The Ultimate Fighter Season 12: "I Don't Like Losing, Especially to a French Guy!"

[INDYjon22]

Great night of fights to end the season and set up for the finale. Jonathan Brookins vs. Kyle Watson was solid. Watson showed a lot of heart, but was just overwhelmed by Brookins. Brookins is a terrific talent and I cannot wait to see what he does in the UFC, however he has a little more work to do first.

Nam Pham vs. Michael Johnson was an absolute war. These guys went balls to the wall in a great fight to set up the finale. Johnson came out and took round one with his superior wrestling, but Pham came back and out striked Johnson in the second. He also did a great job of stuffing the takedown. Round 3 was close, but the takedowns by Johnson are what won the fight as far as I see it. Johnson just did more to win the fight in the end, and that is why he got the split decision.

Two great fights to end a great season with and now we turn around and get to see Jonathan Brookins vs. Michael Johnson for the title of TUF 12 champion. This fight should be very good and I think will be a good match up. I actually think it will be similar to Pham/Johnson only with more submission attempts since Brookins is excellent at them. I can't wait to see who wins that fight, but I am leaning towards Brookins right now.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

INDYJon summed it up perfectly. Just a terrific two hour show last night. I found it in many ways for facinating and more emotionally compelling than most 2-hour wrestling programs lately.

I picked Brookins vs Johnson early on in the quarterfinals, and I was spot on, but I know Nam Phan would be a wild card. I was solidly behind Michael Johnson going in, but between the horseshit that team Koscheck put Nam through (they should have been doing chores for him since he was the only source of pride the team had this year) and the heart he showed in taking a lot of tough shots from MJ, I started rooting for Nam.

To be honest, the Phan / Johnson fight felt like a Rocky movie, with elements of parts 1 and 4. I saw Nam as the Rocky character and Johnson as the bigger, faster Apollo Creed. Nam takes a beating, comes back and injures Johnson's right ribs (seriously, take it right from the script - Johnson clearly protecting his right side, his ribs) and the fight going the distance into a split decision with the favorite winning, but barely. The element from part 4 was Nam's heart winning a crowd over.

I'm psyched for Saturday Night. I'll be at a birthday party at an Irish bar and I'll demand the show be on someplace. Brookins / Johnson is a highlight fight all the way.

I loved how last night's show was edited. It summed up perfectly the following:

1) GSP is a better coach and a classier guy that Kos could ever be,
2) Kos's team became more like Kos than they know - blaming others for their shortcoming and acting like fratboy *****,
3) How Phan almost became a part of the red team, cornering for Brookins in his fight with Kyle Watson because his own team of total losers turned on him.

I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall the moment Kos watched last night's episode and saw the way his team ripped into him.

 

[D-Man]

Man, what a great episode last night. You guys have basically said everything that needs to be said but I'm adding my two cents.

Like IC25, I've had Brookins and Johnson picked since about a month into the competition. Brookins is one tough SOB and Johnson always seemed to be quite the scrapper. But I always had a feeling that Nam Phan's experience would elevate him to go deep into this contest. The kid is very humble and has been in TONS of fights. He's a perfect example of how experience in the octagon really makes THAT much of a difference in fights.

Even though Johnson was the #1 pick this season, I'm choosing Brookins to go over in the finale. He's just so impressive in all aspects of his game and even though Johnson is tough, has tons of heart and a good chin (and ribs, apparently LOL) Brookins just seems to be the caliber of fighter that Dana White hopes for as each season of TUF goes by. The kid is humble, good-looking, tough as nails, young, and hungry. I can honestly see him getting a contract, no matter what the results are on Saturday, and being a title contender in no time.

But most of all, the look on Koscheck's face after Phan lost the fight was priceless. I haven't hidden the fact that I'm a fan of Kos, but I love when GSP gets the best of him. He gets so fired up and you know that with every time he's knocked down, the potential fight between him and GSP gets brighter and brighter. These two are going to have a WAR and I can't wait to see it. It's the first fight in a long time where I can't pick a clear winner. I honestly feel it can go either way... GSP is experienced and polished but Kos has drastically improved his game and is totally hungry for this rematch. Not to mention the fact that most rematches in the UFC seem to swing in the former loser's direction. Only time will tell, I guess.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Remember D-Man, Johnson was supposed to be the #1 pick this season, but he wasn't. Marc Stevens was. GSP tricked Kos into choosing Stevens instead of Johnson so GSP could get Johnson. The entire season's outcome may have hinged on that move because:

1. If Nam is coached by GSP and Johnson is coached by Kos, I'm not sure Nam loses last night.

2. Marc Stevens went 0-2.

I also have Brookins winning, and TBH, I hope he gets a fight within a year against Joe Stevenson. The two remind me quite a bit of each other, both are technically sound and focused. Of course, my wife is ALREADY seeking a Brookins / Sanchez fight, though I had to explain to her that her beloved Diego is not a Welterweight, not a Lightweight.

We also realized - can you imagine how STRONG both finalists are for 155-pounders? Brookins is a powerful dude, and Johnson's punches have Middleweight-level power behind them!

