TUF V: The Thread

[Lord of The Curry 0]

This show is doing absolute shit in the ratings. Dana's gotta be pissed considering the amount of "Best season EVER" hype he put into promoting it.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I think word of mouth will bring it up to about 1.5 in a few weeks and it may finish with a 1.7. I'd say 1.3 is a base number and I don't see them going lower. They've done a better, Season 3-esque job in building personalities and feuds and that will pay off as the season progresses. The Gabe storyline is similar to Ed Hermans, where they would constantly mention the possibility of him fighting, but then deliver someone else, and it got to the point to where when he did fight, there was interest in it.

 

Also, I think a big reason for TUF 1 and 3's big ratings is because of the coaches - 4 of the biggest draws in UFC history, whereas 2 and 4 were not.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

From Lil Jens:

 

 

The action and tension didn't let up on this week's episode of The Ultimate fighter season 5. Now see what head coach Jens Pulver has to say about it all in his exclusive InsideFighting Coach's episode reaction blog. -editor

 

On Cole Miller’s emotional and tearful reaction to his victory from last week’s episode.

 

Cole was emotional. I said right away after that that there would be no more running to the locker room after fights and stuff but it was ok. I saw what he was going through. He was putting a lot of pressure on himself, and I saw that afterwards. I got to see how he does things, how he carries so much on himself. I know what he does to himself pressure wise and of course I told him that I was proud of him. Throughout the season, Cole will show you what he does in terms of his character, and I was happy to have him around. After that win I was happy for him because he got to sit back after that and relax for a little while.

 

On the “championship” belt Cole had strapped around his waist after his win.

 

Well what it was was a belt that the guys designed as something to pass between the two teams, with whoever has won the fight getting to wear it. I didn’t know they had made that until they gave it to Cole. There may have been a couple guys from the blue team as well who helped make it, I can’t remember.

 

I took one look at the thing and said, G_d you guys must be bored in that house! It had rhinestones, or “bling”, on it, maybe it was left over from Shonie (TUF4 contestant Shonie Carter, who was known to “bling” up hats and clothing with Swarovski Crystals), I don’t know. There was a blue part and a gold part, one for each team, on the belt, and whenever a team won they got a piece of “bling” on their team’s part of the belt. Obviously whoever had the most on their part at the end…you get the picture.

 

More results of the fighters being “bored” at the house

 

That stuff with the shield and the girls and the horses, I was just laughing. My guys told me a lot of what went on at the house and I was just laughing. I mean, the whole set up with the reality show and the house and the cameras in your face was to drive you nuts. My guys were allowed to do what ever they had to do to survive in the house. If they had to get down, then they had to get down.

 

“Suck it Team Pulver”

 

The next morning my team told me about it. At the time, I didn’t know if it was directed at me personally or my team. I was hoping it was directed at me because I can take it. But first and foremost, my team countered and wrote “F_ck Team Penn”.

 

But the bottom line is that I made a team that had “nothing to do”, like BJ said” with Team Penn, and look at the war it caused. And the other team wasn’t ready for it.

 

When Nate, then Brandon and then Manny got hyped up after seeing the writing, Team Penn bailed. They wouldn’t stick together. You could tell my team rallied around each other and got nuts.

 

And then look at what was happening with Team Penn behind the scenes with Gabe and Matt. I didn’t even know that they were having issues within their own team at the time but it just goes to prove that it takes more than an arm bar to be a f_cking coach. Some of those guys were wowed by BJ because they think that he could show them so much. Fine. And they thought I couldn’t show them much. Fine.

 

He might have great moves but that don’t make d_ck of a fighter or of a coach. That’s what makes Pat Miletich so damn special because he was a champion as a fighter and a great coach. I tried to learn from him. I may not be the guy out there and though you think he’s got all these things to show you and you don’t think I do, it takes more than technique to make you a great fighter.

 

BJ tried to say at the UFC Fight Night last week, “I never disrespected Jens and his coaching.” Yes he did. That’s exactly what he does. It’s all on tape. And then your next big tactic is to write on the walls? Please.

