QUEBEC -- Theres been more than a little Australian-Canadian diplomacy since filming ended on The Ultimate Fighter Nations. Once on different sides of the reality TV show, Australian welterweight (Filthy) Richard Walsh trained with Canadian coach Patrick (The Predator) Cote. Heck, the Aussie spent the last week staying chez Cote. "Ive got a lot of time for him. Hes such a good guy," Walsh said of Cote. "Super super nice guy," said Cote. The two, along with fellow Canadian cast member Elias (The Spartan) Theodorou, also went to Thailand to train. "Hes my bestie, man," said the affable Theodorou. After spending six weeks with the 15 other fighters during filming in a lodge in the woods about an hour outside of Montreal late last year, Walsh is happy to be back in Canada. "I love this place," he said. "People are so friendly. And I like to see snow now and then. We dont get that in Australia." He saw plenty of snow during filming of the TV show, which wrapped in December. And he got a little more this weekend as winter refused to leave the Quebec capital. Fans who tune in to Wednesdays TUF Nations finale card will see Walsh sporting his impressive fight beard. The Aussie shaved it off on the TV show after losing his semifinal bout to Canadian Olivier Aubin-Mercier. He has no regrets about his time on the show. "For me, losing wasnt such a bad thing," he said. "Im back here. Im in the finale. This is the best thing thats happened to me in my life." The winners of the shows welterweight and middleweight divisions will be decided Wednesday in all-Canadian finals at the Colisee Pepsi. Aubin-Mercier faces Chad (The Disciple) Laprise at 170 pounds while Theodorou takes on Sheldon Westcott. The winners will be the first Canadians to be crowned The Ultimate Fighter. Cote was a finalist on Season 4 back in 2006, when he lost to Travis Lutter. The 25-year-old Walsh, meanwhile, takes on Australian teammate Chris (The Savage) Indich (6-1). After filming finished on the show, Walsh (7-1) went back to Australia and chilled. "I took a month off, had a few beers," he explained. "Kind of took it easy around Christmas and New Years." Thinking he might get a slot on the finale card, he returned to the gym and started training. Finding out that he was fighting a fellow Aussie hasnt fazed him. "I love the guy, hes great guy, hes done a lot for Australian MMA," Walsh said. "But I dont have any problem punching him in the face. Because on the night, were not really going to be mates. Were fighting for our future." Walsh watched the show, saying he had no issues with how he was portrayed other than he has a better sense of humour than the show suggested. "Ill take it," he said. "They didnt make me look bad." And while he had no problem seeing himself on TV, he said he didnt like hearing himself. "Watching yourself, you see yourself in the mirror every day," he said. "Unless you dont like looking at yourself and then maybe youve got a few problems. But listening to yourself, thats something you dont get a chance to do often, so that was a bit of a wig-out." Walsh, who lives in Sydney, said life has not changed much for him since taking part in the show. He attributes that to MMA still facing an uphill battle in Australia. "Im hoping guys like myself, Chris can kind of grow that sport because in the last five years its kind of taken a spiral downwards from what it was when I first started." Australia, he says, needs top-flight fighters like Canada has had in Georges St-Pierre and Rory MacDonald. Walsh has other options than fighting for a living. He studied construction property at the University of New South Wales, finishing his degree at Georgia Tech and started studying law in Australia before quitting a semester later to pursue fighting. A year later, the former rugby player was on the UFC TV show. "For me its not about the money," he said. "Its like the furthest thing from the money and the glory and stuff. Its just something I like doing and I set a goal long ago that this was something and Ive kind of followed through on that. "Ive had to kind of buck a lot of trends, parents telling me I should get a job and all that kind of stuff. Because I come from a good family, good parenting, good education. So this was harder for me I think in a lot of ways than it was if I didnt have the choice. I had so many other things I could have been doing: making money, using my degree, travelling ... but I chose this path. "It was a little bit harder I think, but its a lot more fulfilling." Having made it onto a UFC card has proved to family and friends that his dream was worth chasing, he said. Patrick Ewing Jersey . Tampa Bay Buccaneers RB Doug Martin broke the news that hes cleared for full activity moving forward. Avery Johnson Jersey . