Brockton native Joe Lauzon, a UFC lightweight fighter and member of the cast of TUF 5, will give exclusive insight to bostonherald.com readers following each week’s episode. Here is his commentary on Episode 7.
The theme of this episode was, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” This week, we have all kinds of people making claims that they don’t really back up.
Wang would give a good effort in training, but a lot of times he wouldn’t be listening to instructions. We would be drilling and he would not listen to advice from coaches. He would be rolling and training with people, and BJ would tell him, “That’s good, stop,” and he would constantly be saying, “One more round, one more round, I am good.” These are the things that really pissed BJ off, and that started to wear on him. Gabe told us from the first day that Andy would not listen and would brawl. We tried to make him more receptive in training sessions, giving him advice and telling him what to do, but it all fell on deaf ears.
BJ said, “Everyone likes a winner, nobody likes a loser. It’s done. I don’t care how you did.” As a team we felt that Wang gave his fight away. He is great on the ground but refused to take the fight there, where Brandon is weakest. We were particularly upset because we drilled into him how important it was that he take the fight to the ground and that he needed to follow the game plan. Going into the fight, we were hopeful that he would work to get the fight on the ground, but we all knew he wouldn’t. This left a real sour taste in everyone’s mouths, particularly the coaches. Wang was apologizing to us, and then in the next breath talking about how it was a great fight and he “left it all in the cage.” At one point, one of the producers was talking to us in the back room, and all Andy cared about was what the producer thought of the fight, and if Dana liked the fight. “I hope Dana liked my fight. ... It was a good fight. ... I left it all in the cage.” This is all we heard out of Wang when he should have been apologizing. BJ respects guys winning fights, not guys giving the fight away in an attempt to be ballsy. If Wang had listened, the fight would have gone much differently.
I think my fight was kind of a tipping point on everything with Wang. We had two guys that should have won their fights — one didn’t listen and he lost his fight, while the other listened and won convincingly. I think my fight showed BJ what Wang’s fight could have been, and it was salt in the wound to sit there and watch Wang talk about his fight and how good it was. There was nothing good about it ... he lost. Winning is all that matters, and he didn’t win. End of story.
BJ acted like the general that Dana wanted and took control of the team. He saw Wang as a problem within the team and he got rid of him. I thought it was a little harsh, but the way things were going, something needed to change. At first I thought it was a joke. I was sitting on the mat taping up my ankle and laughing to myself about the whole thing. I started working out with Reagan and I kept telling him, ‘I put nothing past you guys,’ and then he started laughing at me, telling me it was real. I really didn’t believe it until Dana showed up, and then I was like, ‘Man, this isn’t a joke at all.’ ”
I can understand why Wang didn’t want to go to Team Pulver, because the two teams really did start to click at this point. Everyone got along but team spirit was very apparent. In particular, our team had really started to come together now that Gabe was gone. Practices were much better and everyone just got behind each other a lot more.
The irony of the whole situation was Rob Emerson’s behavior. Rob had lost two fights but gave his 100 percent in everything from training to his fights. After his second loss, though, he had been taking it easy because he was out for sure. There was no way he would get a third chance before someone else got a second. So while Andy was getting kicked out for not giving 100 percent, Rob was riding a scooter around the gym, with a beer in his hand and a cup duct-taped to his scooter filled with Reese’s Pieces. You just had to laugh at the whole situation.
Then we have Wayne Weems. Not to take a shot at Weems, but I think out of everyone in the house, he was the most technically behind. Wayne came from a wrestling background but had pretty much zero jiu-jitsu or striking. I didn’t get a chance to work out with him because we were in different groups for evaluations and he was on Team Pulver. From talking with a few of the other guys, though, his wrestling wasn’t the best either. If you only have one strength, it has to be really good. You can’t be one-dimensional and not have that one dimension be really strong. We all saw Weems as one of the weakest from Team Pulver and Gray was one of the strongest from Team Penn. We were super confident about Gray’s fight, and you can see why.
