
In the macho world of MMA, he earned sniggers when he fainted during the opening of the TV show as the fighters gathered for the first time (he blamed the Vegas heat). Then he proceeded to thrash the three men he faced during the series, battering them to the ground with punches and kicks before submitting them. In the semifinal, he almost twisted George Roop's arm off.
The caregiver became a pain-giver, complete with scowl, when the cage door closed. Nogueira, his coach, compared him to middleweight champion Silva for the Jekyll and Hyde transformation in the cage.
"I am the toughest registered nurse on the planet right now," Nover said triumphantly after choking out Dave Kaplan in little more than a minute.
The TV show has changed Nover in other ways. Prior to the finale, he left his ER job for a part-time nursing position in less stressful surroundings to allow him to train more. And since the loss to Escudero, he has rented out his home and moved in with his mother so he can focus completely on fighting.
"It's definitely a spartan lifestyle . . . it's basically just been the life of a fighter - eat, sleep, train. Eat, sleep, train," he said.
A lot of that training has involved wrestling. Nover's background is classic martial arts. He never really wrestled until he got on the show.
"All I've been thinking about is wrestling. Night and day, working on my wrestling and how to counter a wrestler," he said.
While Nover has remained with his longtime coaching team, he also spent a week in Miami training with Nogueira and a week in Las Vegas training with the likes of Junie Browning, Sam Stout and Tyson Griffin at Xtreme Couture.
He's hoping the hard work will help him reintroduce himself to the UFC.
"I really want to show what my capability is, that I definitely deserve to be in the UFC. I'm a UFC-calibre fighter and I've definitely earned my right there and I'm going to prove it on the 23rd."
Nover didn't help his cause against Escudero, rushing in and looking to land big blows. Escudero ducked under most of the blows and grabbed his opponent.
"I definitely overcommitted and got way too eager to land big power shots. I fed into his game plan. I overcommitted to my punches, he ducked right under it, timed it properly . . . But I just was outstrategized. I came out there, I thought, a little too confident in myself, wanted to bash his head in and it didn't happen."
Nover is not the type to give up, however. He was passed over for Seasons 2 and 7 of the show and had to impress during open tryouts for Season 8. A former weightlifter, he weighed as much as 200 pounds in his late teens. Now he walks around at 170, cutting to 155 to fight.
And he is determined to learn from his errors against Escudero.
"I guess the best teacher is experience," he said. "A year ago, nobody had even heard of my name - even when I got on the show, everybody thought I was at the bottom of the skill level."
Nover is also not going to make the mistake of underestimating Bradley, who is 0-2 in the UFC after losses to Chris Lytle at 170 pounds and Joe Lauzon at 155.
The record is a little misleading, however. Bradley (13-6-1) was fighting out of his weight class and with an injured knee when he took on the free-swinging Lytle at UFC 81. His knee locked up seconds into the bout and Lytle finished him off in 33 seconds.
Lauzon stopped him at 1:34 of the second round last September.
"He's going to go to the death basically," Nover said. "This is his last shot in the UFC, if he doesn't impress Dana White and if he doesn't impress the crowd."
