He was one of the few consistently interesting characters that emerged during this season of The Ultimate Fighter: U.K. versus USA. Damarques Johnson's fighting spoke volumes and he was the one guy unaffected by team loyalties when it came to speaking his mind. If you annoyed Johnson, he said it on camera. That drove some of his American teammates to say that Johnson was constantly seeking out the red light:

"I didn't go on that show to become a rock star," Johnson told Cagewriter. "I was just going out there and being myself. If they liked it, they liked it. If they didn't like it, then [expletive] them."

Johnson got a lot of television time for being a lightning rod, but the fighting always came first:

"I came in with the mindset, 'don't lose sight of why you're here' and that was to fight people."

Watch Johnson talk about his time on TUF 9 and his upcoming fight tonight against James Wilks:

Johnson said Wilks is arrogant and that much of the Brit's demeanor never came out on the show. Wilks is a 31-year-old jiu-jitsu black belt but Johnson doesn't sound intimidated.

"He's not fighting Frankie (Lester), he's fighting me," Johnson said, referencing two wins over the same fighter that helped Wilks reach this welterweight final. "I present a whole different set of problems. James fights the (same) style of fight that I fight but I think I do that better than he does."

The weight cut and the prefight in Las Vegas was smooth for Johnson except for one minor issue ... traveling from Salt Lake, he forgot to pack underwear. Johnson and a UFC staffer had to make an impromptu trip on Wednesday to a local Walmart to make sure the 500 fans in attendance two days later at the Palms' Key West Ballroom didn't get their first look at a commando weigh-in.