Staff Columnists
BENT: TUF 8 Episode 12: Beating Off Junie Browning
By By: Jason Bent, MMATorch Columnist
Dec 6, 2008 - 11:08:39 AM

We waste no time at all in getting to the second and final semifinal bout in the light heavyweight division, as it is fight day with Krzysztof Soszynski set to take on Vinny Magalhaes. Soszynski is supremely confident and tells us that, "when you punch a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt in the face, they turn to a brown belt. Land a combination and they turn to a white belt."

Many of "Shecky" Soszynski's pranks were unable to make me laugh but this one had my sides splitting, as it sounded beyond ridiculous. Krzysztof describes this one as the "classic striker versus the grappler," but I feel that he greatly overestimated his punching power while grossly underestimating Vinny's skills on the ground. There is nothing wrong with being confident, but this was a bit more than Krzysztof being sure of himself.

The first round begins, and while both men exhibit caution it should be noted that they are infinitely more aggressive than either Bader or Marshall was in the earlier fight. Soszynski got the takedown and Vinny pulled guard with 4:10 to go in the round and looked to be working towards a triangle. Soszynski shook this off and both men were back to their feet for the moment.

Soszynski showed off some great striking with his punches and kicks, and this certainly did lend credence to his belief that he could dominate on the feet. The shots weren't doing a ton of damage, but they were crisp and Krzysztof had a nice rhythm going for himself. This all changed when Vinny fell down and Krzysztof decided to get on top and found himself in Vinny's guard. He should never have done this and should instead have forced Vinny to get back on his feet.

With 1:20 to go in the first round, this one was all over as Vinny secured an arm bar and forced Krzysztof to tap out. Soszynski may have "jiu jitsu, too," as he told us after his previous fight, but it is nowhere near the level of Vinny's; and he should never have opted to battle this one out on the ground. Perhaps Vinny still may have found a way to win, but this one was handed to him and serves as the perfect example of why you cannot afford to make a single mistake at this stage of the game and against these types of opponents.

Krzysztof Soszynski is a solid enough fighter, but the chance to face Ryan Bader in the finals slipped away, and as such it will be Vinny Magalhaes in his place. I really feel that Soszynski vs. Bader would have provided us with a more entertaining fight, but it shall prove to be interesting to see what exactly Bader will do against a guy with elite level BJJ skills in Magalhaes. For as long as this one shall last it could turn out to be a good one for the finals, but Vinny would have to be the early favorite going in.

We leave the light heavyweights behind and it was now time to take a peek at Junie Browning as he trained in the gym. To say the young man was frustrated is an understatement, and everyone should consider themselves lucky that nothing made of glass made its way into Browning's grasp. Junie's main problem is that he feels his training that he has received while being a part of the show has been poor, and that he would have been much more prepared had he been at home with his team.

While everyone would be more comfortable at home with their own team and familiar faces around them, I have to say that it was Frank Mir's fault that the training his team received was not what it could have been. Only Ken Shamrock was worse as a coach and I believe that Team Mir would have learned more with a television, a dvd player and some Marc Laimon DVDs than they did working with the former UFC Heavyweight Champion.

It would appear that Mir is the type of fighter who can do, but is not capable of showing anyone else how to do anything. One only has to look at Major League Baseball to see examples of great players who failed as coaches, as well as those who were forgettable as players but legendary as coaches. Mir may not be legendary, but he is a good fighter, and was unable to even reach his fighters. Some guys are meant to coach and some are not, and it would be wise for the UFC to consider this when assigning coaches for future installments of the series.

Junie Browning decides that doesn't want to fight and would rather Shane Nelson take his place. Browning doesn't want to lose on national television because he isn't back home getting the proper training, and at this point was willing to throw in the towel. Junie is a passionate fighter and he often says and does things without even thinking about them ,and not for once would I ever believe that he would truly quit. Frank Mir does the worst thing you can do with a guy like this when he tells him that he is ok with Browning's decision. Mir showed no efforts in coaching the guys, and he at least stayed the same in not even bothering to try and change Junie's mind.

Back at the house we see the fighters are hanging out and enjoying each other's company before the final fight, and it wasn't long before trash talk became the order of the day. Junie Browning and Vinny Magalhaes were talking about Ryan Bader, and Shane Primm had had his fill of it. Primm said to Junie, "You don't have to tell me. I'm from the "show me" state," which caused Junie to snap and send a glass zipping towards him. Before the glass even had a chance to break it would be Browning swinging punches at Primm and doing his best to goad Primm into returning fire.

