For much of the first round against Jorge Masvidal on September 5, 2003, Rolando Delgado was having things his way. He was fighting well, fighting smart, and as the opening round neared to a close, he was feeling good about his prospects of winning the fight.
Then disaster struck.
An asthmatic, the 21-year old Delgado gasped for air as he suffered an attack just before the bell sounded. He would eventually get things under control enough where he could answer the bell for round two, but for all intents and purposes, he was done. 2:14 into the second stanza, Masvidal made it official as he stopped Delgado.
What had started as a promising career for Delgado - who was unbeaten as an amateur and in his first three pro fights before a three bout losing streak that culminated in the loss to Masvidal put him at the .500 mark – now was at its lowest point.
“I was emotionally crushed,” he recalled. “I was an undefeated amateur, I had won three fights in a row as a pro. I even went to England and won. I didn’t know what losing was like, and I dropped three in a row and it just broke me. I continued to train, but not with the same intensity. It was a very dark time for me.”
Delgado participated in grappling tournaments here and there, but as far as fighting was concerned, he wouldn’t set foot in a ring or cage for almost two years. When he did finally return in 2005, it was as an older, wiser, and more focused athlete who got his asthma under control and who was ready to make another run at things. The only problem this time was geographical, as he hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, hardly a hotbed for MMA.
But Delgado battled on, going 4-0-1 in the two years after he returned. By now he was running his own school, married, and perhaps resigned to the fact that the UFC wasn’t likely to start recruiting in Little Rock for its lightweight division. But The Ultimate Fighter show didn’t care where you came from as long as you passed your tryout and fit the bill that the producers were looking for. Delgado found his opening and worked his way in. But his reason for wanting to enter the world of reality television differed from that of many of his peers.
“Being a student of the game, I saw it as an opportunity, not just to win a contract, but to train with some of the best guys in the world for six weeks uninterrupted,” he said. “Where else can you have a situation like that? You have bills to pay, you have to pay rent, you’ve got to keep the lights on, so the opportunity to get better and to be exposed to world-class coaches was a real motivation for me. The cameras in my face were just something I had to deal with in order to get those benefits and being on TV didn’t mean anything to me. I’m already married.”
All of a sudden, Arkansas had a representative fighting for a spot in the UFC.
“The truth of the matter is, I got a lottery ticket, as Joe Silva puts it, and he’s exactly right,” said Delgado, 27. “Otherwise, I would never have an opportunity like I have now. And there are tons of tough guys all over the country, and some of them just don’t have the connections and they’re not hooked in to the right people. It’s hard to get exposure from Arkansas.”
By the time the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter had ended, the San Diego-born, Philadelphia-raised Delgado had done his adopted state proud. No, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt didn’t win his two bouts on the show (after his initial loss to George Roop he was brought back due to an injury suffered by Brian McLaughlin), but in his close three round defeat to Junie Browning, he proved himself. Sure, the standup wasn’t crisp and he didn’t use his ground game, but in a dogfight, he showed the heart that separates the men from the boys in this game.
It was enough to garner Delgado an invite to Saturday’s TUF8 finale at The Palms in Las Vegas to take on John Polakowski. Suffice to say that he has no regrets about his six weeks on the show.
“I learned a ton about myself as a fighter,” he said. “I’ve made countless changes since the show that I may not have ever made had I not been put in the spotlight, and the positives far outweighed the negatives and there were thousands of guys that would have been willing to take my place, so I’m very thankful that I had the opportunity.”
Now it’s time for him to take advantage of another one this weekend.
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