TUF 6: Episode 6 Thoughts/Recap
November 1, 2007 by Adam Morgan
Filed under Anthony Johnson
The show starts, as usual, with the recap of last week’s fight. Great fight, Ben Saunders and Dan Barerra really gave it their all with Saunders coming out on top to put Team Hughes down 5-1. Matt Hughes is not happy.
Back in the locker room he tears into Barerra for not following the gameplan and tells his two remaining fighters, Jared Rollins and Tommy Speer, that they better do what they say they’re going to do. Hughes is down in the dumps and sitting by the Octagon when Dana White comes in and gives him a pep talk. Many F bombs were dropped and Dana basically told Hughes he needs to beat the piss out of his fighters in order to whip them into shape.
Somehow I don’t think Hughes will have a problem with that, especially seeing as he’s done it all season long already.
Hughes tells his team at the next practice that he expects more out of them and that they need to give him a reason to stay on the show. He then proceeds to torture them in practice, going extra hard on Jared and Tommy. He then talks more shit about Barerra, saying he was scared in the cage and that he didn’t do what he said he was going to do.
Mac Danzig takes exception to this back at the house when he’s talking to Billy Miles. Mac thinks Hughes should take it easy on the rookies because it’s a tough sport and all things come with experience. He makes the point that Dan fought his ass off, which he did, and that Hughes should be happy that he didn’t freeze out there like some of his other fighters have. Billy and Mac come to a realization that the level of talent on the show this years is, to put it mildly, fucking weak. Almost everyone is a rookie.
Mac, who has a shitload of fights, then asks himself: “Why am I here?”
Billy says: “To win.”
Yeah, you got that right. The only way Danzig doesn’t walk away with this thing is if he injures himself. He is far and away the best and most experienced fighter on the show. Later in the night he welcomes Barerra home and told him he fought his ass off and that it all comes with experience. Mac is, with the exception of one show, probably the most likable guy on the show this season.
The next day at the fight announcements, Hughes picks Jared “J-Rock” Rollins to fight George Sotiropolous. Both of these guys are the cream of the crop of the fighters on the show and it should be a good fight.
Next we realize that George is seen as a loner by his teammates. The dude is focused as hell, though. He trains, trains, trains, and trains some more. He seems to be the most dedicated fighter on Serra’s team and is obviously there for one thing and that’s to win. George’s team gets pissed at him for not waking them up for practice. George doesn’t feel he needs to babysit his team and tells them to pretty much deal with it.
At the Team Hughes practice, during a drill, J-Rock hurts his rib. He described it like getting punched in the gut really hard. The EMT on hand took a look at it and said it could be a broken rib or a separated rib and that he should get it looked at because he didn’t want his rib poking into his vital organs.
Of course, Matt Hughes wants a second opinion. So who does he bring in? A witch doctor. Did I read that right? A witch doctor? Some dude in jeans who is identified as a “Witch Doctor” at the bottom of the screen examines J-Rock and tells him that “there’s something there and you probably need to seek medical attention.” Thanks, witch doctor. Why the hell was a witch doctor on TUF tonight? Someone please tell me.
Anyway, back at the house George gets into another spat with the team and specifically Ben Saunders about not waking them up before practice. Keep in mind that we’re not talking about 5 AM here. Or 7 AM. Or even 9 AM. 10:30 AM and these guys can’t get up? Still, it is a little dick that George doesn’t wake them up so they won’t be late. I guess George wants staph infection because he doesn’t wake his team up so they can take showers before training.
The fighters weigh in, have an intense staredown that involves a clinch for some reason, and we are ready for the fight.
Jared “J-Rock” Rollins vs. George Sotiropolous:
The two come out and feel one another out. George looks to have good movement and pops his jab in Rollins’ face in the early going. Rollins looks to be moving in slow motion or doing maybe some tai-chi in the Octagon. Meanwhile George is unleashing on him with accurate combos of jabs and straight rights. J-Rock lands a solid leg kick and lands a right hand and then tries the leg kick again. George catches the kick, the fight goes to the floor for a moment, J-Rock tries for a keylock that George rolls out of and they are back on their feet. George continues to land solid combinations before landing a huge left uppercut that sends Rollins to the mat. From there George continued to pound on him and referee Steve “Porn ‘Stache” Mazagatti stepped in.
Hughes is once again disappointed. J-Rock did not look good at all and George was clearly the more well prepared fighter. Hughes can do nothing but shake his head in disgust.
Team Serra goes up on Team Hughes 6-1. Wow. Next week we’ll see John “War Machine” Koppenhaver take on Tommy Speer.
hughes is a terrible coach he should re name his gym the S.H.I.T. squad.
