TUF Times ep. 5 – Matt’s dramatastic, a family of Jensen’s and Sims VS Wren!

Another week, another TUF! If you missed last nights episode, Wes Sims accused Zak Jensen of leaving “fermented mayonnaise” in the shower, Matt Mitrione continued to nurse a shoulder that might not really be hurt, and Justin Wren choked out Wes Sims in a huge victory for Team Rashad, bringing them to 5-0! To get the inside scoop on what went on in the house, here is Zak Jensen from Team Rampage and Justin Wren and Darrill Schoonover from Team Rashad!

Q: How was morale for each team at this point with Team Rashad being 4-0? Was this affecting anyones actions in the house? 

Zak Jensen: Our morale was low but we were all focussed on turning it around.  Team Rashad was happy and you could tell that their moral was high.

Justin Wren: Its a snowball effect for our team. We were 4-0 and with me winning we were 5-0. We couldn’t be happier, everything was going our way and we can visually see the other team breaking down. They’re having to wake up to run 3-5 miles every single day and then a couple of days after they might have to fight. No one wants to fight two days after running five miles, especially on pavement and being heavyweights, it’s ridiculous. Their morale was crushed, ours was high as I could expect it.

Darrill Schoonover: The morale was great for us. We knew Team Rampage was suffering and they were all pretty down. The great thing was since we kept control of the pick, we knew which guy could beat this guy so it was working out pretty great.

Q: Zak, with Rampage being disappointed in his team thus far, did his training change for your team?

ZJ: We could all tell he was frustrated, the assistant coaches are the ones who ran the practices.  Rampage would watch and comment on things that work for him and that might might work for us.

Q: How did you feel about Rampage saying you had the least amount of skills on the team and that you did not have much going for you?

ZJ: Well it is true. I don’t have the most skills out of all the people on my team.  He said I was big and could wrestle which is true.  

Q: Wes Sims accused of you of leaving behind “a family of Jensens” in the shower, what actually happened that made him think that?

ZJ: He is Wes Sims. Remember when he said he would never let the truth get in the way of a good story?  This is a prime example of that.  

Q: Justin and Darrill, what is your take on the situation?

JW: It’s hard to say, I don’t think I ever noticed someone’s snot being in there like it was. Wes went in there right after Zak and I was neighbors to their room and I could hear Wes scream in the shower. “Oh my gosh, what the F is this?” And then he gets out and is pissed about the “family of Jensens.” But that wasn’t too long into the competition, you think he could have held it longer than that.

DS: Regardless if Zak actually did it or not, I think Wes made it all up just so he could talk trash but I am pretty sure the majority of the guys in the house had to relieve some pressure…

Q: Was it snot or something else?

JW: I did not examine the family of Jensens so I can not say if it was snot or semen, but snot is only green or brown or red and the other stuff is… well, I think you can tell the difference. Only Zak and Wes know the real answer to that.

Q: It looked like later in the show SIms got you back by choking you unconscious? Was that retaliation or an accident?

ZJ: I was trying to get out of it and it was so tight I just fell asleep.  It happens, it is not a big deal. 

Q: What were you writing in your journal during your time in the house?

ZJ: My thoughts, the going ons of the day and just what I thought was going to happen in each fight as they came about.

Q: Was Matt Mitrione a drama queen? What did he make you think he was or was not?

ZJ: He came of as one and I did not really care either way.  He caused drama with the snitching and now with his shoulder.  I will let you and the readers come up with your own answer.

JW: Absolutely, a huge drama queen. You can compare him to the Junie Browning of this season, not throwing stuff or picking fights but he definitely was a huge drama queen. He would ice his shoulder in practice then play football with that same shoulder throwing it from the balcony to the basketball courts in the same day. We called him out on it and then the next day in practice he would say “Oh my shoulder!” He is the biggest male drama queen I ever personally experienced.

DS: Honestly, Matt is my friend but I still have to say yes he is. Just the fact that he constantly wants to be in everything and involved in everything and always wants attention but he is still my friend besides all of that. It’s not just Matt though, have you noticed how James McSweeney is always around when stuff like that happens too?

Q: Rashad said Matt wanted to be there to be seen, not to fight? What do you think of that comment? Was anyone else there to be seen more than to fight?

ZJ: I think it was a valid point the way Matt was acting.  I was more concerned with myself and my goal everyone was there for a reason some peoples were different than others.

DS: I know the coaches were getting really irritated with Matt because of his shoulder and he did not want to practice and how he wanted that cortizone shot, which he went and got anyway even though Rashad told him not to. The fighters and coaches were getting fed up with him.

JW: Matt was definitely the main fighter that was there to be seen and not to fight, not to say he is not a fighter. He is definitely athletic and has the tools but I think he is mentally weak. He may do extremely well on the show but that does not mean he does not doubt his abilities or will not look for an excuse if he loses a fight. People do certain things for certain reasons, some people like to come up with reasons in there head before a fight so they can blame it on something else to their friends and families. But he is really athletic and he may or may not shock some guys on his performance and he could even make it to the finals but he is still a huge drama queen.

Q: Do you think Matt was faking his injury or it was real but not as serious as he was making it to be? Was it a mental hump more than a physical hump?

JW: He was either faking it or way exaggerating it. I am sure his shoulder hurt but for him to play football but then not finish bag practice, just hitting a bag! If he could not do that but later throw a football from a balcony over the hot tub, over the pool and into the basketball court… that is a pretty far throw to throw with a busted shoulder.

