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Ultimate Fighter 8: Assistant coach James Horne sounds off on episode 9

James Horne is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir. He currently serves as an assistant coach under Frank on season eight of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 8 on Spike TV. He will provide a behind the scenes perspective as we head head into the homestretch of the series. This column is sponsored by Kill It Clothing.

Last night's episode of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) begins with a recap of the lightweight fight between Phillipe Nover and Dave Kaplan. Of course, it didn't last long because Dave -- by his own admission -- stepped into the Octagon with a horrible gameplan.

In fact, he was more than likely doomed to lose in the locker room before the fight.

He simply didn't do what we had talked about in training and while preparing for the fight. We knew that Phillipe was very dangerous, resilient and well rounded. Dave walked out there and stood in the center of the cage and basically dared Phillipe to exchange with him without offering up much of a defense … or offense for that matter.

Dave is actually a member of our gym at Striking Unlimited in Las Vegas, Nevada. He continues to train along with me and Frank Mir. And from working with him so much we know that he is a very talented, durable and smart fighter. I think he just got caught up in the moment and lost focus on what he had to do to win against Phillipe.

That's some real bad timing, especially against an unforgiving fighter like Phillipe.

In the end, Dave paid for his mistake and it's unlikely he'll make it again. Frank always talks about how mental mixed martial arts is … and he's right. In short, Dave is an intelligent guy and he learned his lesson.

Or did he?

Star-divide

Shortly after the loss Dave drowned his spirits with massive amounts of alcohol. Tom Lawlor, being the good friend that he is, made the selfless sacrifice to ensure that Dave did not feel alone, drinking himself silly alongside Dave for most of the evening.

What happened later, therefore, should not have come as much of a surprise. Unless, of course, your name is Dave Kaplan.

Even to this day Dave talks about how he has such a good chin and can take a punch with the best of them. Again, from experience, I can vouch for him to an extent -- Dave has a great jaw and not many 155-pound fighters could turn his lights out.

The only problem is that Lawlor is a big guy at 205 pounds … much bigger than Dave. I think in his drunken state Dave may have lost sight of the obvious size difference and he paid dearly for it.

Despite what he says or thinks, the cameras proved that Dave was knocked out, unless there was a faulty microphone that was buzzing and he decided to take a nap at that precise moment. Put simply, with that many drinks and a 205 pounder throwing a straight right with no gloves it's a guaranteed knockout.

Next up was the coaches challenge, which pitted Frank against Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira in a soccer-style showdown. Frank can probably count on one hand the number of times he has kicked a soccer ball, much less tried to score a goal.

Frank is a very competitive guy, so it came as no surprise that he became quickly irritated when he missed those first few shots. The cameras made it appear that Nogueira was some amazing goalkeeper, diving left and right to save all these shots.

That's the beauty of editing -- Frank actually put six in the back of the net even though it appeared that he scored like only twice.

In addition, no matter what he says, Nogueira has played enough soccer in his lifetime to know that he is not good at it and to know he doesn't like it. That's way more than Frank can say -- he has never played has never played soccer a day in his life.

Whatever, that's the hand he was dealt and he played it well despite the movie magic. What wasn't magic, however, was the behavior of Kyle Kingsbury screaming "Gooooooooooooooooooal" throughout the competition.

That was clearly over the top, but karma is a bitch. Walking off the field, we knew that Krzysztof Soszynski was the man who would ultimately shut up Kingsbury with his fists. We were right … kinda.

Krzysztof has some real heavy hands and his striking is very good. That's the reason there was so much concern surrounding his injured thumb. It's nearly impossible to be as effective as possible if you can't close your fist and do what you want to do.

It's just one more thing he has to worry about and plan around come fight time.

Fortunately, he has a solid ground game, which the cameras seem to have neglected throughout training. He works over at Team Quest with Dan Henderson and those guys so he drills all aspects of the sport.

I was glad, therefore, that he ended the fight with a nice quick armbar. Krzysztof is clearly not just all stand up and master prankster. Last night's first round submission win proved that fact.

In addition, it is nice to see a fighter take this opportunity for what it is and not get wasted every night and act a fool but instead put his pent up energy to his clever and hilarious pranks. It was also nice not to hear Kyle Kingsbury scream "goal" at the end of his fight.

He should spend more time on the mat and less time cheerleading for Noguiera.

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why didn’t frank even try to block the goals than, he just stood there, and saying kyle was over the top for yelling goal what about all mirs fighters and there pranks and mir saying nothing to them about it and constantly talking bad about nog behind his back.yeah he is so athletic that he could not dive once for a ball.

by roy on Nov 13, 2008 2:13 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Mir and his cronies remind me of the cobrai kai idiots from Karate kid. What a bunch of Jerks. Why are they putting so much emphasis into a stupid soccer competition? THese guys have issues….nog will beat those issues out of insecure Mir and the rest of his cronies!

What a Jerk! Mir reminds me of Ken Shamrock and Matt HUghes on TUF…just tasteless, classless, delusional Klowns!

by john on Nov 13, 2008 3:12 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

i agree that mir is coming off as being insecure and seems intimadted by nog, but kyle kingsbury came across as the disrespectful one this show yelling goooooaaal! all the time. he probably wouldnt have liked it to much if team mir yelled suuubmiiisssion! after krystoff subbed him. kaplan is coming off as this years marlon sims saying he cant be koed and then got his drunk ass koed. what a moron. i really dont put too much into these tuf shows on who is or isnt going to win a fight b/c jens pulver’s team dominated b.j.’s and we see how that turned out. i dont think mir is mentyally tough enough to beat big nog though.

by b.w. on Nov 13, 2008 3:56 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

ans as far as krysztof shutting up kyle with his fist or whatever i agree and the same will happen for mir when he faces nog.

by roy on Nov 13, 2008 2:14 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

It sounds like Frank Mir’s guys are all sad that he lost to Nog in soccer (call the WAAAAMBULANCE). All I hear are excuses and bitching. Mir sure as hell didn’t look like this amazing athlete that he promotes himself to be. I’m sure Mir will lose to Nog standing and on the ground when they step in the octogan together.