 

He tried to pull that stuff the first episode with the raising hands stuff and then again with Emerson calling out Corey. I knew right away that it was a tactic to throw us off.

 

I didn’t know that BJ had given Emerson a note, we found out because Emerson told us later that BJ told him to do that, but I knew it was a tactic. It almost worked but come on, do you think I’m an idiot?

 

Corey is a loose cannon and I had to stop him and say, “look, let’s go through the process.” We had all of our fights picked out before the first fight even happened. It’s a game and the beautiful thing about it all was that we got to pick the match up and then choose who would cut weight and train specifically for that fight because we knew who would be fighting.

 

I had confidence in all of my team but I knew that Corey would just charge out there at that time. The funny thing is that BJ thought that (Emerson vs. Corey) would be such a good match up. It’s not to disrespect Emerson, I liked Emerson from the word “go”. I would have loved to of had him on my team. Right off the bat he looked to be in the best shape and I liked him a lot. But I thought that was kind of strange to be so sure about that match up.

 

We knew who we were going to match up. That match up happened because of injuries and weight. Manuel came on to the show with some nagging injuries that were bothering him that he needed to rest. Plus he was on weight and some of our other guys were a little further away from being on weight. So we decided that we wanted to get Manny out there as soon as possible so that he could use the time off afterwards to rest his injuries some.

 

But BJ kept trying to pull all of this stuff and it made me sick because it was a joke. I mean, what are you going to do with all this, make me look like a bitch? Whatever.

 

I’m going to f_cking embarrass you at the end of the day. People have asked me “I don’t know how you stay so calm Jens” but I’m not. I just know that pay back is a motherf_cker. That’s where I’m at and that’s what I tried to communicate to my team.

 

They told me what Team Penn had wrote and they told me everything that happened. Nate got pissed, Manny almost went home. I just told them, that I guess that’s what you have to do when you go 0-1. I told them that the other team was just trying to f_ck all of them up on that stuff.

 

I told them to just go out there and own their assess. To use this anger. BJ helped me.

 

This show was 6 weeks of mind-numbing, excruciating stuff and that disrespect just got my whole team motivated. Now everyone was fired up. There are no phones, no TV, no girls, and they just want to kill team Penn. It made my job twice as easy.

 

“I hate the kid.” –Manuel Gamburyan in his team van on the way to fight Noah Thomas.

 

Aggression is important for me as a fighter and though I think my guys had that in them to begin with, I also think I helped push it. I tried to help feed that anger, sometimes against the wishes of my other coaches, but I did what I could to keep it going.

 

Anger will make some guys go 10 more minutes in practice at 125% and some people get so mad that all they do is bitch and cry about how mad they are. The guys were worried that Manuel wasted energy the night before his fight but there were certain things I looked for, hidden things, quiet things, in my fighters that let me know how they felt.

 

Manuel can grab a hold of that anger. I’m glad that he got fired up like that. You don’t have to walk around and be an ass hole or a criminal or thug, but sometimes being angry can drive you to succeed. It can be good to be angry sometimes.

 

Manuel came up to me straight up and said “I am pissed.” And I told him and the whole team that I couldn’t thank them more for the way they stood up for the team, but we had to put that aside a little. We had to make Team Penn pay on the field, in the ring. We had to put it to them by keeping the hammer and winning every single fight.

 

And he did it. Manuel had made an impression on me long before the fight. I had seen him fight (UFC lightweight champion) Sean Sherk where he was giving up a lot of weight and Sherk did his thing by laying on him and he bored out a win. I’ve watched Manuel roll around backstage at past UFC’s and I knew he was a tough guy. I figured BJ would grab him up. But I didn’t know what a cool guy Manuel was.

 

He was just a perfect person. I still talk to him today. I had never got to know him personally until this show and I’m glad that I did. He’s a funny som’ bitch.

