The Ultimate Fighter 8: The Humorless Joke
by Cannon Jacques on Dec 13, 2008 9:12 AM EST
in MMA News
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Neil Davidson of the Canadian Press has an article out which examines Junie Browning's notorious behavior on The Ultimate Fighter 8. The piece contains several quotes from participants in this most recent iteration of the reality show. One notable quote is via Krzysztof Soszynski:
"To be honest with you, he did everything for show," he said in an interview. "It was a whole joke to him. Basically he told me the very first day we met - and before our fights to get into the house - he basically said 'If I get into this house, I'm going to be the crazy guy. I'm going to get out of hand, I'm going to get out of control, I'm going to pull whatever I can just to get ratings, to become the character that I want to become.'
"He said he was going to become the worst Chris Leben ever," added Soszynski, referring to the Season 1 bad boy.
Frankly, I hesitated to even post this material, because I don't feel that Browning deserves another minute of attention. However, this situation illustrates how unreal reality television can become. Someone always figures out that engaging in shocking antics equals more air time. Those running the show in question could easily break this pattern, but these people generally aren't willing to risk ratings. Unfortunately, good ratings seem to trump good taste more often than not. One could always shoot for both, but that might take too much mind-bending effort.
Zuffa has accomplished much in the realm of MMA and sports on the whole. It's my feeling that the UFC should produce a show that's more representative of what the promotion and the sport of MMA are all about. Currently, The Ultimate Fighter falls well short of that objective. It's less reality and more joke.
HT: Steve Cofield
Photo via Combat Lifestyle
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The fact...
that there are SCHOOLS you can attend to teach you how to get on, and how to become a star once you are on, reality TV speaks a lot to how “real” any of it is.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 13, 2008 1:04 AM EST reply actions
I did not know this. Really, I almost wish I still didn’t, because it’s sort of a disturbing piece of trivia.
by Cannon Jacques on Dec 13, 2008 1:15 AM EST up reply actions
wow, i don’t understand why everyone is so butt-hurt over the whole Junie thing, Take it for what it is, Junie was an butthole and it was funny. It made the whole show entertaining and much better to watch. These guys are fighters, and when it comes down to it, they will act crazy and do crazy things. You have to be a little crazy to get hit in the face for a living. If the worst thing ever is one butthole throwing a glass at another butthole, then this is an all right world. And a “sanctity of the sport” argument is B.S. Everyone on the internet throws a fit when Junie takes a swing at someone, but no one says a thing when Shogun and Coleman’s crews got into it.
by littlenicky2355 on Dec 13, 2008 2:17 AM EST reply actions
The Humorless Joke - Bloody Elbow - Windows Internet Explorer
He might have entered the house with the intention of being the center of attention, but it quickly turned into him wanting to get kicked off the show. Dana White’s assessment during the final episode (he wants to get kicked off the show, brag to his friends that the UFC couldn’t handle him, and spare himself a loss inside the octagon in the process) makes more sense to me.
They obviously see dollar signs with Junie. When Marlon and Noah got kicked off the show for fighting inside the house during a previous season, I thought a precedent had been set. Turns out those two clowns were just easily expendable and if the UFC thinks they can market you, you will stay no matter what you do.
Enough of this Junie shit already..
The guy has a 2-0 MMA record or something like that and your f-bomb promoting him like EXC did with Kimbo.
They should let Junie fight Nate Diaz next.....
at least we’ll get to see 1 douchebag get his ass kicked.
Diaz vs. Browning
Diaz by 1st round TKO via murder death kill
by Monday Morning Martial Artist on Dec 13, 2008 3:43 AM EST reply actions
hahaha, sick reference.
But yeah he wouldn’t last a minute.
by EazyEismydad on Dec 13, 2008 5:14 AM EST up reply actions
The sad part is that Junie did what works, if he is even a competent fighter he has the ability to become a star because of the exposure of the show where as most people can’t even remember the names of most of the people from the show a month later. We all can see what is going on and we all hate it but then hardcore MMA fans have never been the target audience for that show. We all die a bit inside or got smart a long time ago and only watch for the fights to start with but you can’t argue with the ratings. When Junie (or any of the other guys) pulled crap the ratings went up, more people out there were watching to see their crazy antics than were watching to see MMA fighters. Heck the show has been like that from the start, the zanier the antics and the deeper the drama the better the ratings, that’s how all reality shows work.
Please stop giving this guy any air time, this no talent ass clown only has a mouth. MMA doesn’t need this WWE type of bullshit. More GSPs (and I don’t even consider myself a fan) and less of this crap.
The “no talent ass clown” is now 1-0 in the UFC.
Bolts from the Blue // People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.
by Richard Wade on Dec 14, 2008 9:01 PM EST up reply actions
Guys...
please don’t blame US for covering him. Our sit covers MMA…the UFC is the most important organization for the sport on the planet…Junie is main carding a UFC show and was the “star” of the UFC’s reality show. It is pretty hard to refuse to cover the guy.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 13, 2008 11:10 AM EST reply actions
Reality Star = Pornstar
Reality ptars and pornstars are pretty much the same. They are both famous for doing something that anyone can do in front of cameras. No particular talent is needed to become either.
I wouldn’t be suprised to see any of the guys from season 8 make the crossover to pornstar since several have shown a willingness to consume body fluids.
As a huge Junie fan, I am really glad he is getting 10 times the coverage of the actual finalists. He deserves it. He was the star of the show and without him, TUF probably would have been canceled and the UFC would have been the latest promotion to go under. The only reason Junie isn’t the LW champ already, is that he is to good and the ACs wouldn’t allow him to beat somebody for a full 5 rounds. All you guys need to put down the Haterade and rekognize! Booyakasha!!
Eliot Marshall: Bader won. Like I said in the episode, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's my job to be able to deal with when somebody's doing that. It's not his job to change up his tactics.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
by BJJDenver on Dec 13, 2008 12:19 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Well...
I’m sold
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Dec 13, 2008 12:54 PM EST up reply actions
As well you all should be. One day Junie will be wearing the belt cruisin’ in his IROC and pickin up sweet honeys at his family reunion. You should all be so lucky!
Eliot Marshall: Bader won. Like I said in the episode, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's my job to be able to deal with when somebody's doing that. It's not his job to change up his tactics.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
And I hope that, of course, you realize I am not being serious! Except the sweet IROC part!
Eliot Marshall: Bader won. Like I said in the episode, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's my job to be able to deal with when somebody's doing that. It's not his job to change up his tactics.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
You mean this whole thing was sarcasm? Gee whiz, I’m disappointed. Ha. Nobody should underestimate the power of a sweet IROC.
by Cannon Jacques on Dec 13, 2008 5:41 PM EST up reply actions
I don’t buy that it was all an act. Was he “playing up to the audience” when he was drunk off of his ass and threw a glass at a guy for throwing popcorn on him? Was he acting when he went fucking insane when Kristophf threw a pork chop at him? [which was hilarious] Was he acting when he jumped the cage to try and attack Efrain? The guy’s got some serious mental issues and he was mentally broken by the house.
Another great example was when he was joking around and laughing with some of the guys on Nog’s team and one of them said “I like you Junie, but I wanted to fucking punch you when you jumped that cage”. Immediately, you can see his facial expression go from smiling and laughing to pissed off and wanting to fight them right there. That’s not the MO of an attention whore, that’s the MO of someone with serious anger issues. I
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