 

[D-Man]

Remember D-Man, Johnson was supposed to be the #1 pick this season, but he wasn't. Marc Stevens was. GSP tricked Kos into choosing Stevens instead of Johnson so GSP could get Johnson.

This is true, but he was the #1 pick nonetheless.

The entire season's outcome may have hinged on that move because:

1. If Nam is coached by GSP and Johnson is coached by Kos, I'm not sure Nam loses last night.

2. Marc Stevens went 0-2.

VERY interesting here and obviously something I never thought of. But we can't overanalyze it like that. Anything could have changed if the fighters were in different wrestling camps. Fact of the matter is that GSP always has better gameplans and strategies for his fighters. Kos never seemed to give his fighters any type of edge or a gameplan they could follow during the fights. Every time they got in the cage they deviated away from Kos's gameplan and got caught up and choked out.

I also have Brookins winning, and TBH, I hope he gets a fight within a year against Joe Stevenson. The two remind me quite a bit of each other, both are technically sound and focused. Of course, my wife is ALREADY seeking a Brookins / Sanchez fight, though I had to explain to her that her beloved Diego is not a Welterweight, not a Lightweight.

Diego vs. Brookins would get my dick REALLY hard. And it's a possibility. These days, the light(er) weight guys change weight classes to make better matchups and fights in different divisions. Guys like Diego, Penn, Courture... they've all done it. If the payday is there, Dana makes them square off. So I wouldn't rule our Sanchez vs. Brookins so quickly.

We also realized - can you imagine how STRONG both finalists are for 155-pounders? Brookins is a powerful dude, and Johnson's punches have Middleweight-level power behind them!

Another great analysis. Seriously those guys are BEASTS. Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to go toe-to-toe with some of those guys to see if I could make it past 8 seconds with them. One clean shot and their opponents go down quicker than Chris Leben hitting a 3rd grader.

 

[jmt225]

Unfortunately, I was only able to tune in at the beginning of the third round of the Brookins/Watson fight. Brookins completely dominated the round, so I wasn't surprised to see he won the fight. Watson put up one hell of an effort though from what I saw, no doubt.

GSP, for the first time throughout the series, rubbed me the wrong way after the Brookins fight when he said Brookins fought in a way that was, "Not to win, but to not to lose," or something like that. Listen, I'm a big fan of GSP as a fighter and person, but that's the pot calling kettle black right there. Most of GSP's fights are him using the safe route to the decision. That's purely a fact, and for him to sort of criticize Brookins for doing the same thing... like I said, it just rubbed me the wrong way. GSP is still awesome in my eyes though. And you never know... maybe he's turning the corner from the safe decisions and wants to become a finisher himself. The way he's been talking lately, it wouldn't surprise me.

Anyways, unfortunately I missed Team Koscheck's mockery of their coach. It's surprising to hear it was Marc Stevens doing the mocking though, since Koscheck had nothing to do with that talentless fuck losing his fights. In fact, it was Koscheck's politicking that got Stevens a second shot to begin with. Stevens should be unconditionally grateful to Koscheck, not mocking him. Kos just couldn't have picked a worse team, Jesus...

I didn't miss, however, Team Koscheck's little "prank" on Nam Phan. Talk about disrespectful and just flat-out wrong. I mean, this is the guy carrying the yellow flag, and you choose to harass him before his final fight? Seriously, fuck every member on Team Koscheck with the exception of Nam. I will never be a fan of any of those guys. They're all worthless pieces of shit.

Regardless, Nam did a good job of blocking it out and giving Michael Johnson an absolute war. That was without a doubt the best fight of the season, and perhaps the best fight we've since on the show since Season 5 (if not much longer). I agreed with the decision, but still... it was a fight where no one was a true loser. You wished both of those guys could have advanced to the finale, but I'm sure regardless both will go on to have a very bright future in the UFC.

Overall, great, great season, for a show that was really starting to decline. Hopefully the finale and GSP vs. Koscheck can live up to the hype and expectations this show provided.

 

[Goliath Uterus]

Wednesdays episode was awesome, enjoyed every second of it. I knew Brookins would beat Watson, but you could definitely see in that fight that Brookins has NO stand up whatsoever, I bet he's been working on that every since he won the semi's. And Johnson/Phan..... What an absolute war, Nam Phan threw some of the most vicious body blows I'd ever seen, but Johnson's heart, chin, body, and freakish athletism gave him the win here, not to mention his superior wrestling.

Team Kos (and Lee-Roy) sure seemed pretty damn creepy when they intentionally walked in on Nam whacking off, I guarentee every single one of them had been doing the same thing in their private time. The Armenian dude seemed like he knew juuuust a little too much about Nam's habits, as he pretty much described in full detail what Nam does in the shower every night. Pretty weird segment of the show, and I'm sure that when those guys say how abosultely dumb they looked, they regretted it immediately. Watson had one of the best lines of the show when he said "For a second I thought the house had a bunch of teenage girls in it."