What a fucked up situation. BJ Penn is a great fighter, but he has no idea on this earth how to lead a team. Instead of snatching those guys up by the scruff of the neck and going all drill sergeant on them, he bitches and whines, makes excuses, and finally, just up and kicks Andy Wang the fuck off the team. He constantly feels the need to justify his actions and decisions to anyone nearby. He complains all the time.
Which is not to say that Andy isn’t a piece of work. First, in his preliminary fight, he systematically ignored every bit of his game plan and every aspect of what BJ Penn was trying to tell him. As a result, he got into a punching match with a guy who sat back and repeatedly rung his bell until he was knocked silly.
Then, after he was kicked off Team Penn, he waffled about joining Team Pulver (after whining about being a “ronin ( :rolleyes: ) without a master.”) If I was Dana White, I’d have kicked him off the show. I realize that he knows he’s under tons of pressure now, and he’s definitely in the spotlight, but dude, suck it up and get out there and train. It’s a second chance. You’d think the guy’d be grateful.
BJ, grow some balls and get those boys out there. You can’t forge a team by being “one of the guys.” You are going to have to learn to kick some ass and take names.
Being somewhat intoxicated, I’m not 100% sure of what was going on with the ejection off the team.
However, this thread gives me the opportunity to sound off on something that’s twigged me throughout the history of this show. Why do the fighters buy into the team concept? There’s one contract per weight class per series. The standings of your team have absoultely no bearing on whether any fighter wins the contract. Yet in every single season every single fighter has bought into the team rivalry. Are they really that stupid or is there something else going on that I’m completely missing?
Right, I understand that Dana White wants to create drama by constructing the team rivalry, but the question is why do the fighters buy into it? Like this season, that Nathan Diaz jackass was ready to go to war over Team Pulver being the traget of some grafitti. Maybe if I was in the house as a fighter and had never seen an episode of the show before I’d buy into the team concept the way he did, but looking at it from the dispassionate outside it’s ludicrous.
Yeah, he took that waaaaaaaaaaay overboard. A psychologist would have a field day with that kid. Severe abandonment issues, I’ll bet.
I also suppose that within the aegis of MMA, and in the attempt to become good enough to make a career out of it (they even tend to bring back fighters for bouts in the UFC who have lost fights on the TV show,) it’s probably a golden opportunity to 1) be seen by trainers and fighters who may want to pick some of these guys up, and they’ll definitely need to grok the team atmosphere if they eventually want to train formally under some fighting schools, and 2) it’s a hell of a way to get a concentrated education from a bunch of guys with wildly varying skill levels, techniques, and experience. I mean, hell, if I were an MMA fighter, I’d slobber all over the chance to learn BJ Penn’s ground skills, and whatever else the other guys could teach me (Muay Thai, submissions, etc.)
I mean, I don’t see anybody else taking that “team is my family” stance like Diaz did. That was psycho.
Actually, I take back what I said about Weems being a marshmallow. He came to the show vastly overmatched, and gamely made a run at it. That’s respectable. The marshmallow was that punk who would pussy around during training, choosing instead to go get colonics, etc., and who eventually couldn’t cut the mustard and force himself to make weight.
Oh yeah, I would definitely take advantage of whatever coaching opportunities that the show provided. But if it came down to something that provided me with an advantage and something that benefitted a teammate of mine, I’d say every time to screw the team and give me everything I can get.
Diaz definitely took it to an extreme but the team concept runs strong through every team and season.
I honestly think that the team approach is how a lot of MMA fighters train. It looks good to be seen as a team player if you want to train, for example, with Team Miletich. True, it’s odd to see it in the show, because the show specifically deals with ONE CONTRACT, and it’s definitely a competition. But I think these guys are looking to their careers after the show. It’s smart to realize that while you’re doing your best to get the contract, you probably won’t be the one. At that point, you hope you looked good…that is, you were a tough competitor, and you showed that you could be a part of a training team later on.
This is completely hilarious given the punkass “Raise your hand if you know for a FACT you don’t want to be on Jens Pulver’s team” move he pulled in the selection episode. Now his boys are getting their ass kicked.
Penn is an awful coach. I really thought he was going to start crying when he called the team meeting. “Why doesn’t anyone listen to me? <sob> Take me seriously! Waaaaaaahh!” I love watching Dana White’s incredulous reactions to all this crap. That undertone of, “When the hell did I become middle school vice principal?” And when White told Penn not to fuck up and embarrass himself like Ken Shamrock, I cracked up. I think Penn is screwing up his career almost as badly as Gabe Ruedigger did this year. There’s more whining and sobbing this season than on America’s Next Top Model, and I’m starting to think Tyra Banks could kick Penn’s ass.
I agree, BJ has proven that he is Not a coach in much the same way that Tito proved he is one. I’ve always know good fighter don’t always make good coaches. Conversely some very good coaches will never be good fighters.
The team concept seems to me to just be an effort to mimic how most of the MMA fighters train within their own schools. There are a lot of “tournaments” between rival schools that train MMA. I’ve been to many, and during these your school is your team and even though you are in the ring by yourself you still have team support and that does help somewhat. IMO.
I buy into the team concept. I know it is an individual sport but it is always good to have people in your corner shouting encouragement and advice. Plus, these guys have to bunk together and train together for the duration, it is natural to bond and become friends in such a situation.
And yes, BJ is a horrible coach. Most of the camera shots show him sitting around watching, whereas coaches like Tito and Matt Hughes were in there rolling with the guys and actually training right along side the fighters. Sharing their knowledge and experience first hand.
The best coach I have seen on the show so far wasn’t actually a coach but certainly took over his team and acted like one - Matt Sera.
Matt Serra was awesome. I miss him yelling encouragement to the other fighters during their matches.
I get the team concept too. When I was in choir in high school, a bunch of us also competed in the solo competitions. Technically, we were competing against each other in the solo category, but we all encouraged each other, helped each other practice, etc. Our choir was very, very good, so it was not unusual for the top six ranked soloists to include four or five of us. It helped to have an attitude of, “I am going to be an excellent singer” rather than “I am going to sing better than that girl.” If you were as good a singer as you thought you were, and trained yourself enough to be your best, the part where you were better than others was a logical outgrowth of the situation rather than a main goal. If you’re fighting (or singing, or whatever) with anger, desperation, or unwarranted cockiness, and focus too much on the other person’s abilities, you’re much more likely to get a nasty surprise. That’s not to say you can’t observe your opponent and be ready for what they do, but you still need to be intrinsically excellent at your job.
The leadership ideal is to take someone (like Wang) who is not performing up to expectations, and (somehow) get them to change the unproductive mindset and improve their game. It is not to give up and transfer the problem to someone else’s team. (Teamwork works in both directions.)
However, in BJ’s defence, all I get to see is what is shown to us on TV each week. I have no idea how much off camera work BJ tried to put into the guy…
Wang’s waffling when offered a slot on the other team does not inspire sympathy.
I’m sure it helps ratings to have big names (or ex-big names) as the coaches, but I’d love to see what some of the real veteran, technical guys (who run serious schools of their own) could do with a team. Something like Ultimate Fighter 6: Team Jeremy Horn vs. Team Ivan Salaverry.