DS: Ithink it might have been mental since alot of people are not used to being secluded like that and he is pretty new to MMA so he might not thought it was worse than it really was.

ZJ: I never trained with Matt so I only heard things second hand.  Also he was playing catch and playing basketball in the pool so it looked like he was not as hurt as he claimed.

Q: Justin, this episode you got to finally fight against Wes Sims, was he your first pick?

JW: No, Kimbo was my first pick to fight but after that, the coaches asked who I wanted and I said Big Marcus or Wes. They asked why I wanted to fight them since they were the biggest guys in the house, even Dana asked that, and I said, well I am a 22 year old kid. if i put on an impressive performance it will look good to the viewers watching, it will look good to you guys. They asked me who I wanted, and with Wes I thought i could overpower him and do what I did, which was submit him. Although everyone says Wes’ BJJ was really good, I have been training with world class BJJ guys for two and a half years and my bjj is overrated, so i wanted to show people I was a threat.

Q: At the weigh-ins, what were you wearing exactly?

I was wearing some purple panties! They were leopard mens underwear and they were at least a size too small. Wes Sims was wearing some male bikini underwear and he stuffed that with six pairs of socks. We did not plan that at all, which is what makes it priceless. At my senior year weigh-ins at high school, I decided I would wear funny underwear because I won state several times and I thought it would be funny. So I did it there and I did it here and tried to be shameless. I knew he was going to do something, he is too much of a character not to, so I thought it was the perfect time to break it out.

Q: zak, What did you think of the match up of Wren VS Sims?

ZJ: I thought it was in our favor because of Wes’ experience.

Q: Justin, Whats it like to put those gloves with the letters UFC on them? What moment was it where you realized that you were fighting on TUF?

JW: Man, it’s awesome! I wanted to do this since I was a kid and to finally be there and wear the UFC logo… to put on the gloves was what was awesome for me. We tape up our hands, put on the UFC gloves and its like ” Yes, I am doing this!” Dana came in there and says “Good luck, Kid” and I told him, hey you are about to be impressed. I am a humble fighter compared to most and I just wanted to let him know before hand that i was very confident in my abilities.

Q: Wren VS Sims, give us your analysis. What was the cardinal mistake Sims made that got him caught?

JW: My coaches and I talked about it and we knew it was going to the ground. Stand up is not my forte, he has a really long reach advantage and I knew that my wrestling was superior to his. I wanted to take him down and get to side mount which is one of my favorite things to do. I do not like to sit in peoples guards, I would rather pass and get inside and start landing more damage and end fights. We knew Wes had a nasty body triangle and I have never had anyone in my life put me in a body triangle so I knew I would not get out. So I stayed in side mount, passed to mount, I was going to start throwing punches but I saw the arm triangle and took that.

Q: What is it like to not just beat a veteran like Wes Sims but to put him to sleep?

JW: It was awesome! I could not have expected a better fight from myself although when I look back on it now I could have done better. The fight was short, I got in and out injury free and I dominated a UFC veteran who has had some battles with Frank Mir so that right there was incredible since I grew up watching this sport since I was 13. So to get in there and put him to sleep and dominate him, it was pretty cool.

Q: After the fight, you pointed to a tattoo on your arm, what was that tat?

JW: That tattoo represents a guy that is like my second dad. He passed away, his name is Brad Rehor. If you go back and look, he won six world championships in BJJ in the masters division. He was a monster, I never saw anyone just handle Travis Lutter and this guy did! He handled everybody he went with, so strong and technical, a black belt under Carlos Machado. To me, he was like a second dad and he passed away in Brazil, had a heart attack, and this is my way to let his legacy live in. He has done so much for me, so I got that tattoo on my inner bicep and let everyone know who he was.

Q: Zak, was justice served seeing Sims choked out by Justin?

ZJ: No he was my teammate and I wanted him to win.  Him giving me shit was Wes being Wes and the only thing that mattered was us getting control and we didn’t.

Q: Does Rampage have a good attitude regarding his fighters, especially after saying he does not go into the cage because he “doesn’t want to go to prison”?

ZJ: He wanted us to win and he was frustrated after every loss.  I think he was refering to the fact that he would go after Rashad if he was in the cage after those fights because he was so angry.

DS: I think Rampage is a horrible coach, that is the bottom line. For some reason all of his fighters liked him alot but he was a horrible coach. They liked his personality because he was always joking around and having fun but that is also why he was a horrible coach!

Q: Unrelated to the fights, as we see more of the house we are starting to see some strange paintings on the walls. Tell us about the decor in the house and if its as weird as it looks on camera.

ZJ: It was decorated as heaven up stairs and hell downstairs. Up stairs there were also some tribute paintings for Mask. My room was down stairs and there were skulls and flames and small lights that flickered like candles.  

DS: My room had a bunch of skulls stuck on stakes and one of the other rooms had Medusa heads!

ZJ: It was strange at first but you get use to it and realize the paintings were pretty cool.   

Zak Jensen would like to thank Gorilla Combat. Justin Wren would like to thank World Fight Shop, Texas MMA Shop, Rockwell Time and Buffalo Wild Wings. Darrill Schoonover would like to thank his gym Fighters Forge and Three Legged Monkey!

Stay tuned next week for the sixth installment of TUF 10 as things heat up even more!