Ryan Loder On TUF Finale Matchup With Valentin | UFC Vegas 96

feels good it feels I'm I'm normally sitting on that side watching my teammates so it it's it's a dream come true to be on this side now does this whole fight week feel kind of like a dream or or does it feel like you're here it's reality or does it still kind of feel like not real oh it's definitely real I mean I've like I said I've been on the other side of this so I've seen this over and over and over again and I've played it over in my head and I put myself in this these shoes a lot of times before so um being here on this side it feels it feels natural feels like I'm supposed to be here what was the whole experience like for you on tough it was tough that's for sure um it was great um it put me out of my element put me in a a place that I can grow a lot I think discomfort makes you grow a lot more and I feel like that that was definitely where I was U Valentine showed that she was going to do a fight camp like a real training camp and I I grew a lot from it um most of my stuff comes from more of a wrestling base and hers was a lot of Muay Thai style um getting out of my element fighting people that I might or training with people that I might fight later on and then becoming friends with them and then learning a lot from them off of that um and then being in the Apex Training here uh I mean I I feel at home now I've coached five times here and I've fought a jiu-jitsu tournament or Jiu-Jitsu match here and then I fought twice here and most of them have been successful so I I feel like the Apex is a great place for me to win in that first episode I believe it was the first uh Valentina announced that no water policy and it went viral everyone went crazy what were your thoughts on that um I normally I don't really drink water during practice is not like a big thing for me I I I normally drink a lot of water before practice anyway um and then there was only one time that she said it if people wanted water they could get it and she never was like oh no you can't get water um but most of the people just listened and I didn't get water and it just made you a little bit more mentally tough I think I've been asking all the guys um was there anything that you felt like should have been shown or wish had been shown that didn't get shown on the show I mean there was so much content like we were there for a month had mics on us the entire time um there was a lot more I I think there's a lot more in-depth conversations that we had as teammates that weren't shown um one thing that I did that I really wanted to show was how much breath work and meditation and stretching and like all the extra stuff that helps mentally because I I feel like that um the show like Dana White said is a is a pressure cooker so having journaling um meditating and doing breath work really helped me through that and I think showing that and showing like hey if you're in a tough spot if you're in like a depression or you're you're going through stuff that you need to maybe just take a minute and do some breath work and kind of settle down and get get inside yourself a little bit and I think um being present really helped so I I I wish they showed more of that what was the hardest part for you in the show I think the hardest part was not having my um my my teammates my family and my my coaches around me normally I'm I'm always either texting somebody or on the phone with somebody if I have any doubts or anything like that I have a mental coach that calls me up I have tons of teammates that always make sure that I'm okay and I I do the same for them so there's a huge support system that was taken away when the phones and everything um one part of the show they showed my whole family and it was a hard moment because before that I was I was in the moment like I have to keep a straight face and then I saw all my my family and it was tough to see those people again what do you think of the matchup ahead of you I'm excited for it yeah I feel I feel great for the matchup um they didn't show this either I told Dana White that when he was like okay who who do you want to fight and I said omaron for the first one but all three of them are bad bad matchup for me they're all Strikers and I'm a wrestler I got to dictate where the fight goes and that's that's the the ultimate and uh looking ahead at your potential UFC career what are some immediate goals after this fight I take it one one fight at a time I don't really look at what's next um I feel like that sometimes overwhelms me it's I did it from the very beginning it was I'm going to take one amateur fight and then after that if I feel like it I'm going to take another one and here I am taking another one so uh we'll we'll talk about that when I'm done with this fight and when I get my contract and that's where I I feel about that awesome I'll ask you again on Saturday night sounds great thanks