TUF Talks: The Ultimate Fighter Season 12 Episode 2

Hello once more fans and friends and welcome to another edition of “TUF Talks”, where we at Fighters.com recap the latest edition of the popular UFC reality TV show “The Ultimate Fighter”. Last episode saw the “fight to get into the house” fights. With a couple good full-length fights intermixed with the always-popular fight montages, fourteen men proved themselves worthy of being on TUF. Today’s episode saw the formations of teams, the beginning of mind games between coaches Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck, and the early inklings of what drama we can look forward to in the TUF house. Let’s get to it.

The episode opens with the fighters making their way to the TUF house, and let’s not fool ourselves, “house” barely begins to describe the sprawling mansion where these fourteen men will get to know each other. Naturally, the open bar is immediately spotted and the liquor begins flowing. When it comes time to pick teams, GSP puts together quite a gamble. In order to fool Koscheck into picking someone whom Team GSP has no interest in, in order to secure the fighter that they do have interest in, GSP puts together a fake list of names and makes sure that anybody nearby can catch a glance at his top picks. After winning the coin toss, Koscheck takes the bait to a grinning Team GSP.

Here’s how the official rosters broke down, in order of their choosing. Team Koscheck consists of Marc Stevens, Sevak Magakian, Sako Chivitchian, Andy Main, Nam Phan, Aaron Wilkinson, and Jeff Lentz. Team GSP is Michael Johnson, Jonathan Brookins, Spencer Paige, Alex Caceres, Kyle Watson, Cody McKenzie, and Dane Sayers.

Next we get a look into the team’s training regimens: GSP considers himself a “partner” to the fighters and reveals that his coach, the famed Greg Jackson, will be handling the brunt of the coaching duties. On the Koscheck side of things, Josh reveals that he believes in “mindless training”, that so long as his fighters do exactly what he tells them to do the second he tells them to do it, they’ll beat Team GSP. Koscheck also goes on to talk about how he refuses to be labeled, either as “the bad guy” or anything else.

The first fight is announced, with Team GSP doing the choosing, and it’ll be “Bruce Leroy” Alex Caceres taking on Jeffrey Lentz. It’s revealed that GSP let Caceres pick his own opponent. UFC President Dana White strongly disagrees with GSP’s decision, but says that it may be because he (White) is an unrepentant control freak. We get some pre-fight build-up with Caceres talking about his hard-times upbringing while the focus on Lentz seems to be centered on him getting picked last and his smoking habit. And then the fight is on.

Round 1 is a back-and-forth glorified shoving-match, with the majority of the first five minutes seeing both men tangle each other up against the cage. Lentz scores a dramatic Judo Throw in the dying seconds to most likely steal the round. The second round is more of the same, until “Brue Leroy” locks in a Triangle Choke that catches Lentz completely off-guard. Lentz fights on bravely, even powerbombing Caceres at one point, but he ultimately taps out.

Next week’s episode features more in-house drama as “Bruce Leroy” gets a little overzealous in his post-fight celebrations, while Josh Koscheck has some harsh words for his team. Add in a cameo by “Iron” Mike Tyson and you’ve got plenty of reasons to tune in next week.

I liked this episode a lot, and I think TUF 12 has definitely hit its stride. There was a little drama, a little hilarity, some tough training and some sage words of wisdom by the coaches. It’s very interesting to see how radically different GSP and Koscheck’s coaching styles are. The fight we got wasn’t all that interesting, but the end was certainly dramatic and ultimately I think it was a very solid episode of TUF.

And what about you, fans and friends? With the battle-lines drawn, what do you think of TUF 12 so far? And who are your early favorites?