TUF Talks: "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 12 Double-Stuffed TUF Finale Event (Episode 11)

We’re finally here, fans and friends. With this edition, the twelfth season of “The Ultimate Fighter” comes to a close and the first “season” of “TUF Talks” also reaches its end. This special double-stuffed TUF features a two-hour episode that sees both semi-final fights go down. It’s all lead up to this point, so let’s dive right in with the latest and last (for now) edition of “TUF Talks”.

The episode begins by focusing on the upcoming teammate vs. teammate Kyle Watson vs. Jonathan Brookins fight. Coach Georges St. Pierre says that he’ll once again avoid coaching in order to not play favorites, but he does tell his fighters that it’s now time to be selfish. We then get an in-depth look into the mind of Kyle Watson, as he details how he got his start in MMA. Watson reveals that, at one point in his career, he even gave up a promising job, a girlfriend, and a few pets in order to train MMA full-time.

Over at the yellow side, Team Koscheck is feeling the sting of defeat and perhaps feeling a bit mutinous, as it seems like several Team Koscheck fighters are disgruntled at the fact that their training has virtually become non-existent. Mark Stevens gets a little tipsy and starts doing a mocking impersonation of Koscheck, only for the man himself to enter and catch Stevens in the act. Koscheck takes it all in stride but urges his team to grow up: instead of pointing the finger of blame every which-way, perhaps they should look at themselves and their poor outings across the season.

There’s even a lot of drama surrounding the sole remaining Team Koscheck fighter still alive in the competition, Nam Phan. Phan is being accused of being a goody-goody up front but talking ridiculous amounts of trash behind everyone’s back. Phan laughs it off and plays the “everyone’s against me and I have no idea why” card. After both Brookins and Watson successfully make weight, our first fight of the night is underway!

While it’s certainly longer than all the other fights he’s had this season, this was another stellar showing by Jonathan Brookins. Brookins ate some good first-round shots by Watson, but after Brookins started nailing takedowns, he began taking down Watson continually and always following up with hard, well-timed shots. The fight ends up going all three rounds, generally repeating this pattern, and Brookins wins it via Unanimous Decision. After the fight it seems like everyone, even Dana White, has jumped aboard the Jonathan Brookins hype train.

By far the most hilarious moment of the season occurs next. The subject of Nam Phan rears its ugly head again, when one fighter brings up the point that he finds it awkward that Phan takes “hour-long” showers. One of the fighters jokingly suggests that they should wait until Phan is deep into the act of pleasuring himself before they storm into his room and catch him spanking the monkey. Without an ounce of hyperbole, this quickly turns into a small mob that sneakily enters Phan’s room, opens his bathroom door, and catches him punching the clown. Everyone gets a good laugh… except for Phan, who is not amused.

We then focus on Team GSP’s Michael Johnson, as it seems that many people are jumping aboard his hype train as well. After that we quickly switch back to the fallout of Nam Phan’s bathroom shenanigans. Phan confronts his team and pleads with them to let him focus on his fight, Jonathan Brookins is not without sympathy to Phan’s plight. Coach Koscheck takes it all in stride and says that so long as Phan keeps winning, he can do whatever he feels like.

After both men make weight, our last fight of the season gets underway… and what a spectacular fight it is. Throughout three rounds of constant action, Michael Johnson and Nam Phan both put on the fight of the season, and for my money, one of the best fights of the last several seasons. Michael Johnson ends up taking a razor-close Split Decision, and that’s all she wrote for Team Koscheck. It’s going to be Team GSP-only at the TUF 12 finale to crown Season 12’s TUF champion. After the fight, Coach Koscheck has no regrets and blames no one but himself, and promises to rectify this mistake by beating Georges St. Pierre. Coach GSP closes out the season by saying how proud he is of his fighters.

And so we come to the end, fans and friends. In the future, I think “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12 will stand the test of time as one of the best TUF seasons in recent history. We had some amazing fights, some great drama, good characters, and so much more. This season, more than virtually any other season that’s happened recently, has proven to me that the “TUF formula” is far from dead, and that this show is far from over. I can’t wait to see how the “Ultimate Finale” event goes down, and I look forward to continuing to watch “The Ultimate Fighter”. I’ll see you back here for Season 13!

And what about you, fans and friends? Now that it’s all said and done, what’s your opinion on “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 12?