Brock Lesnar: What His Coaching Stint on TUF Has Taught Us so Far

When Brock Lesnar was pegged to be one of the two coaches on Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, myself and many others were confused on the selection.

It’s not that he isn’t a good fighter himself, but we questioned whether such an inexperienced fighter was the right choice to be teaching young fighters who are supposed to be the next generation of fighters in the UFC.

But Brock has surprised us and actually seems to be adapting to his role in a pretty respectable fashion.

Here are some of the things that we have learned so far during his stint as a coach on TUF.

Brock Has a Gruff Personality, but Is Still Approachable

As the season began, it looked as is Brock was going to be the rough-edged, difficult to talk to, jerk that he appeared to be in other interviews.

But as we have gone deeper into the show, we have seen some signs that prove he is not only trying to be a good coach, but also possibly somewhat of a friend to the fighters.

The first sign of this came in episode three when he had somewhat of a heart-to-heart with his fighters. Later in the episode, Len Bentley approached Lesnar about another fighter, Chris Cope, potentially working almost as a “spy” for Team Dos Santos. Though Brock wanted Bentley to stay focused on his upcoming fight, he did at least hear his fighter out.

But since that point, Lesnar has repeatedly butted heads with Bentley, who has not seemed to respect him in the same way that many of the other fighters do. This was particularly evident in episodes four and five when, after Lesnar went off on his team who had lost two straight fights.

Rather than take the verbal lashing from his coach, Bentley stormed out of the room and went back to the house where he continued to rant about how much he disliked his coach.

He Can Be Mentally Defeated Before a Fight Even Happens

After losing his first fight to Frank Mir in his UFC debut, Brock Lesnar came back with relentless training and fixed many of the rookie flaws that cost him.

He went on to become UFC heavyweight champion, crushing the opposition before finally losing the belt to Cain Velasquez in his last bout. Lesnar looked to be rocked early in that fight and didn’t seem to have the ability to recover.

But even with a now questioned chin and still possessing shaky submission defense, Brock Lesnar’s biggest weakness may have actually been exposed in the very first episode of the show.

When Team Dos Santos selected Team Lesnar’s sixth pick, Nordin Asrih, to fight their first pick, Shamar Bailey, Lesnar seemed to be mentally defeated before the fight even began.

Not only did he admit that he fully expected to lose the fight, Lesnar seemed almost uncaring as his fighter was taken to school by his opponent.

His Speeches Leave Something to Be Desired

“We’re making chicken salad out of chicken sh**.”
- Brock Lesnar

This quote will certainly be one that viewers of TUF will be repeating for a long, long time. It came in a pre-fight speech before Chris Cope’s fight with Javier Torres on the second episode of the season.

After losing the first fight of the season, Team Lesnar appeared to be well on their way to an 0-2 record as Team Dos Santos selected one of their strongest fighters, Javier Torres, to fight one of Team Lesnar’s weakest, Chris Cope.

When Lesnar heard the news, he seemed to be content with falling behind another fight. While he still worked with Cope on his skills to prepare him for the fight, it was fairly evident that he did not feel confident in any way.

Cope actually shocked everyone by winning the fight, but it was Brock’s speech after the fight, in which he essentially called the fighters “chicken sh**,” that turned heads.

He Is a Strong Teacher, but Lacks Sensitivity Post-Fight

If you thought Lesnar calling his fighters “chicken sh**” was bad enough after a win, just imagine the attitude he’d give when one of his fighters lost a fight that he thought the team should win.

It happened on episode four when Charlie Radar lost to Ramsey Nijem.

Following the disappointing loss, Lesnar went on a tirade, calling out almost every member of the team before stopping to mention that only one fighter had impressed him so far. Chris Cope, who holds the team’s only win, apparently impressed Brock by showing a ton of heart in a fight that practically no one expected him to win.

Lesnar seems to be a better teacher than most of us expected when the fighters are learning techniques, but his lack of sensitivity after losses shows that he may not be ready to be a coach.

He’s Beginning to Embrace His Role as Coach

After Nordin lost to Shamar in episode one, it looked as if Lesnar didn’t even care about winning the competition. But as the season has gone on, we have seen him begin to take his position much more seriously and his killer instinct seems to be coming out.

While he can’t directly control who wins and loses fights, Brock understands that by preparing his fighters for success, he will look better in the long run and help his own image.

We got a very good glimpse at how much he cares when he was helping Clay Harvison prepare for his fight in episode five. While Lesnar held the pads for him, we could see the intensity in his eyes and his desire to help his fighter get into the win column. 

Not Even Brock Lesnar Can Save the Show’s Ratings

When The Ultimate Fighter was signed on for a 13th season, it seemed obvious that the show was in the need of something exciting to turn up the level of interest. Though it was still doing good numbers, the show had dwindled a bit in seasons 11 and 12 after an absolutely monster season 10, which featured Kimbo Slice.

In fact, in the first episode of season 10, the show peaked at an astonishing 4.1 million viewers, crushing the previous record of 2.8 million viewers.

By comparison, season 12, which featured coaches Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck, consistently ran between 1.6 million and 1.9 million viewers per episode.

So when the UFC announced Brock Lesnar, their biggest pay-per-view draw, as one of the coaches, many expected the ratings to shoot back up.

They haven’t.

Whether it’s the general lack of interest in the show or a surprising drop-off in popularity for Lesnar himself, the show has peaked at only 1.5 million viewers.

While those numbers are still good, the UFC has to be disappointed. Certainly Lesnar isn’t doing this for cheap, and they can’t possibly be getting the level of viewership they were expecting.

UFC president Dana White has gone on record as saying that the company is not disappointed, but would he really say that they were? Probably not.

At this point, one has to wonder if The Ultimate Fighter can realistically continue on this pace of two seasons per calendar year.