Episode 5 should be called "Trimming the fat". In all honesty, as a team we tried our best to ensure that Gabe didn’t miss weight. We were constantly hounding Gabe about watching his diet more and working out harder. There is a saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. In this case, we could lead Gabe down the path to making weight but we couldn’t get him to stop eating. Gabe would have a "healthy" dinner of salad and bell peppers while we ate Pasta at night after training, and he would be miserable about it but he would be doing what he needed. However, later on he would be snacking on things, or just pounding bowls of cereal. You can’t do the diet correctly some of the time, and then forget about it later. Everyone on Team Penn knew that Gabe was way overweight, but he constantly assured us he would make the weight. It got to a point where we couldn’t do anything else, and had to just hope that Gabe could deliver on what he was promising. Missing weight would not only affect him, but it also affected fight picks.

We all knew about the show months before we left home. We only had a few weeks notice to know if we were 100% on, but we knew that the opportunity was there and we were expected to be in fight shape and ready to go if needed. Everyone else in the house did what they needed, and made weight. Gabe couldn’t have been dieting, or else he wouldn’t have come into the show so heavy. He had gone to Thailand for a few weeks before the show, and blamed his weight on eating horribly over there, but thats not an excuse. You either find a way to eat healthy, or you don’t go. It wasn’t the first time Gabe had been to Thailand, so not knowing isn’t an excuse. So he really dropped the ball before we were even in the house, because he willingly put himself at a huge disadvantage.

Once in the house, we knew from day 1 his weight was an issue. Someone having trouble with their weight should be doing cardio every single day, and doing whatever was needed to get into shape. We would be in the gym drilling and working out, and he would be walking on the treadmill. Other times, he would miss practices to go and get colonics. Gabe didn’t lose any real weight when he went for the colonic. He would be a pound or so lighter, and then put it back on the next day. Gabe said he found out after he missed weight that getting a colonic can cause dehydration, so that would explain him floating off a pound or two and then putting it back on. So the colonics didn’t make him lose any weight, he missed practices, was sodomized by a tube and was rewarded with a burning diarrhea sensation. He did this 3 times.

On top of slacking in the gym, Gabe should have been following a strict diet because if you don’t make the weight, it doesn’t matter how you perform or how you feel, you don’t get to fight. Brandon Melendez is huge for 155, but he still made the weight because he would do whatever was needed both in the gym and in the kitchen. Brandon was starving himself and absolutely miserable to make the weight, but he manned up and got it done. I am lucky where I know my body well enough that I could make weight in 24 hours notice with ease regardless of what I was eating. I could get away with eating some less than healthy food like ice cream cake (my favorite) and other things. Gabe wasn’t in such a situation, and should have been staying clear of anything like that, but he was still eating ice cream cake, cookies and whatever else. At another point a couple weeks into the show, he got up to 178 pounds because of all the Sushi he ate. He had a couple weeks to really diet and get his weight under control, and there he was higher than ever. Of course he wasn’t losing the weight when you don’t have self control.

The actual weight cut process was a brutal at the end, for both Gabe and us. I used to cut down to 145 pounds, and can honestly say it was the worst thing I have ever experienced. Nobody likes cutting, but you have a target weight and you don’t stop until you meet that goal. Talk to serious college wrestlers, and they will have horror stories about cutting weight and passing in the sauna. When I was cutting to 145 I would be going to sleep laying in the fetal position and shivering as I went to bed. Its that bad. We didn’t honestly know if Gabe even wanted to make the weight, and we still don’t know for sure. Gabe said from the beginning he was there to get all the camera time he could get, and he succeeded in that. In the scheming though, I think he forgot all about the reason he was there, and that was to fight. Did Gabe ever want to make the weight at all? Or maybe he was just trying to ensure his cut to 155 was dramatic and then everyone would be talking "Gabe is the man, he was way overweight but he cut it all and manned up". To be perfectly honest with you, we were completely unsure as a team. Maybe he never had any intention of fighting at all. The last few hours before missing weight, were filled with drama. You only get to see bits and pieces, but the day was filled with Gabe complaining to leave the sauna, falling over weak, falling of the bike in the sauna, telling us to put him back in the sauna while refusing to get off the ground on his own as he cried that he needed our help and of course lounging by poolside au naturale. Gray was a great team mate and was trying to help him with the cut. He was ready to help Gabe from the first minute that we knew Gabe was fighting, but Gabe had it all under control. Gray went above and beyond what Gabe deserved, and showed why he was a captain of his wrestling team.

In the end, Gabe missed the weight. I’m sure he pissed off a lot of people as officials were brought in for a fight that didn’t happen. Both teams met at the gym and Dana told Gabe how much of an opportunity he screwed up, and sent him home. Team Penn is down to 7 members. The part that was aired was just a tiny sliver of what Dana said. Dana’s attention was focused on Gabe and as I stood next to him, I wanted to cry. You know that feeling you get when you were a little kid and you just know you did something really wrong and are caught? Yea… it was that feeling.

Rob Emerson really impressed Dana though in his loss to Nate Diaz, so he had been brought back into the tournament. Dana gave Team Pulver 24 hours to choose the next two fights. The following day, we found out that I will be fighting against Brian Geraighty, and Corey Hill will be fighting Rob. So we will have not 1 but 2 fights next week.

This may seem a little harsh on Gabe, but I’m not going to pull any punches. Gabe went in there and was willing to do anything to get some attention, well he is certainly getting it.