My own personal wager… If Nog loses to Mir, for any reason, I will never post a comment on here again.

by Chris S. on Nov 13, 2008 2:20 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

your right chris all i see is weak excuse

by roy on Nov 13, 2008 2:27 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I agree chris

by kevin on Nov 13, 2008 2:36 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Frank comes off as a complete Dick. I don’t find it surprising that Dave “I’m still the best fighter here” Kaplan trains with Mir in Las Vegas. They are both delusional. Nog, on the other hand, seems like a fabulous person not to mention one of the top fighters in the world. I am going to enjoy watching Mir get his ass kicked. Probably not as much as Nog is going to enjoy doing it though.

by Adam on Nov 13, 2008 3:02 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I’ve always thought that Frank Mir was arrogant and now TUF is exposing him. Kaplan is a moron, not once but 3 times! He ate SPLOOSHI,Fought Phillipe like a total Jackass, and begged to get KO’d by Tom Lawlor! This is the guy Frank Mir thinks is going to be great in the UFC???…

Frank Mir is Arrogant, Nog is a well-deserving Champion I hope he beats the hell out of Mir.

by THORAZINE on Nov 13, 2008 3:26 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I agree. That whole bunch comes off as a bunch of whiners. And a note to Horne, the camera did NOT make Nog look like an amazing goalkeeper “diving left and right.” If anything it made him look very bad at the sport (and doing penalty shots shows NOTHING of the skill involved in the sport), which in turn, made Mir look horrible. Cuz Mir didn’t even try. Interesting, Mir is extra competitive, but lacked the heart to give an honest effort. Pray for your boy in the octagon, Horne, cuz IMO (to steal someone’s saying from a few month’s ago), Nog is going to rip his arm off and take it back to Brazil as a trophy.

by chefdaddy on Nov 13, 2008 4:57 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

WAR NOG!!!!! UFC 92 is too much- but i see W.Silva over looking Rampage even though he’s knocked him silly twice.. you still can’t over look a fighter like page

by ricky on Nov 13, 2008 3:04 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

Kristoff’s armbar was slower than my granny’s…

by Ground-Game on Nov 13, 2008 3:43 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

agreed, and his stand up wasn’t that strong either!

by kevin on Nov 13, 2008 4:20 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

He had a worse stance than when Oishi fought Diaz. If he fights anyone with decent standup, he’s going to sleep with his hands way out like that.

I almost expected him to be like, “I once caught a fish THIIIIIIS big!”

by yohnstoppable on Nov 13, 2008 4:48 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

lol, I thought he was trying to fly out of the cage!

by kevin on Nov 13, 2008 4:53 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

It reminded me a little of Chuck, arms out wide and down by the waist.

by chefdaddy on Nov 13, 2008 4:58 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I think it’s hard to rate his standup based on that fight. At the time, I thought he might just be trying to get Kingsbury to stand and trade with him. But from what I saw of him in the IFL, his striking didn’t look very technical.

by GregC on Nov 13, 2008 8:33 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

“I’m 200 times the athlete he is”

yeh, I must say, Mir does come off like an insecure Cobra Kai kid sometimes.

by JL on Nov 13, 2008 4:04 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

p.s. thanks to John for the Cobra comparison

by JL on Nov 13, 2008 4:12 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I don’t buy this bad gameplan crap.

“Yeah, my gameplan was to let him kick the shit out of me. It was a bad gameplan, and I lost, because of it. I’m a better fighter”

I don’t buy that at all. He went out there, got hit with some bombs, froze up, was dropped, then finished. The gameplan excuse is just sour grapes.

by yohnstoppable on Nov 13, 2008 4:45 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

your right, it was nothing but a excuse. i don’t care what his game plan was the same thing woujld have happened.

by roy on Nov 13, 2008 4:49 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Absolutely agree, kaplan saying after the fight that hes still the better fighter was pathetic. Nover tore through him without even trying hard. kaplan just needs to learn to accept defeat. He ate some jizz, said he didnt. Lost a fight, said it was a fluke. Got knocked out, then said he was still conscious. Obviously a class act……..

by medecine balls on Nov 13, 2008 6:41 PM EST up reply actions   0 recs

Horne seems a little bitter. He must have been putting a lot of stock into Dave.

If I was getting closer and closer to 1,000 bucks in my pocket, I’d be screaming GOAL too. It really looks to me like several of the guys on Mir’s team, including Mir, are a bit jerkish and elitist.

by DoctorSamson on Nov 13, 2008 7:21 PM EST reply actions   0 recs

I would say that Nog is the more PERSONABLE guy on the show.
I like Phillie and Escrian… I wanna see that fight. Those 2 guys deserve to be in the cage. Kaplan is a spaz.

As far as the tricks I really dont think any of em are funny, and are actually pretty gross.

Why cant every week the UFC challenge em to …

… Act mature.

I would love to see the coaches take the guys to thier clubs/camps and such. There needs to be more than crappy tricks and stupid false drama.

by omg on Nov 14, 2008 7:17 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

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