TUF V: The Thread

[starvenger 0]

There's also need to be an episode where Nick, Nate and Manny beat up Kit Cope and the Wild World of Spike people, just because.

 

(Edit: Crap, I'm talking like Manny now. I need to stop watching the USC)

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

YES!

 

Though, anything with Kit Cope getting hurt is fine by me.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I really dug the archetypes they were running with Emerson and Nate. Diaz, the ugly, angry kid who grew up in a shitty neighborhood with fighting in his soul vs the OC pretty boy who fights because he thinks it's a thing to do. I was going nuts when Nate rolled him into the choke at the very end.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

From Lil Jens via Insidefighting>>

 

Team Pulver is now 3-0 vs. Team Penn. Check out what coach Jens Pulver has to say about this week's episode of The Ultimate Fighter, season 5 (TUF5). From weight cutting, Nate Diaz, Corey Hill and Jeremy Horn, now's your chance to see what Jens thinks about it all.- Editor

 

 

Nate Diaz

 

We had everything laid out as a team in terms of match ups from the beginning. Once we won the first two fights, I told Nate it was time to start cutting weight.

 

I just remember that Nate came up to me and said he wanted to fight Emerson because that’s who was messing with him and that’s who was pissing him off.

 

Nate said on the show that he got the sense that everyone felt Rob was one of the toughest guys. It was just the way Rob came in. He came in looking great, was in shape and really looked like he was going to take the show dead serious. The guy was ripped, he was a little specimen. The kid likes to brawl, he knocked out Chris Brennan. If people didn’t know who Rob was they were about to.

 

I would have loved to have him fight for me. I knew what he could do and I knew what he could do wrong and I could have helped fix it. People knew he would be a tough fight.

 

But Nate went right for him anyway and that’s why I love Nate. We all would have done it. Anybody on the team would have stepped up and fought like Nate.

 

But the thing about Nate though is that he just never cared. You will see it as the season goes on, but he gets put to the test, an attitude test. And he shows that he just wants to be here to fight, be around his team and train and doesn’t care about anything else.

 

He’s a great kid. I never heard a complaint out of him and the only argument he and I ever had was with him asking me if he could run more! I told him, “look just do my workout and if you have energy left I’ll never tell you that you can’t do more.”

 

He always wanted to get his workouts in and he’s just a hard worker. I think the world of him. For me I was real excited because I knew Nick, Nate’s older brother, when he was a kid. We were both with Bob Shamrock, at “Shamrock 2000”, years ago.

 

There was this 15 year old kid that would keep hitting the bag and keep showing up. It was Nick Diaz. Sometimes it was just me and him. Then eventually I left and went to Iowa.

 

When I finally saw Nick again at a UFC years later I didn’t even recognize him, he was a full grown man. He saw me and said “Hey, it’s me Nick”. I thought “Ain’t little Nick no more” and it had been just 5 years.

 

So I’ve always known Nick and when he fights its fun to watch him. When he beat (Pride lightweight champion Takanori) Gomi I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

 

With the show, I was excited like “hey I got the little brother, I get to train him.” And Nate is just like Nick. If they like you they like you. They got to respect you, and got to feel like you respect them.

 

A lot of people say the Diaz brothers because have a bad attitude, but you also have to look at how hard they work. The rest of my team, all they had to do was follow Nate. Nick and Nate might have attitudes but the reality is they back it up with their work. Those guys warm up for fights in their street clothes! I love it.

 

Gabe’s drastic weight cutting measures

 

I knew Gabe was real heavy. He said on the show that he deliberately trained 50% so I wouldn’t pick him, so I wouldn’t think much of him.

 

But whether he did it on purpose or not, it stuck. My opinion of him was that he had no work ethic, and I was not going to be worried about him at all. I don’t care if he fights last. If we keep the hammer, we’ve got no worries.

 

With our team, we weighed in every day. So it was like, now we got two wins, and we know our 4th fight, our 5th fight. I told my guys, “I don’t want weight to be your biggest battle.”

 

And if you haven’t noticed, I got some big guys. Corey Hill is 6’5. My coach Toisei did a great job of checking weight. He fit in real well because he related to every body.

 

Struggling with weight reflects on your work ethic. It says that you don’t have any. You have no desire. If your biggest battle is weight, if you spend every single day worrying about what goes in your stomach, how are you improving?

 

You cannot be here all day every day worrying about weight. If your biggest worry is weight you shouldn’t be in this weight class, you are just a glorified 170-lb fighter trying to get TV time. It’s on your team and on your coaches to keep you on weight.

 

But BJ only has so much power. The fighter has to do it for themselves as well. It’s like a drug addict. They are not going to make it unless they want to. If you lose to skill you can always go back and get better. But if you lose because you are tired or because of weight, then that’s directly on you. There can be no excuse, no reason, no wonder as to why you failed.

 

Time Crunch

 

When you watch the show they show everything happening one after the other, but I would say by this episode about a week and a half had elapsed.

