The Ultimate Fighter 13 - TUF 13 Preview

The Ultimate Fighter 13: Hit or Miss?

I have always been a fan of the UFC’s reality series The Ultimate Fighter, but in recent seasons, my excitement for the show has begun to fade. I, like many others, have grown tired of the shenanigans and drunken antics of at least one castmate in each season (Chris Leben, Bobby Southworth, Gabe Ruediger, Marlon Sims, Jesse Taylor, Junie Browning, Coach Rampage Jackson, Jamie Yager, and Coach Josh Koscheck are notable examples). These fighters oftentimes take center stage and replace the actual intended focus of the show, which is the development of up-and-coming fighters. As a whole, the series appears to have strayed from the training aspects of the show, and focused more on the in-house antics and drama between fighters (and coaches).

This season, the coaches for the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter were announced to be former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar against Brazilian standout Junior Dos Santos. I find the naming of these two as coaches to be a bit confusing, and I’ll start with Dos Santos.

Dos Santos is a fast-rising fighter that trains with Black House, including guys like Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers. While there can be no doubting the fact that Dos Santos is a tough fighter with some serious skills, I think it is important to remember that Dos Santos is only 26 years old. He is still learning and growing as a fighter himself, and it may be difficult for him to help younger fighters grow and flourish when he is still developing and working on his game. I know that the best fighters are always continuing to work on their game and improve in some aspect, but this may be a case where Dos Santos will have to defer a great deal to his assistant coaches. It has been announced that Dos Santos will be assisted by Black House’s boxing coach Luiz Dorea and Muay Thai specialist Billy Scheibe. Of course there is always the possibility that Dos Santos’ teammates at Black House may make the trip to Las Vegas and help out for a period of time, especially Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, since he was a coach on Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. Another difficult situation for Dos Santos to overcome is the language barrier. With Dos Santos being born and raised in Brazil, his native tongue is Portuguese, and 10 of the 14 fighters on the upcoming season hail from the United States. I give Dos Santos credit in that I’ve seen him give interviews in English, and he can hold his own without a translator, but in some circumstances, the language barrier may be a tough one to overcome. On the plus side, Dos Santos is a hard-working fighter, but he is a relative unknown as he tends to keep quiet outside of the cage. The publicity that he is offered on TUF could allow him to gain a huge amount of popularity in the UFC with viewers of TUF.

There’s no secret why the UFC has tapped Brock Lesnar to be a coach on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, but I still have a problem with the decision. Lesnar has been one of the biggest draws that the UFC has on its roster since he made the switch to MMA from professional wrestling, and his drawing power is certain to entice viewers to tune in each week. Another possible reason that the powers that be selected Lesnar is to keep him within the UFC. Following his loss to Cain Velasquez, there had been grumblings on the internet that Lesnar was no longer interested in fighting in the Octagon, and by signing him up to coach a team on TUF, the UFC guaranteed to utilize as much of Lesnar’s drawing power as they could, while they were able.

I feel that the UFC could have chosen a better coach than Brock Lesnar in order to help shape the incoming fighters and better prepare them for the UFC. Lesnar has been officially training in mixed martial arts for about 4 years, and he hasn’t really altered his style very much to indicate that he’s evolving as a fighter. Every time Brock Lesnar steps into the cage, you can expect him to throw violent punches, look for takedowns, and brutalize his opponents with his devastating ground and pound. In Lesnar’s defense, he did submit Shane Carwin with an arm triangle, but his submission game is far from the top of the division. Furthermore, Lesnar is an absolutely hulking heavyweight, while the contestants on the show will be welterweights (170 lb). While Lesnar may be in training, he will nearly weigh in at over 100 lbs more than his fighters, creating some possible issues with sparring and training. As I previously mentioned, Brock’s game is pretty one-dimensional, and he comes from a strong amateur wrestling background. With my wrestling experience, I can tell you that heavyweights don’t wrestle the same as the lighter weights, so Lesnar giving wrestling tips to his fighters would be about the equivalent of Jerome Bettis giving rushing advice to Barry Sanders or Shaq giving lessons to John Stockton. My point is, the fight speed and effective techniques are most likely not the same from one division to the next, so Lesnar may not be able to effectively teach his fighters. That being said, Brock will be assisted by a capable staff, but in previous seasons, we were always shown the coaches sparring with fighters and giving pointers. I am curious to see how Lesnar fares at this latest endeavor, since he’s been quite successful at everything (except his short stint in the NFL) that he has tried.

While it’s easy to sling criticisms, I have some outcomes that I think would have been a better fit for the UFC. If the UFC wants to use the show to introduce fans to a new rising star fighter in the UFC, why not choose some of the recent immigrants from the WEC? Urijah Faber has a strong following and would draw in viewers, and Dominick Cruz is probably the most unheralded champion in the UFC. Cruz and Faber have a history, and a season of them hyping a rematch would be good for the Bantamweight Division. Jake Shields is a top-notch fighter that comes from a strong camp that could stop in to the training center and provide some technique(Cesar Gracie BJJ, also home to the Diaz brothers and Gilbert Melendez), and Shields is largely unheralded within the UFC because he is still relatively new. If GSP beats Shields, perhaps the coaches for an upcoming season could be Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, largely because they are the two top fighters in the world and both have a huge amount of experience in the sport.

Despite my concerns, the 13th Season of The Ultimate Fighter is scheduled to begin on March 30th on Spike TV. No matter who the coaches may be, you can bank on the fact that a few fighters will stand out above the rest and rise to the challenge to become the next Ultimate Fighter. It will be interesting to see how the fighters mature and grow, and who knows, maybe I’ll be eating my words about Lesnar being an unfit coach when the season ends.