Roli Delgado said it best when talking about Junie's penchant for glass tossing, by saying that Browning "throws it like Nolan Ryan and it shatters in a million pieces," after the Primm incident. This is the second time that Junie has thrown a glass, and everyone believes that this will be the last straw and what will send him packing from the competition.

Dana White shows up, and I am sure he is wondering if he can get a deal with Solo for next season and have the fighters drink out of the red cups normally used for beer pong rather than keeping any glass in the house. We have a special and warm moment as White says to Junie, "I can't figure out if you're f***ing retarded, bi-polar or afraid of failure," which becomes the second time that he has intimated that Junie suffers from some form of mental retardation.

The character of Kirk Lazarus caused a stir with his line in the film 'Tropic Thunder' about how you "never go full retard," and I am shocked that no one has had a problem with Dana White's constant use of the term. If anything, those who suffer from mental retardation should be angry for being lumped in with a bunch of guys who have grinned while consuming semen and urine during their time together in the house. Junie throwing the glasses and acting a fool is a measure of lashing out and I do believe it was very calculated.

Junie agrees with Dana in that maybe he has been looking for a way out, and he admits that the pressure of making it onto the show and being the number one pick has been a heavy burden for a young man from Kentucky. This is the most sincere thing Browning has said, and it is absolutely true. We can all knock Junie for what we perceive to be sophomoric behavior, but you have to take into consideration where he came from, and understand that being a part of this show is a tall order for anyone to deal with. Television suddenly changes everything about your life, and the number of folks that know who you are suddenly exceeds the number of those who actually know you, and this is a big deal for anyone to deal with. Try being a young man in your twenties and know that millions of people are going to be watching you on television, and let me know if it wouldn't get to you at all.

Go back to season one and watch Bobby Southworth acting up around the house, and I think you will realize that Bobby's show of immaturity was remarkably worse than Junie's when you consider their age differences. Junie is a young man who has been willing to fight the world for as long as he can remember, and living in a house with other fighters was a recipe for disaster.

Should he have been capable of handling himself in a more professional manner? Certainly, but if anything good can come out of this it will be that his experience on the show will serve to speed up his maturation process and put him on the right track. Look back on some of the things you have done when you were younger, and think about how lucky you are to not have them collected onto a DVD collection, and realize what Browning will have to deal with for some time. He did it to himself, but this just may be what changes his life for the better.

Dana White decided to ask the other fighters in the house if they wanted Junie to be kicked out or if they wanted him to stay and fight. This question was particularly aimed at Efrain Escudero, who definitely wanted the chance to punish Browning far worse than simply seeing him pack his bags.

Dana said that he didn't want to reward the bad behavior, but he may have done the worst thing possible in allowing Browning to remain in the competition. There is no way that Junie's head was clear enough to continue fighting, and he couldn't have tried to get kicked off any harder. One has to look at Jesse Taylor from last season and wonder how he feels about Junie being allowed to stay in the competition. What Taylor did was the result of letting off a lot of steam and partying his ass off in Las Vegas because he was celebrating his place in the finals. What Junie did was try and get the hell out of the house, and it really would have been the best thing for him at this point as he was in no shape to fight at all.

Remember folks, this isn't 'Survivor' where you vote someone off. This is 'The Ultimate Fighter,' and you have to beat them off. Dana White wants to make sure that Efrain Escudero gets the chance to do just that to Junie Browning.

Well.

Not in that way, of course.

It was now fight day and Junie seems to be confident in saying that he feels capable of defeating Escudero even while out of shape. His other remark was a curious one as he said, "If I can't beat him, then I can't beat anyone in the UFC," which again showed me where his head really was at this point. Junie was basically willing to get into the Octagon and get pummeled as if he felt he deserved the punishment. Efrain on the other hand seemed willing to dole it out, as he stated that he would earn Junie's respect by beating him up.