Found this concerning the `Witch doctor’ http://www.mmauniverse.com/articles/SS109
This was another pretty weak episode. The “Dark Horse” went out there and looked totally out of his element. He was throwing these kicks that had no chance, and didn’t throw a punch attempt until the fight had been going on for over a minute. George looks pretty good. His head is in the right place and I can’t blame him for not waking his teammates, at least at first. They are bitching about not being able to wake up before 10:45 AM. How can they just expect him to know that they didn’t want/need the sleep? I have been woken up when I didn’t want and I am typically pissed. It is their responsibility. They hadn’t said anything to him, and when they did they were so rude why would he wake them up after that?
Hughes is the worst coach I have seen on the show with the exception of Shamrock, and doesn’t have a clue how to prepare his fighters, let alone motivate them. Danzig vs. George can’t happen soon enough. I am surprised they even invited a vet like Danzig on the show?!?!?!
Hughes sucks. I hope Serra pulls a GSP on his ass.
How many of Hughes’ fighters have had injury scares now right before they were supposed to fight? Why is Hughes beating up his guys when they’re scheduled to fight next?
Man,
I am totally floored by this season so far, it has been the ultimate suck so far and doesn’t show any signs of getting better. It’s going to be an all Serra semi and Mac. Question is, who does Serra throw to Danzig? The best guy (George or Matt) in a team effort or the weakest (Richie) to give his stronger guys a pass to the next round?
Whatever, this has been a terrible season, I wasn’t too hyped about it anyway, would have much preferred to see GSP vs Serra, would have been a more legit coaching chance. I think this will directly impact Matt Hughes coaching career, but it really looks like he does it the Miletich way, what did they say 100 try out every week and only a handful stay? Guess he has a bad crop, looks like make is the handful.
Was it just me or does Billy seem sloooooooow. No wonder the dude lost, I could see him form every word in each sentence when he was talking to Mac. Mac is going to be the champ, lucky dude, he gets a whole season of advertising before he fights in the final.
clint notestine
Dood you have no clue what your talking about. I’m getting tired of people blaming the coaches for fighters losing their matches. HUGHES HAS 1 MONTH TO HELP THESE GUYS BETTER THEMSELVES. Hughes hasn’t been training these guys for years. So how is it his fault that he lost in the fight? Hughes isn’t the one fighting here…he’s just on the show to help the guys out.
Would I wake them up? Sure, if they asked me nicely.
That Ben’s a complaining punk though. If some dude I barely know said, why didn’t you wake us up like it was my job to, I’d say go fuck yourself. I didn’t wake you up cause I wouldn’t want you waking me up. I don’t even want to sleep in the same room as you you fruity little bitch. Grow up and use the fuckin alarm clock.
Dizzle I am just kidding but obviously Serra has a much better training technique since back in the 4th season about the same ratio of people he “coached” won. I think Hughes is a great fighter and probably a good coach if he knew these guys for years but he isn’t a great coach.
clint notestine
I think you’re way off with your opinion about Hughes Coaching. Serra and Hughes are doing the same type of training with their guys. What is the difference? I don’t see a difference. I see both of the guys to be great coaches..hell they have their own gyms how could they not be great coaches? I think you are thinking he’s a bad coach because his figthers aren’t performing to 100%. Hughes can’t fight the fights for these guys. He does his best to help the guys out…but I see most of his picks aren’t experienced enough and they aren’t opened minded to his coaching.
Here’s the thing…if Serra was down 6-1 then everyone would say he’s a sorry ass coach. Let me put it in retrospect for you. Lets say Hughes and Serra just found 2 average joes off the street and said “we’re going to train you for a month and then you’ll fight.” Lets say Hughes loses…does that make him a bad coach? NO! Because he only has 1 MONTH TO TRAIN HIM! It’s simple I think alot of the views of TUF aren’t thinking about how Reality TV works. Thinking about the video editing and how they can cut things to make it say what they want. Just like the bible…take a passage out of the bible give it to 50 people and you’ll see that most of the people will all have different perception of what they read.
dizzle
Retrospect means looking back on something in the past.
Matt Hughes fans should steer clear of big words.
Adam,
Another TUF recap with no research or insight. A simple Google search would have told you all you need to know about the Witch Doctor. Way too much editorializing, calling George a dick for not waking up his teammates @ 10 am & calling the talent level fucking weak. And, if I may split hairs, you jump between past & preent tense during your play-by-play. No offense, but do you just crank these out as you’re watching them?
Obviously Serra’s destroying Hughes in terms of the coaching this season. However, I was a little disappointed with the way Serra was referring to J Rock last night. Saying J Rock was Hughes’ “boy,” and that he would be “doing whatever Mr. Huges said” can be interpreted in ways I don’t think Dana — and I hope Serra — would like.
