Til, he pulled that stunt on the first episode of season 5. He is a classless guy. And when he got rid of Wang, he could have been more diplomatic about it. He has had a chip on his shoulder for too long, and he is no longer as good a fighter as he used to be.
I was never a Pulver fan, til I started watching this season of TUF. He is a standup guy and willing to help and train anyone. I am now a Pulver fan, while I used to be a BJ fan. In fact I just bought his first book Little Evil. I hear it's great.
Anyway, I wish Pulver would have responded as follows when BJ asked the fighters who want to be on his team and have nothing to do with Pulver's team to raise their hands. This would have been a great response:
Ok, out of all those who raised your hand, who would rather train with BJ or train with a fighter, who I will admitt is not at his peak, and hasn't won too many fights in the last few years, but rather brings to this gym all the training knowledge of the Miletich camp for you to use. That's the same exact knowledge that has produced several UFC champs in several weight classes. If you still want to be on BJ's team keep your hand up.
I'll bet everyone would have dropped their hand. Except Wang cause he's from Hawaii and he's gotta bond with his locals.
Yes, it was classless. Bush league crap. BJ acted like a jerk, and based on the flakey team he assembled as a result, he reaped the "benefits" in spades. Jens must have been laughing as he observed the truism that what goes around, comes around.
Yes, BJ is an awesome fighter.
I am sure that "the Wang thing wasn't out of the blue." Still, BJ's handling of it was yet another bush-league move on his part. Completely unprofessional. Even Lauzon, who hasn't exactly been Wang's biggest defender, said he didn't believe Penn was serious until Andy was actually thrown out.
BJ is edited to look Shamrockish; there is no doubt he is a great coach. But Dana apparently heard that BJ was not doing much cardio with his guys. Considering how Emerson seemed to fade in the third against Corey in a fight that most of us agree Emerson should have dominated, there might be some truth to that.
In any case, it certainly looks like BJ was embarrassed at being dressed down by Dana and decided to show his toughness by tossing Wang out on his ear without an ounce of compassion. Hard to see that any other way. And that is wrong, however you cut it.
I don't know how up to date sherdog is, but he's lost 3 out of his last 4 fights.
I saw the Wang drama. Wang was stupid for not paying attn to BJ. The guy wasted his ground skills and cost the team and himself a win. My wife and I still laugh at that everyday. Out of the blue, one of us will yell "take him down, Andy take him down" (with that BJ accent which sounds like an east LA Mexican accent), and we'll start laughing.
I'm not sure who BJ trains with. I think he has his own gym/mma school. I think he's buds with Cabbage, and I don't know if other Hawaiian fighters like Kimo train with him. He is definitely a talented fighter and probably trains with talented guys. But Jens has been training at Miletich for at east 7 yrs, and that camp does have a great track record. I'm not too up to date on IFL but I think the Miletich team won last year's championship.
BJ is a good guy and had to deal with a lot on the show, as well. He gave me plenty of leeway; sometimes a change of scenery is best for everyone and I'll tell you this much about him; the dude is a BJJ god.
What I find absolutely baffling, Andy, is your behavior towards Jens. At first, you state you're a Ronin - a solitary fighter without liege lord, on your own, etc... etc... then you say your loyalty towards BJ is paramount.
Explain that to me.
Then, Jens takes you into his team with open arms, and you dropped the jaws of Jens, Dana and about a million viewers when you amazingly said, "Don't I have a say in this?"
I think you're a nice young man, Andy, but you seem to be living in a dream world. I don't mean that as an insult. You are captivated by images - the tough guy, the brawler, dying rather that quitting, and all this other rubbish instead of rationally focusing on the business of winning.
what i dont understand is how u can still defend BJ after he kicked u off the team in front of everyone.No offense but Id have been insulted and he would no longer be my buddy after that or have any of my loyalty.Honestly I think BJ was more mad about being down 4-0 than anything else and instead of trying to help u he gave up on u
Andy, you did mess up by not taking your opponent to the ground. But BJ was a bit harsh in the way he let you go. I think he should have given you a 2nd chance or at least been more diplomatic about letting you go. I'm sure if he would have nicely threatened you with kicking you off the team if you didn't start paying attn to him, you would have come around and seen the error of your ways.
You are definitely a nice enough guy. All the guys on Pulver's team were glad to have you on their side. But you should have taken Dana's and Pulver's offer immediately, thanked them for it, and THEN only after that was said and done, figured out how you were gonna smooth things out with BJ.
Guys, to be fair to Andy, remember that Hawaii is small, almost all bjj and mma fighters know each other. When BJ threw him off the team, Andy probably felt that he had to repair his relationship with BJ or forever be shunned by the bjj and mma community in his small state. It's the wolf pack mentality we have that we need to belong to a group. And BJ Penn is the Alpha male in that wolf pack.
Andy, try to get the most out of your training with Jens and his team. Then slowly try to mend things up with BJ. Maybe if you took him aside one on one and apologized, he would be cool with you again.
jwein - He is awesome...I said that back in 1997 and Im saying that in 2007.
Bubble - BJ is a good coach; he treated us like pros and the man has an answer for every position.
mmanhbfan - there was more to it than that. BJ was actually really cool and understanding to me after the fight, but he had to make some changes and he did what he thought was best for me. as for Dana and Jens; there were 3 more conversations besides that one where I explained everything; they only showed about 30% of the conversations that actually happened.
winston - BJ was cool to me; not defending him, just saying what happened. He did everything he could for me, believe that. Even sending me packing helped me in the long-run.
Rastus - Jens understood what was happening; right after the meeting we went outside and he started telling me about his life experiences...believe me, in real-time there was no disrespect at all. In fact, after my fight against Brandon, while in the cage, I told Jens that I was sorry I raised my hand. Like I said, there were a bunch of conversations between BJ, Tony, Jens, Dana and me that did not show what happened or what we were thinking and feeling. They only showed the dramatic one. Jens is a great guy; if you're around him for 10 minutes, you'll want to train with him...I would never disrespect him in real life. HE INVITED ME TO HIS TRAINING CAMP after the show!
Good for you Andy. Glad to hear Jens wants you to train with him after the show. Also, I know tv shows, especially reality shows, have a bad habit of editing things for the most dramatic effect, and tend to leave out a lot. Sounds like things are getting better for you. Don't let the haters get to you.