 

This season is a different structure than past seasons, I believe. It’s just one weight class and is a full tournament. The reality was that the biggest gap between fights was a 4-day gap between the start of the whole process and the first fight with Cole Miller. Once the first fight happened there was another fight every three days. The fight announcement happened, then the next day was weigh-ins and the day after was the fight.

 

As a coach you have a lot tugging on you to try and file all these things in at the same time for your team. So the guy that had a fight coming up would have more one on one time with me, just do light grappling. The day of the fight I would let them sleep in, but the night before the guy who was going to fight would still have to come back to practice with the team even though he wasn’t working out. He could just bring a pillow and sit with by the team. For me it was all about “Team, team, team.”

 

Team Pulver Training Routines

 

We practiced for two hours, twice a day with a half hour to allow for putting on training gear and stuff. I got the hours I wanted for my team to practice, and every now and then the teams had to switch times.

 

I really didn’t train much myself. I rolled a little bit and sparred a little but that was it. Now I’m training full 110% for my fight with BJ on June 23rd and I’m so physically beat up and tired.

 

During the show I wanted to be sharp mentally every day for my guys, and I knew if I trained my BUTT off I wouldn’t be there for them. If I did the same workouts as the team I would be the one looking for the easy way out. I wanted to be the guy with the stop watch, running around the cage, fired up mentally and I wouldn’t ever have been able to do both. I knew I had plenty of time for my fight in June.

 

Manuel gave me a couple of BUTT kickings though, and some of the other guys kicked my tail. But it wasn’t Jens Pulver time. I wanted to be mentally ready every single day for them.

 

In between practices and fights I just spent my time at home, resting. I treated it like a training camp in any other sport. I was a coach and didn’t go out or socialize very much. When Jeremy (Horn) came he stayed with me and he would hang out, relax. I didn’t take time to party. I just played my computer games and rested, getting ready for the next day of practice.

 

Surprise coach

 

First I came in there with Kirk White and he’s an Olympic caliber wrestler, very intense very focused. But I knew he was also coaching wrestling at Boise State. And at the time Jeremy came in Kirk had to go back for the Pac-10 tournament. Jeremy also has a gym so I knew he couldn’t be there the whole time either. So we worked it out that we had two coaches rotating. “Tai”, Matt Pena and I were the constants.

 

Jeremy came for 5 days. To me he is one of the greatest fighters of all time. His knowledge of the game is sick. I had just pumped the team with two weeks of wrestling, and now they had one of the best MMA coaches out there. I just did for them what I would do for myself. Jeremy showed me everything and was a big back bone of Miletich Fighting Systems. It was a real good change of pace, he did jump in there and roll with every one.

 

“Who is Jeremy Horn?”-Corey Hill

 

We talked about that and it was funny. During practice Corey was saying “That Jeremy Horn has a lot of knowledge is he for real?”

 

It just showed that this kid is a sponge. He is brand new. When you see him he’s intense because he really is learning a lot of this stuff for the first time. When he looked at you and listened, he really was listening. He wasn’t caught up in the big MMA thing, that Jeremy is a living legend.

 

It was so cool to see Corey fired up like that after talking to Jeremy. He’s new to the game and we were all captivated by the fact that Corey just wanted to learn, all day every day. It’s cool with a guy like that because he has no bad habits.

 

I told him that “you can hit somebody with a jab before they even kick you because of your reach.” He has to learn to use his reach and hurt people with that. That way he could keep his opponent four feet away before he even got into his comfort zone of wrestling. I told him that “when they find out you can wrestle that it’s not so easy to get you down, you will be their worst nightmare.” I can’t wait to see this guy in a year.

 

Nate Diaz vs. Rob Emerson

 

I knew with Emerson that if provoked he’ll throw bombs but if not provoked he would only throw one punch at a time and counterpunch. I wasn’t too worried about his ground game. If I could have coached him, I would have coached him that his biggest opportunities would come in scrambling situations, but I didn’t think he would learn that on the other end.

 

So I knew he would try one big shot, one leg kick at a time. If he’s cornered he will fight his way out of it because he’s got a lot of heart and that’s what made it a great fight. Rob is not going to quit, he’s just not aggressive.

 

I coached my team to crush them with conditioning. To jump on them and just melt them. They were told to expect every fight to go 15 minutes. That’s one of the things I could focus on. I promised my team one thing and that was that “you will not walk into that cage and wonder if your conditioning is better than your opponent.”

 

Like I said, Nate had asked me if he could run more to get in his five miles a day, and I told him, just trust me. Just do my workout and if you have any energy left I will never tell you “no”. After the workouts he said, “no, I’m good.”

 

That work showed. Nate went out there and burned it up. He never slowed down and only got better as the fight went on.

 

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]

That was another fine episode and the fight was great. I was hoping Emerson would get submitted or KO'd and was not disappointed, though it was close to going the distance. As soon as the second round hit the two-minute mark and it was obvious Emerson was gassed out, I was dying for Nate to KO or tap the bitch out.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

I just thought I would let people know, starting next week Corey Hill is going down to the MFS to start training.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Marlon Sims talking in the first person.