Weems had this confidence about him that you don’t see a lot. When someone shows that kind of confidence they either know something you don’t, or are delusional. For Weems, he was delusional. He lost the fight but he fought hard and never gave up. He was just outclassed. The only thing that bothered me about Weems was after his fight when he was in the kitchen and he started ranting: “He never hurt me. I would kill that guy, this is bull!” It went on for a while and you couldn’t help but laugh. When it’s a real close fight, you can complain, but not when it’s a borderline early stoppage. Wayne said he would still be fighting if it were up to him. Fortunately for him it was stopped, because otherwise he would still be in that same position and eating punches with no sign of getting out.
Everyone gets emotional after a loss, though, so it’s not a big deal. The technical ability wasn’t there but the heart surely was. You can’t teach heart but you can always work on technique.
Weems and Gray’s fight was over, but we can’t forget about “Mr. Indestructible” Marlon Sims. Marlon claimed a lot of things. Of everything, he said two things that were true. He said he was a great cook, which he was. The guy can cook! The best meals made in that house, Marlon made. He said he was a chef in some restaurant and I wouldn’t find that hard to believe. He backed that “story” up. That’s one real story.
Another feat Marlon claimed he could do was eat a spoonful of cinnamon. Everyone was saying no way, so Gabe bet him $100, but Marlon did it. We didn’t have any money in the house but Gabe is supposed to pay up at the finale. Whether he will or not, I have no idea. But Marlon did it, even when we all thought he was full of crap. That’s two real stories.
After that ... it ends for Mr. Indestructible. Let’s start with the nickname. He claimed he had never been knocked out by a human being. That was false, and was actually proven false while on the show. I’m not sure if you can tell, but there is a peg board in the gym that had large wooden dowel pegs. You could climb up the wall by putting the pegs in holes that were higher and higher. During one of the Team Pulver practices, Marlon was using the pegboard and started talking to someone and looking over his shoulder. When his shoulder leaned back, the peg came out and he nailed himself in the face with the peg board, knocking him out. He had to go and get stitches. It was actually questionable if he would even be cleared to fight because of the cut. Fortunately, it didn’t preclude him from being able to fight. I am calling him on it, though, so we have 2-1 in favor of real stories.
Baseball. Marlon claimed that he would have gone on to play professional baseball if he hadn’t thrown out his shoulder. He supposedly threw a baseball 93 miles per hour. I am calling BS on this one.
Street Fights. Marlon had a million stories on street fights and how he would face seven guys at once and would beat them all and would never be hurt. Now if this were true, he would have to be fighting hordes of 5-year-olds. Unfortunately for him, he was talking grown adults. To have 300 or more street fights and not once get hit with a blind shot, or have someone pull a gun or knife? I am calling BS on this one too.
His chipped tooth. He had two explanations for the same chip in his tooth. At one point he told us it was from a fight and another time it was from crashing his motorcycle. Contradicting stories for the same chipped tooth has to be a fake. That’s two real stories, and four fakes for those of you keeping count.
Motorcycle races. Andy Wang brought up how he had a bike that he rode at home, so in true Marlon fashion about having to outdo any story, he started talking about how he rode motorcycles professionally. I’m calling fake on this one too.
That’s two real stories and five fake ones so far. But the best is about how he is the most “lethal striker” and the hardest hitting guy in the house. He did a lot of talking about how he knocks people out and no one could stand with him. Then what happens when he fights? He comes out with a ridiculous stance and is dropped with the first punch that Matt throws. Matt jumps on his back and chokes him out. Marlon talks about how it was a lucky punch. There is no such thing as a lucky punch, unless luck is Matt waiting for Marlon to drop his right hand and then hitting him on the chin. And he was out cold, so he definitely can’t claim he has only been knocked out once before.
My count is now six fake and two real ... so maybe Marlon shouldn’t tell so many stories.
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