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a course-record 10-under 62 on Wednesday to take the first-round lead in the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. https://www.supersonicsjerseys.com/540s-jeff-green-jersey-supersonics.html . In this space, I will be writing new and unique pieces about the team that you wont be able to find anywhere else. So naturally, in an attempt to come up with a fresh topic about the Ottawa Senators, I am going to start with a piece about their goaltending. Eddie Johnson Jersey .What they got was a bevy of players chipping in to pick up the slack.Josh Smith scored 18 points and James Harden added 17 as the Rockets used a balanced scoring effort to outlast the Mavericks for a 99-94 victory. Dick Snyder Jersey . TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie tweeted that its believed the Flames are working towards a new contract with the defenceman. LOS ANGELES -- Jeff Hornacek and Doc Rivers played against each other for 13 seasons in the NBA. This was the first time they matched up as head coaches in a game that counted, and Hornaceks Phoenix Suns gave the Los Angeles Clippers a not-so-subtle reminder of how quickly turnovers can turn into fast-break points. Goran Dragic had 26 points and eight assists before sitting out the fourth quarter, Gerald Green added 21 points off the bench, and the Suns ended the year with a 107-88 rout of the Clippers on Monday night. The Clippers went up against a team that began the day averaging a league-best 19.1 fast-break points, and allowed 18 for the game. Phoenix scored the first nine points, seven off three Clippers turnovers. The Suns converted 20 turnovers into 20 points overall, including a three-point play by Dragic that gave them a 45-34 lead with 4:55 left in the first half. "This is our game. We try to play a fast, up-tempo game, and I think things are going to be much better if you play like that," Dragic said. "Playing a half-court game is really tough for us, so we have to push the ball and try to get everybody involved. And when we get into the open court, we have all those open shooters." The Suns have won 10 of their last 12 after a 9-9 start and trail the defending Pacific Division champion Clippers by a half-game for the top spot. "It was a huge win for us, especially in L.A.," Dragic said. "We knew it was going to be a hard game. Theyre a really good team, a playoff team, and they have a lot of stars. So our job was to play them strong -- especially in the first half -- and force them to play our rhythm. We did a good job of that." Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford each scored 15 points for Los Angeles, while Chris Paul had 11 points and seven assists. It was the most lopsided loss of the season for the Clippers, who beat the Suns the previous three times they hosted them -- by an average margin of 20 points. "I think we did a good job of being really unselfish and looking for each other," said Channing Frye, who put the clamps on Griffin following his 40-point effort over Utah on Saturday night. "We had 26 assists, so we did a better job of pushing the pace and executing. Its not like were shooting off the wall, but guys are taking the right shots most of the time.ddddddddddddHopefully we can remember how hard we played tonight and can continue that into the new year so we can stay in that groove were in." The Suns were 12 for 31 on 3-pointers against the Clippers, who came in with the leagues best defence against 3-point shooting (32.7 per cent). Dragic, who averaged only 9.2 points in his 17 previous games against the Clippers, powered the Suns to a 61-40 halftime lead with 20 points. Green added 14 in the second quarter, including a trio of 3-pointers that helped fuel a 16-4 run in the final 4:08 of the half. "We have a tendency every once in a while to go into a lull and give up some easy baskets, but tonight I thought we were really alert," Hornacek said. "When they rolled to the basket, we were there to help. And when they kicked it out, the guys were rotating. We just challenged every shot, and they didnt have a lot of easy shots." Los Angeles got no closer than 16 in the second half. Griffin and Paul both sat out the fourth quarter with the Clippers trailing 88-59 through three. "They just kept pushing it at us," Paul said. "On a night like this when our offence isnt going, we have to be able to rely on our defence. Tonight we couldnt. I dont think they caught us off guard. We knew how they were going to play. They hit us in the mouth early, and they just dominated us through and through. Luckily it only counts as one loss." Eric Bledsoe, who came in as Phoenixs leading scorer with an 18.4 average, played his first game against the team he spent his first four NBA seasons with and finished with seven points and four assists in 31 minutes. NOTES: This will be the first time in franchise history that the Clippers make it to New Years Day without a losing streak of more than two games in a full season. ... Griffin has drawn a league-high 123 fouls. The Suns fouled him six times. ... None of the Clippers other 11 losses were by more than 14 points. ... Los Angeles C DeAndre Jordan played 21 scoreless minutes in the first half with 12 rebounds. He finished with two points and 19 boards. ... The Clippers took their only lead, 14-13, on a pair of free throws by Griffin. ' ' '