 

And I saw what I needed to from Manuel the day of his fight. He was a little too angry, but he was still smart. We had drilled not attacking in that cage straight on, but instead cutting your angle, cutting a corner. But you have to understand that Manuel had energy pent up for two years and he unleashed it all in the cage. He was trying to throw bombs and hurt the guy.

 

After the fight he said “Enough of this f_cking shit. No more disrespecting Team Pulver.” He told that to everyone watching, both teams, around the cage.

 

I don’t know if it was deliberate from the producers, divine intervention, say what you will, but I’ve said over and over that I could never of picked a better team. I could not have gotten a better class of personalities, backgrounds everything. Everyone and everything, who the fighters were and my coaches melded perfectly. Whether or not I was the key ingredient in all of that, all of us were the key ingredient at one point or another.

 

2-0 baby!

 

That’s it for this week’s Coach episode blog. Make sure to tell your friends and check back with us every Thursday night right after The Ultimate Fighter for Jens’ reaction and remember, InsideFighting gets you the scoop.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

This show is doing absolute shit in the ratings. Dana's gotta be pissed considering the amount of "Best season EVER" hype he put into promoting it.

I don't think Dana will worry too much about the ratings. I think the show itself, while doing good ratings would be nice, is more of a long term investment in getting over Pulver and Penn for their fight, and getting over the personalities of the main fighters, including the winner, who come out of the show. As long as the finale does great numbers, and the winner and other fighters from the show get over to the fans, then the numbers needn't be too much of a concern.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

I think the auidence will grow as the season comes along.

[KingPK 0]

Hasn't every season of TUF started slow?

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Season Three, IIRC, did very well right out of the gate.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

They had big draws for coaches.

 

Season One coaches became big draws AFTER the show, so it is possible for it to progress and get good ratings, as long as it is good television, which this season is.

[Mik 0]

I'm going to miss Noah's Owen Wilson-esque interviews. Honestly, I felt like Hansel was talking in some of his clips.

 

"I'm not going to get worked up. I'm here to fight and if it doesn't work... I don't know."

 

"I spent the past few years trying to get to the UFC. Now that I'm here I have to go home. I don't even know where I belong anymore."

 

"He hates me. I don't hate anyone. Sure, I don't like a few guys but hate's an awfully strong word." ... and then he pursed his lips.

 

Hansel or Roy O'Bannon but definitely Owen Wilson.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

"When I was in Thailand I did it"

 

- Gabe with the quote of the show.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

And they really need to do a show called "Nate Diaz Hates Everybody". Where they put Nate in various situations and he talks about how he hates all the people around him. Put him in a retirement home, a daycare, fast food restaurant... and then watch him HATE.

 

I like how Tony and BJ are feigning ignorance of colonics. We know you know you crazy guys.

 

Cory freakin out is fucking hilarious.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

There is no way Cory fights any time soon. They are Hamilling him.

 

Are they using porn music?

[razazteca 0]

Cory is one crazy character! This whole deal about Gabe and his colonic is something that shouldn't be on tv really that is worse than having people puke on camera.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

"You know what, anything goes here"

 

"What I'm looking for is a mudslide"

 

"You're pretty excited about this"

 

Gabe leaving violated.

 

Jens laughing like a school boy.

 

No Beef.

 

"My therapist tells me you don't get the REAL effects until the second one"

 

"I'm chillin, I like to smile and laugh"

"Nothin against a gay dude, if you're gay you're gay, but these guys aren't gay but they're actin gay"

[jwpeer 0]

This season is just pure entertainment.

 

 

I also love Horn just salivating over Corey Hill, he was talking about him like he was a prize steer or something, it was hilarious.

[Lei Tong 0]

This season is just pure entertainment.

 

 

I also love Horn just salivating over Corey Hill, he was talking about him like he was a prize steer or something, it was hilarious.

 

Horn has to work with guys like Wiuff, Riggs & Whiteman. Of course anyone with a pulse will grab his attention.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Nate just walking up and pointing without saying a thing was boss.

 

"He's the one who thinks he's hardier"

 

Hardier?