 

Gabe is tremendous.

[jwpeer 0]

I love their vote of the day.

 

"Is Marlon Sims full of it or telling the truth."

[razazteca 0]

Matt Hughes should be a regular for every season of TUF!

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

3 out of 5 ain't bad.

 

Hughes must've been so happy that he beat BJ so he can now talk trash on him again.

 

Brandon is the mexican T-bag.

 

This is the first time I've heard a lot of these guys talk.

 

"I love it, Wang"

 

God BJ, do you have to feed into it?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

AAAAAH!

 

Wang broke my Cliche-meter, I HAD JUST BOUGHT IT!

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Wang is balls.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Looks like Wang is having a problem penetrating.

[vivalaultra 0]

Oh my God, BJ Penn talking shit about Wang's shitty fighting and fake crying is the greatest Ultimate Fighter moment this week. And in the previews for next week, it looks like De Souza flips out and Crazy Cory finally gets a fight. Sweet.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Ironically, Wang sucks.

 

BJ laughing at Wang crying and then bitching at him is classic. He knew that Matt Hughes was in the area and felt like he had to be a bigger dick.

 

DESOUZA!!

 

OH SHIT GABE vs. COREY. They rarely ever announce fights ahead of time.

[jwpeer 0]

Man. Andy is just like Jorge from before. jiujutsu guy who thinks it's 'tough' to sit there and lose in a brawl.... only he's a TERRIBLE brawler.

 

Just pisses me off.

[Rendclaw 0]

All Wang jokes aside, I can understand why BJ was frustrated. How in fucking hell do you have a black belt in BJJ and not use one bit of it in a fight?!?!?

 

And even if Gabe makes weight, Corey is going to fucking DESTROY him.

[AmericanDragon 0]

Wang is just pathetic.

[jwpeer 0]

Gabe is going to lose against Corey...if nothing else he's going to have nothing left from cutting all that weight.

 

He's a freaking 175 fighter...not a 155 fighter...I hate that shit.

[AmericanDragon 0]

Watch Ruediger easily beat Corey next week.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Wang is just pathetic.

 

Completely ineffective. He wasn't in form, not firm at all in the strategy laid out. Flaccid, even. His only success was in making huge mistakes. Boners, even.

[jwpeer 0]

I'm sure he could tap him out, he seems like a crafty asshole type. Which is cool. But he's gonna have NOTHING in the tank after cutting that weight. It's going to make for a bad fight, which is why it pisses me off.

 

 

Still pissed at Wang. Come on dude, how can you tell the whole world "I fight to show my warrior spirit"

 

Since when is warrior spirit 'brawling with a dude and throwing the most telegraphed overhand rights ever'

 

Just bullcrap.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

If they do fight, Gabe will wreck Corey. They basically say Corey just started fighting beforehand, knew little, and only has had a little time (maybe 3 weeks total) under Team Pulver.

[AmericanDragon 0]

Hell I'd actually prefer it if Corey won but now it's down to:

 

Ruediger, Wiman, Lauzon, and Maynard (first three already have UFC experience)

 

vs.

 

Sims, Geraghty, Weems, and Corey

 

Pretty damn easy to see where this is going.

[KingPK 0]

AAAAAH!

 

Wang broke my Cliche-meter, I HAD JUST BOUGHT IT!

 

They should have gone the whole way and had him doing tai-chi in the backyard while being silhouetted by a sunset.

 

Guess next week is Gabe's last week. Not of the show.

 

Of life.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

In retrospect, the preview of this show from last week - about Team Pulver having a weak link - was about 1 minute out of a 44 minute episode.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Wayne Weems being the official Butters of Team Pulver is fucking tremendous.

[jwpeer 0]

Wayne Weems being the official Butters of Team Pulver is fucking tremendous.

 

 

Hahha.

 

Watching him throw those kicks was really sad. He was sliding his plant foot so poorly, it looked like he'd never thrown a kick before at all, and he wasn't using his hips at all.

 

Kinda scary, wonder what he can do that got him on the show? I mean...I can throw a shitty kick too...

?

[starvenger 0]

I'm sure he could tap him out, he seems like a crafty asshole type. Which is cool. But he's gonna have NOTHING in the tank after cutting that weight. It's going to make for a bad fight, which is why it pisses me off.

 

 

Still pissed at Wang. Come on dude, how can you tell the whole world "I fight to show my warrior spirit"

 

Since when is warrior spirit 'brawling with a dude and throwing the most telegraphed overhand rights ever'

 

Just bullcrap.

Wang show he stereotypical Asian by demonstrating wawlior spilit. And by being fucking stubborn. I'm convinced that all Chinese people (myself included of course) are born stubborn.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

jwpeer- Weems trains with Pulver @ MFS in Iowa so there's your answer.