TUF 12/Strikeforce Mailbag

This last week was a pretty busy one for MMA fans, with two hours of “The Ultimate Fighter”, the live finale, and an excellent Strikeforce event that featured several memorable knockouts. Such a weekend demands another emptying of the Mailbag, doesn’t it?

First off, Matthew B. is curious about some footage from TUF 12 that was teased, but never aired:

So I was reading an article of yours on Fightmania – I think it was a recap of the first episode of this seasons TUF and at the bottom you summarize the “this season on the ultimate fighter” video that they always play at the end of episode 1. Anyway, in the recap you say you saw one fighter punching another in the face in the backyard…I SAW THIS AS WELL! Am I wrong or did they never show it on any of the episodes….don’t get me wrong this kind of d-baggery is usually a black eye on the show, but with that said I wanted to see it….what can you tell me about it? Do you happen to have a link to the video? Thanks for your time….

Whoa, that’s a great catch! I actually forgot all about it until I got Matthew’s e-mail. Sure enough, in my recap of the first episode of TUF 12, I mention that there is a brief clip from the “this season on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’” montage that shows someone punching a fellow cast member in the backyard. I didn’t know who it was at the time, as it happened pretty quickly, but it was Jeff Lentz hitting Spencer Paige. Here’s a YouTube video of the tease they showed on that first episode.

Anyway, as Matthew pointed out, they never followed up on it on the show. I did find an interview where Nam Phan talked about the incident, though. Remember how he was shown training on his own for his fight with Michael Johnson? VigilanteMMA.com asked him about why his teammates didn’t help him that day, to which he replied:

“It was Sunday. We usually don’t train on Sunday. The coaches didn’t really know. As for my teammates, something pretty big went down on Saturday night. They didn’t show it on TV, but Jeff Lentz and Spencer Paige got into it. How it started was, Spencer got really drunk and started calling out guys on the yellow team, saying he’d knock everyone out. Eventually, Lentz said he couldn’t knock him out. So they both took turns punching each other and Spencer Paige ends up breaking Lentz’s jaw. He had to get his mouth wired shut. Anyway, the bottom line is with all of the commotion, no one went to bed until 6 am. I had to train at 8 am the next morning.”

So, that’s what happened, straight from Phan himself. Why didn’t they show it on TV, though? There are a couple of popular theories circulating on this. One is that either the UFC (more likely), Spike TV (less likely) or a combination of the two didn’t want to show it because it doesn’t give a very good impression of the sport and the fighters. The other is that they just want you to have to buy the DVD set for the season when it comes out. I tend to favor the latter theory. However, why tease the incident on the first episode if you’re not going to show it? Probably just to get people to tune in, thinking “Hey, a bunch of crazy shit goes down this season!” To do that and not ultimately ever show what happened is a pretty bad bait-and-switch tactic, though.

Next, we have J.C. from California, who wants to rub something in my face:

I’m pretty sure that you clearly said that Brookins would not win a decision over Johnson, since Johnson’s the better wrestler. Then what happened? Brookins by decision! Hmmm…

Well, predictions are hardly an exact science, my friend. I’ve mentioned before that I’m far from being a wrestling expert, and my idea of who would have the upper hand with takedowns in the fight had to come from what each guy showed on the season against the fighters that they had faced. I thought Johnson’s shots looked quicker and more technical, and I figured he’d have the upper hand in the wrestling because of that.

And hey, don’t be pissing in my Cheerios, now! I still called Brookins winning. As far as the method of winning, that’s often a crap shoot in a sport as unpredictable as this one.

Switching over to Strikeforce, Steven H. has a couple of questions on my thoughts from the event:

Okay, so three Strikeforce questions for ya- 1-How awful and old did Matt Lindland look? 2-Was Paul Daley’s KO the best of the year? 3-Should Hendo fight at 205 or 185? I thought he looked a lot better at light heavy.

1- Pretty awful and really old. As always, props to the guy for getting in there and making it happen, but it’s clear that he’s just not at the level he was earlier in his career any longer. At first I thought he was purposefully standing and trading with Robbie Lawler, which would be cause for an immediate psychological evaluation. Then, I started thinking that maybe he did want to close the distance, and he was just too slow and awkward to be able to do a better job at it.

2- It’s definitely a nominee. Saturday night was a particularly brutal night for knockouts, as Lawler’s KO of Lindland was pretty impressive, and Pablo Garza viciously knocked out Fredson Paixao on the prelims of the TUF 12 finale with a flying knee on what appeared to be the beginning of a takedown attempt from Paixao.

3- Hendo should stay at 205 pounds. Many fighters find that they have a harder time cutting weight as they get older, and Henderson seems to be getting to that point. As he said, he’s never felt that his light heavyweight opponents were stronger than him in the past, and since he doesn’t really have to cut weight at 205, he’s a lot healthier going into his fights at light heavyweight. He clearly has the power to knock out 205 pounders, too. Of course, in Strikeforce everyone seems to jump around from division to division, so I’m sure he’ll find himself in the sauna at some point in the future again.

E-Mail Jon Hartley

Tags: Dan Henderson, Jeff Lentz, Jonathan Brookins, Matt Lindland, Michael Johnson, Nam Phan, Paul Daley, Robbie Lawler, Spencer Paige, Strikeforce, Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu II, The Ultimate Fighter 12, The Ultimate Fighter St. Pierre vs. Koscheck