Both fighters entered the Octagon and began a tentative dance while trying to figure out how best to attack the other. Junie was the more aggressive fighter, but he was not putting his shots together at all; and it was clear that he was not in the best cardiovascular shape to do much more. His timing was way off, and the normally precise Browning looked sluggish and seemed content to flick off one shot at a time while pacing around Escudero. Efrain didn't necessarily look sharper, but he appeared to be in much better shape and was able to get off a few shots as well as land some knees that did some damage. I had Junie winning this round based on effective aggression and Octagon generalship, but this was not a round in which I felt he won with ease but simply did just a little more than his opponent.

Round two began and both fighters seemed more relaxed with Junie especially so as he was able to let his hands go. There was not much of anything on his punches and it was painfully obvious that his lack of conditioning was not going to allow him to keep throwing shots at this rate.

At this point in the fight is when I believe that Junie Browning made a silent agreement with Efrain Escudero and basically gave in to his opponent. I am not saying that he quit or took anything such as a dive, but I do feel he made a subconscious decision to pack it in. Efrain got the takedown and once this fight hit the ground it seemed that all of Junie's aspirations for victory collapsed as well. Efrain got the D'arce choke and went about it so slowly that it made it all the more clear that Browning had no desire to fight any longer.

By no means did Junie Browning give this victory to Efrain Escudero, but I am telling you that Escudero didn't really have to do much to take it, and this serves as further proof that perhaps Dana should have let Junie bow out of the competition. I have seen Browning fight before, and I still stand behind my belief that he and Phillipe Nover are the two most talented lightweights from this season. The real Junie Browning was not inside of the Octagon with Efrain Escudero on this particular day. In fact, the real Junie Browning probably left the building once it became clear that he made it onto the show; and this fear of success served to make him nothing more than an antagonistic shell of himself. Browning should have gone on to face Nover in the final, but he did not have his head in the game and lost out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

There were arguments that Junie didn't listen during the fight, and Frank Mir actually went and sat down rather than try and shout any further instructions to his fighter. Mir said that Junie "conceded and allowed himself to get tapped out," and this is the truth. Efrain Escudero is a talented fighter but he really didn't have to do all that much to get the victory in this one.

Dana White would smugly suggest that justice was served, and I have a huge problem with his comfort in knowing that a compromised fighter entered the Octagon. I suppose that Quinton Jackson is fighting Wanderlei Silva at UFC 92 as a way to serve some justice as well, and suggest that this is another situation that begs for someone to stop one fighter from stepping inside of the Octagon when there is no way that he could possibly be mentally ready enough to do so. Efrain Escudero doesn't benefit from beating a less than ready Junie Browning, and Browning himself takes nothing away from this loss that he wasn't feeling going into the fight.

A frustrated Junie Browning goes off after the fight and announces that this is the wrong sport for him and his time in MMA has been nothing more than a "waste of three years." He follows this up by suggesting the he needs to find another way to make money, and intimated that going to "flip burgers" may be the next step for him. This was a knee-jerk reaction to his experience on the show, and the comment about working in fast food just serves to reinforce the comfort that Browning seems to find in failure. This isn't the wrong sport for him, as he is a super talented young man, but this was the wrong place and the wrong time for him to give it a shot. Junie would later say that he will fight on, and that his comments were just those from a man who was angry with himself.

Apparently the coaches had a bet, and this wager was that if any of Nogueira's fighters make it to the finale that Nogueira would get to shave Mir's head. Nogueira went to work on Mir's hair as if he were a man possessed, and this was just a scary sight. I am just glad that they went with a head shaving and didn't opt for the sort of waxing that Nogueira's home country is famous for.

Season eight of 'The Ultimate Fighter' is now over, and our next stop is the live finale on December 13 on Spike TV. Ryan Bader will be facing Vinny Magalhaes for the light heavyweight contract and Phillipe Nover takes on Efrain Escudero for the lightweight contract. I had imagined that Bader would be taking on Soszynski and that Nover would be going up against Browning but neither prediction came true.

One thing for certain is that we have a better class of fighters facing off in the finale than we have had for some time on this program. For all of the pranks and 'Jackass' sort of debauchery that went on inside of the house, this group of fighters was a very talented one.

From Jason Guida's taint to Ryan Bader sucking on tainted fruit, this show offered up many images that we would love to erase from our minds; but it also introduced us to a few fighters that we certainly cannot wait to see again.

See you on December 13 at 9pm EST on Spike TV for the finale, and extra points shall go to anyone who opts to have fruit cocktail, sushi and hard lemonade on hand for their 'TUF' viewing party.

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