Team Conan – Ultimate Jiu-Jitsu Fighter

Tonight I was really looking forward to watching 3 episode of The Ultimate Fighter 8. This season’s coaches are Frank Mir and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, probably two of the best heavyweight JJ artists ever. I was hoping that this season would be a great opportunity to see how two great practitioners of the art think about JJ. Unfortunately, this episode featured almost nothing about the coaches’ philosophies or the fighters training. Instead we were treated to the drunken antics and emotional problems that seemly plague all reality TV shows. Two of the guys got drunk and proceeded to harass everyone else in the house culminating with several near fights and a great deal of childish behavior. What’s worse is that UFC head Dana White decided not to kick the guys off the show. He said he “didn’t know why he was keeping them on the show.” I'll venture a guess and say it had something to do with ratings.

The sad part is that millions of people watch the show and are introduced to the sport of mixed martial arts this way. I fear that for many Americans the martial arts are seen as the refuge guys with too much testosterone and too little sense. I wish the UFC would have used this forum to introduce people to the sophistication and complexities of the sports. With two great JJ artists as coaches they had an awesome opportunity to enlighten a fan base who seems to boo every time a fight goes to the ground. Instead the UFC seems to be catering to the lowest common denominator, not surprising, but disappointing. The next episode of the show is supposed to feature Anderson Silva, but in all likelihood we will probably see little of one of the greatest fighters on earth.

This got me thinking about what it would be like if Team Conan ever made it on to reality TV. I quickly concluded that we would probably make the worst reality TV show ever. While the matches would no doubt be awesome and viewers would learn a lot, the utter lack of drama would probably cause us to be cancelled after two weeks.

I know like many of the guys who have come here, I was nervous my first time on the mat. I was afraid I would screw up and get yelled at or be tortured by some more experienced student looking to gratify his own ego by making the new guy suffer. Thankfully, I found nothing like that. What I found was a collection of people with a common purpose, who are genuinely committed to helping each other learn. As Conan always tells us, “we have no egos here and we all have real jobs to go to in the morning.” It is clear that Roseberry-Shihan has instilled this philosophy at the dojo and has fostered an environment of learning. While this might make for bad reality TV, it makes for a great place to learn.