 

"The Diaz Brothers are angry at everyone"

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Good first round. Nate was effectively countering Emersons punches while Emerson was blocking the takedown well. Both guys got tagged, but I think Nate landed more and better shots and he was much more aggressive so I give the round to him.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Nate is like a poor mans Aoki with his grapplearts.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Nate is PWNING Emerson. Jesus fucking Christos. That was awesome.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Nate wasn't very explosive aggressive, he was very relaxed fighting even when he was putting pressure on Emerson, and I think that's what ultimately did it. I have no idea what kind of style that is, but it's effective. It's pressure without pressure, or something. The opponent does most of the work when they fight tense and you fight relaxed and they gas and you don't.

[jwpeer 0]

Nate definitely showed off a good wide-range submission game there. Emerson just like he said looked -exhausted-

 

That's a common trend with these ultimate fighter fights is often guys who are probably in good shape are just -tired- from training -hard- every single day right up to fight day. Not really a good way to prepare. But he showed some skills.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Countdown thoughts:

 

PRIDE!~ Footage!

 

IGOR KNOCKOUT! SILVA KNOCKOUT!

 

FEDOR!!!!!!!! On UFC TV.

 

Already the PRIDE acquisition has paid off.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Maybe Lei can shed some light on this, but from what I've seen of Gonzaga, how is he going to hold Mirko down even if he gets the takedown? He seemed to have problems with top control from the fights that I have seen, where the guy would just get back up. Now, this was a high level BJJ guy, but Cro Cop ain't no slouch.

[Lei Tong 0]

Napao's top control looks shaky mainly because he's almost constantly looking to do something else, whether it be advancing position, throwing strikes or slapping on a submission. A more steady approach would probably benefit him against Filipovic, but Napao has as wide a selection of submissions as anyone at HW (even if he can't finish that arm-triangle to save his life), and stands a good chance of catching Mirko in transition on the mat.

 

However, despite having something of a good style to match-up with Mirko, he's still a bit too raw for the fight at this point.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Jesus Fudge, of all the matches, the Lyoto/Heath build was by far the best. God I want to see that fight. Also, did he say "Fiscally" or "Physically"?

 

And they needed to have someone else mirror Lyoto on the beach. Like Chuck Norris or something.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

"I ain't no bitch"

 

DIAZ

[Mik 0]

And they really need to do a show called "Nate Diaz Hates Everybody". Where they put Nate in various situations and he talks about how he hates all the people around him. Put him in a retirement home, a daycare, fast food restaurant... and then watch him HATE.

 

Ok, this cracked me up. It's so true.

 

Dana was right. The Diaz brothers hate everybody.

[starvenger 0]

Nate definitely showed off a good wide-range submission game there. Emerson just like he said looked -exhausted-

 

That's a common trend with these ultimate fighter fights is often guys who are probably in good shape are just -tired- from training -hard- every single day right up to fight day. Not really a good way to prepare. But he showed some skills.

It shows the importance of the hammer. Maybe it's only one extra training session to get the fighter prepared, but because of all the training, that could be a huge advantage.

 

I was impressed by Emerson's takedown defence. It took 3/4 of the fight for Nate to take him down despite trying several different styles. And then he made Nate work for the submission. I gotta think that his performance has earned him first alternate status thus far.

 

As for "Diaz Hates Everybody", they should include Manny as a running buddy, just in case things aren't crazy enough.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

One episode can be "Nate Diaz works for Mannys Family"

 

Nate: "Yeah so Manny invited me over to his hood for some stuff or somethin, and I said sure cause Manny was cool and shit and I show up at his uncles restaurant and there's, like, 5 old dudes sittin at a table in the corner talkin with a bunch of money on the table and shit and some fag comes up to me and tells me to work in the kitchen and I Aint No Bitch so I said I'd fight him on the spot and then one old dude gestured to another table and a bunch of other fags in suits got up as if they were strapped and I said I'd fight them too, cause guns ain't shit to Nate Diaz. So just when I was going to fight everybody, Manny shows up to clear things up. They thought I was the fuckin busboy, man."