I crank them out with the effort that is put into this show.
Notice the title of the post is called “Thoughts/Recap”? That’s why there’s so much opinion. And is the talent level not terrible this year?
If you want a rosy recap, then this isn’t the site for you. I’m not going to paint a rosy picture when A) this show is terrible and B) the fighters this year are the worst they’ve ever had on the show.
a. hieronymous
Would you like some Midol with that whine?
where in the hell can i watch this fight at online? I need to show a few people here at work how an uppercut is executed.
a. hieronymous:
I’ve asked Adam to post them soon after each airing of TUF, whenever humanly possible. So yeah, I would hope he’s getting right on it and getting something here on 5 Oz. each Wednesday night. When you cover an event or a show, you actually do some of your writing while the event or show is taking place.
As for editorializing, I’ve asked that Adam use his natural writing style so that he can write for fans of TUF from a fan’s perspective. It’s a style that works very well for Adam and not every writer can bring the same level of humor to their writing that he does. Adam’s an MMA writer, not a reviewer for TV Guide.
Sam do you ever get the feeling that your replying to a wall?
dizzle
Try dailymotion.
There are other places but its kinds like the rules of fight club and the first rule must be obeyed….
Adam: I appreciate the no hold barred recaps. Let the humor fly, baby.
haga: You’re reaching.
thanks Evan I’m looking into it right now.
I don’t have the free time to get into a whole thing over this, I’m already pushing it by posting at work. To me, the recaps are awful. I like that you guys answer the posts to yr entries. I like the site, it’s better than the rest. To me, the chink in the armor is the level of writing skill that’s demonstrated by some of the contributors. No matter how many times Dizzle reiterates his ill-conceived sticking-points, I choose not to join him in sucking up to this site. The TUF recaps suck & that’s not a personal dig on anyone, it’s as objective an observation as I can make. Still love 5oz, even if there’s room for improvement.
a. hieronymous it’s not sucking up…it’s called respect. I help these guys out as much as I can. I think this is the best MMA News Site around right now, and I’m trying my ass off to help these guys be successful in doing so.
It’s not a big deal I respect your opinion.
hieronymous:
Do you have strong feelings about what went down in the most recent episode? I do. It’s all I can do to keep from writing a lengthy critique (while on the clock in my professional life). However, I DON’T have strong feelings about the recap that was posted here. The commentary is appreciated, but for me, the real draw is the opportunity to debate and disect the behavior of the coaches/fighter/UFCPrez-Whitehead. Anyhow, the show is too polaraizing to inspire objective journalism. Nonetheless, maybe you should offer a recap in your own style, with your own opinions, and informational asides. Seriously. Show’em how you think it should be done. Maybe they’ll take a page outta your book.
Fair enough. My bro already handles the TUF recaps on our blog so I get two cents in by digging into the recaps here. If it’s gonna ruffle feathers, I’ll lay off. Don’t want this to become another (blech) Sherdog forum.
it’s not ruffling feathers.
It’s just critism.
You keep coming back which is a good thing if u ask me.
There will always be times when there are different opinions. It makes things more interesting.
The generation that is 20-30 years old is generally piss poor with their work ethic.
You’re in the house for six weeks. Learn how to wake yourself up, you little bitches. Dammit, I hated all that whining at George. Stop drinking like a fish and staying up till the wee hours. Get some self discipline you rank ninnies.
I wanted to see that big dumb goofy bastard get kicked in the head. If it’s important, you’ll wake yourself up or keep better hours so you won’t be too wiped out to wakey wakey by 10:00a.m.
Those guys that can’t wake themselves up may be able to throw a punch, but they’re pussies when it comes to self discipline.
Make your life better, stop bitching.
Nicely done by George. He and Mac should be in the finals.
I don’t suck up to or respect any of the monkeys writing this shit any more than I respect the rest of you MMA dorks posting here like me… but I do think the TUF recaps are fuckin funny. I’m going to see what’s going on at Fightlinker.
“…And is the talent level not terrible this year?…”
You are dead on here, it bleeping terrible.
My question is, ya, Serra goes 7-1 or whatever, but if Mac Danzig wins, doesn’t that mean “team” Hughes won??
This isn’t a team sport, expecially since you have to eventually fight the guy on your “team”, and anyway, they have known eachother for less than a month.
George is right one in that case. These losers need to get woke up at 10 fucking 30, are you kidding me??? Hillarious, in his Australian accent, how George said, “want me to make you breakfast too?”
When you think about it, no matter what happens, Hughes won it all on the first episode by triggering Matt Serra’s best man to ruin his life. Now him and Serra don’t even speak, that cuts deep.