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The Ultimate Fighter 13: Hit or Miss? I have always been a fan of the UFC’s reality series The Ultimate Fighter, but in recent seasons, my excitement for the show has begun to fade. I, like many others, have grown tired of the shenanigans and drunken antics of at least one castmate in each season (Chris Leben, Bobby Southworth, Gabe Ruediger, Marlon Sims, Jesse Taylor, Junie Browning, Coach Rampage Jackson, Jamie Yager, and Coach Josh Koscheck are notable examples). These fighters oftentimes take center stage and replace the actual intended focus of the show, which is the development of up-and-coming fighters. As a whole, the series appears to have strayed from the training aspects of the show, and focused more on the in-house antics and drama between fighters (and coaches). This season, the coaches for the 13th season of The Ultimate Fighter were announced to be former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar against Brazilian standout Junior Dos Santos. I find the naming of these two as coaches to be a bit confusing, and I’ll start with Dos Santos. Dos Santos is a fast-rising fighter that trains with Black House, including guys like Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers. While there can be no doubting the fact that Dos Santos is a tough fighter with some serious skills, I think it is important to remember that Dos Santos is only 26 years old. He is still learning and growing as a fighter himself, and it may be difficult for him to help younger fighters grow and flourish when he is still developing and working on his game. I know that the best fighters are always continuing to work on their game and improve in some aspect, but this may be a case where Dos Santos will have to defer a great deal to his assistant coaches. It has been announced that Dos Santos will be assisted by Black House’s boxing coach Luiz Dorea and Muay Thai specialist Billy Scheibe. Of course there is always the possibility that Dos Santos’ teammates at Black House may make the trip to Las Vegas and help out for a period of time, especially Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, since he was a coach on Season 8 of The Ultimate Fighter. Another difficult situation for Dos Santos to overcome is the language barrier. With Dos Santos being born and raised in Brazil, his native tongue is Portuguese, and 10 of the 14 fighters on the upcoming season hail from the United States. I give Dos Santos credit in that I’ve seen him give interviews in English, and he can hold his own without a translator, but in some circumstances, the language barrier may be a tough one to overcome. On the plus side, Dos Santos is a hard-working fighter, but he is a relative unknown as he tends to keep quiet outside of the cage. The publicity that he is offered on TUF could allow him to gain a huge amount of popularity in the UFC with viewers of TUF. There’s no secret why the UFC has tapped Brock Lesnar to be a coach on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, but I still have a problem with the decision. Lesnar has been one of the biggest draws that the UFC has on its roster since he made the switch to MMA from professional wrestling, and his drawing power is certain to entice viewers to tune in each week. Another possible reason that the powers that be selected Lesnar is to keep him within the UFC. Following his loss to Cain Velasquez, there had been grumblings on the internet that Lesnar was no longer interested in fighting in the Octagon, and by signing him up to coach a team on TUF, the UFC guaranteed to utilize as much of Lesnar’s drawing power as they could, while they were able. I feel that the UFC could have chosen a better coach than Brock Lesnar in order to help shape the incoming fighters and better prepare them for the UFC. Lesnar has been officially training in mixed martial arts for about 4 years, and he hasn’t really altered his style very much to indicate that he’s evolving as a fighter. Every time Brock Lesnar steps into the cage, you can expect him to throw violent punches, look for takedowns, and brutalize his opponents with his devastating ground and pound. In Lesnar’s defense, he did submit Shane Carwin with an arm triangle, but his submission game is far from the top of the division. Furthermore, Lesnar is an absolutely hulking heavyweight, while the contestants on the show will be welterweights (170 lb). While Lesnar may be in training, he will nearly weigh in at over 100 lbs more than his fighters, creating some possible issues with sparring and training. As I previously mentioned, Brock’s game is pretty one-dimensional, and he comes from a strong amateur wrestling background. With my wrestling experience, I can tell you that heavyweights don’t wrestle the same as the lighter weights, so Lesnar giving wrestling tips to his fighters would be about the equivalent of Jerome Bettis giving rushing advice to Barry Sanders or Shaq giving lessons to John Stockton. My point is, the fight speed and effective techniques are most likely not the same from one division to the next, so Lesnar may not be able to effectively teach his fighters. That being said, Brock will be assisted by a capable staff, but in previous seasons, we were always shown the coaches sparring with fighters and giving pointers. I am curious to see how Lesnar fares at this latest endeavor, since he’s been quite successful at everything (except his short stint in the NFL) that he has tried. > Check out the UFC apparel & hats and Punishment MMA clothing & merchandise online through ProFighting-fans.com! While it’s easy to sling criticisms, I have some outcomes that I think would have been a better fit for the UFC. If the UFC wants to use the show to introduce fans to a new rising star fighter in the UFC, why not choose some of the recent immigrants from the WEC? Urijah Faber has a strong following and would draw in viewers, and Dominick Cruz is probably the most unheralded champion in the UFC. Cruz and Faber have a history, and a season of them hyping a rematch would be good for the Bantamweight Division. Jake Shields is a top-notch fighter that comes from a strong camp that could stop in to the training center and provide some technique(Cesar Gracie BJJ, also home to the Diaz brothers and Gilbert Melendez), and Shields is largely unheralded within the UFC because he is still relatively new. If GSP beats Shields, perhaps the coaches for an upcoming season could be Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, largely because they are the two top fighters in the world and both have a huge amount of experience in the sport. Despite my concerns, the 13th Season of The Ultimate Fighter is scheduled to begin on March 30th on Spike TV. No matter who the coaches may be, you can bank on the fact that a few fighters will stand out above the rest and rise to the challenge to become the next Ultimate Fighter. It will be interesting to see how the fighters mature and grow, and who knows, maybe I’ll be eating my words about Lesnar being an unfit coach when the season ends. By Curt Heinrichs ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer The Ultimate Fighter logo used with permission from the UFC