It seems counter-intuitive given most fighters would give an arm or leg for a shot on the show that's launched countless UFC careers and championship reigns. However, like his style in the octagon, there was method to the 28-year-old's madness

Episode one of the iconic reality TV series showed UFC featherweight king Alex Volkanovski's rival Brian Ortega telling his inner sanctum that Turcios was "in his own world."

It was by design. After a hell-for-leather effort in his workout for Volkanovski, Turcios let the reigning champ know, in no uncertain terms, that he desperately wanted a spot on his team.

"I was glad that I took it upon myself to go up to Volk and say 'hey man I really want to be on your team'," Turcios told The Mercury ahead of this weekend's TUF finale.

"I kind of slacked off at the Ortega practice hoping they wouldn't want to pick me and went all out at the Volk practice knowing I wanted to be on his team.

"The first reason, obviously, is he's the champion of the world and one of the best of the best. I really liked his style and thought, with what he brought to the table, I could really learn a lot from coach Volkanovski.

"The number two reason was they had the man [BJJ guru] Craig Jones, and I really wanted to learn from him as well. I got to learn from him, coach Joe [Lopez], homeboy Colby [Thicknesse] so I was very thankful I got to be on blue team."

A noted crowd-pleaser, Turcios produced two of the best fights of the series in the prelim and semi-final rounds. His 'freestyle' doesn't share obvious parallels with Volkanovski's meticulous, cerebral approach, but Turcios insists they were on the same page from the outset.

"In the show they said I'm a freestyle fighter and people would say [I have] a wild style," Turcios said.

"I definitely do, but 'freestyle' comes from being well-versed in many different martial arts having done taekwondo, muay thai, jiujitsu, boxing, since I was a young boy.

"Everything's about technique and I pride myself on being technically sound and continuing to grow in all aspects of stand-up and grappling.

"Volk is such an intelligent mind in martial arts. We were only there for a small period of time but, in three weeks we're getting ready for a fight, going into the next fight, making small adjustments we'd literally just learned from Volk and the team.

"They taught us really well and I was happy I was able to apply the information in that short period of time."

From being 0-4 to start, the finale at UFC Fight Night on Sunday morning (Australian time) will be all 'team blue' after Team Ortega's only finalist Tresean Gore was forced to withdraw from his scheduled middleweight showdown with Team Volkanovski's Bryan Battle with injury.

Read more: Volkanovski out to complete TUF sweep in Ortega title showdown

Gilbert Urbina will move into the open middleweight slot, while Turcios and Team Volk stablemate Brady Hiestand booked their place in the bantamweight decider.

It's the very definition of 'mate against mate' but, as Turcios puts it, "that's the game."

"It's a different dynamic," he said.

"We were training together for five weeks and now we've got to fight but, at the end of the day, it's what we signed up for. We're all martial artists.

"Brady and I were great buddies on the show and all the boys on the Volkanovski team became great friends. We have no family, we're in isolation, no contact with the outside world.

"We're sweating together, grinding together, playing cards together, talking about our dreams together, so we all got very close on blue team.

"All respect before and after for me and Brady. I'm very excited to go in there and bang. This is what I was born to do."

While there was little to no animosity across team lines as far as the fighters, relations between coaches Volkanovski and Ortega drifted back and forth from amicable to razor sharp animosity.

Turcios says the rivalry developed a palpable hard edge by the time filming wrapped ahead of their September 26 title showdown.

"There were some heated moments, but there were also times where Volk and Ortega were having fun," Turcios said.

"There was good banter, little pranks. I could feel that [fun] energy and then there were moments where it got serious.

"We did the face-off at the beginning of the season and then they did the face-off at the end of the season and it seemed like there was a visible [shift in] energy between two martial artists.

"It's going to make for a very badass fight. I'm obviously rooting for Volkanovski but it'll be a great fight and great pay-per-view for sure."