Hughes will get the last laugh as well.
Danzig will win it all, and Serra already lost his best freind and eventually, will lose his belt as well at the hands of Hughes.
no matter what mac danzig does, or what happens in the title fight, matt “ha ha i got the team i wanted” hughes will never live down 7-1. Or 6-2…but i’m picking the former.
and on another note, how awesome of a name is “mac danzig”?
“I don’t suck up to or respect any of the monkeys writing this shit any more than I respect the rest of you MMA dorks posting here like me.”
Ooooh, oooh, eee, eee, ah, ah, ah!
Accomando brings up a Good Point….Mac Danzig is going to win and he’s on Hughes Team, so Hughes will get the last laugh when it’s said and Done….If Danzig losses somehow I’ll be really surprised……
Don’t count George out for winning the show.
He’s got experience in Japan and fought many times quality opponents in Australia.
He was also at this year’s ADCC (losing to Marcelo Garcia).
on paper, hughes def has the better team, i swore he was gonna run thru every fight.
serra has his team acting like a team, and brought in his good guys to prepare fighters for thier fights. if anything serra picked a bunch of reg guys and within a month made them all better fighters and you can see it in his fighters eyes the level of appreciation they have for him. hughes and his guys have done absoulutley nothing to prepare his guys except to create an atmosphere of disgust which by no means helps fighters morale. hughes did his homework and picked better fighters and thought he could sit back and let thier natural skills win fights, but best laid plans of mice and men yadda yadda. this season may have a weaker cast then past seasons, but i can honestly say serra has impressed me. month or not hes the better coach and if war machine loses so be it as serra got stuck with him anyway. hughes has always been an arrogant **** and maybe this will humble him into a better person…..maybe. yes danzig will prolly win it all but hey who didnt see that coming. although no1 thought billy miles would lose either, stranger things have happened.
on the subject of the fight itself, george definitely looked like he was way more comfortable out there while jared seemed nervous and gun-shy. they have identical reaches, but watching the fight you’d swear george had a 5″ reach advantage. jared wasn’t even close to landing his punches and the only significant blows he landed were a few a leg kicks. jared did however show a brief flash of brilliance for the 10-15 seconds that they clinched and were on the ground. if jared had tried to clinch with george and go for more takedowns he still might not have won, but he would’ve made a better showing out there.
matt hughes and his other coaches need to stop beating up and causing injuries to the people who are about to fight. he bitches about his fighters not giving 100%, but going too hard in training and injuring them is not going to help that cause.
j-roc seemed like a deer stuck in headlights. if he is good we certainly didnt get a chance to see it. george was def comfortable in the cage and made quick work of j-roc. props to george. next weeks coming attractions make warmachine seem super nervous. hope he doesnt go out like j-roc
Coming into the show I was predisposed to think more highly of Hughes than Serra due to their reputations as fighters: Hughes one of the greatest welterweights, Serra a good fighter but not in the same ‘hall of fame’ league (so far.) Well, as coaches I’ve been of the opposite mind, with Hughes seeming to be a truly wretched coach and Serra a surprisingly good one. (Remember when Serra ran Shoni’s corner in the comeback season? He was good there, too.)
Having your own coaching school means zero: Hughes’ name is big enough that he’d have one simply by putting his name up on a billboard– and more power to him, nothing wrong with that. But this show he has done a terrible job of a) motivating b) preparing c) enriching, the guys on his team. The occasional insights into the problem when he is alone are followed up by him stumbling over his massive ego when with the team. Example again in this episode, in the cameo confessional or whatever he says, ‘Maybe the problem is me’, then immediately gets in front of his team and berates *them*. I don’t blame Hughes for having a big ego in the UFC context– he’s a great fighter and has been a great champion– but coaching is a different game. You don’t motivate most people by kicking their a**es, nor do you prepare them by beating the tar out of them. As for enriching, his biggest contribution seems to be nearly inaudible guidance from the corner, then shaking his head in disgust when it isn’t followed.
Serra & his ass’t are *always* easily audible in every fight. Their directions are clear, encouraging, positive. Hughes is almost never heard by the mics that we viewers hear, and when he is it is generally in a disgusted tone that implicitly saps the will of the fighter. An experienced pro like Mac can handle that, but these guys who are just beginners (relatively speaking) need much more constant patter, which Serra gives very well.
If Mac wins it will be in spite of Hughes, not because of him. If George wins, Serra & his coaches will have been a valuable support and enrichment to George. Both fighters are saying as much already.
I’d be surprised if Hughes didn’t win in the upcoming bout with Serra, but coaching-wise Serra is clearly better, by a very long margin. He’s no Queen Esther , and hasn’t brought in any witch doctors, but he knows how to coach.