The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 – Ep. 5
The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 Episode 5 produced the first win for Josh Koscheck‘s team.
Spencer Paige, from GSP’s team, fought against Nam Phan. GSP stated that Paige was a hard worker and had a lot of heart, good hands and good take downs. Paige thought that he was quicker than Phan and could find his opponent’s chin.
During the fight, despite Paige’s four inch reach advantage, Phan took control almost immediately. His strikes connected and Paige looked hesitant. Phan caught Paige’s kicks and knocked him down. At the end of the first round, Phan had Paige in a Kimura which looked very strong and lasted until the buzzer.
During the break, GSP told Paige to kick Phan in his leg and to stay in the middle. Koscheck mentioned Phan’s experience as incentive. From the beginning of round 2, there appeared to be a problem with Paige. He looked as though he were limping and did not listen to instructions from GSP. He was kicking so hard that he fell down and was doing limited punching (we learned afterward that he had broken his hand during the fight). Phan, on the other hand, was pommelling Paige. Both rounds went to Phan.
Afterward, Koscheck, thrilled at finally winning, made some comments to GSP. St-Pierre said that there are bad losers and bad winners. Koscheck certainly falls into the latter. When the teams were in their respective dressing rooms, which are side by side, Koscheck and his guys banged on the adjoining wall in unison. Scenes from next week’s episode show Koscheck and his team mocking GSP’s team.
During this season, during all the previous seasons, in fact, there have been poor behaviours among the team members and among the coaches. That does not apply to all, of course. Nogueira, for example, was a great coach and his team were very positive, played sports together and seemed friendly toward each other. Most of GSP’s team reflect his personality: he’s quiet, hard working and polite. Aside from Caceres, the other team members who won their fights did not boast or mock Koscheck’s people.
Koscheck has mocked GSP’s accent, his body movements, his workout clothing, anything he could. He always talks of his hatred for the man. This is not mature behaviour and the attitudes of his team members reflect his personality.
My interest is in the training and the fights. The petty comments and jealousies which we witness every season of The Ultimate Fighter are juvenile and irritating. Can we not see people who are professional, who can win without gloating and train because they love what they are doing instead of training to kill someone?
Some years ago there was a Canadian tennis pro who, when he won matches, calmly smiled and waved to the crowd and went to the net to shake hands with his opponent. When asked why he didn’t make a great show of it as most winners did, he said that he thought it was inappropriate to gloat when the other person had just lost the match. Every once in a while we see that happen in MMA, but I’d like to see more of that attitude. It has to start with the coaches.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 TUF12 is on Spike on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. EST.
ayjay
October 19, 2010