The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia

I've been watching The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia since February, part of a trend where I seem to not be able to get enough UFC. I'm not even sure why I'm into MMA a lot of the time, and sometimes I even feel guilty about enjoying the sport.

On last week's episode, Chad Laprise had to face teammate Kajan Johnson. In past seasons, when teammates had to fight in the semifinals, their team's head coach would remove him or herself from the fight preparation, separating the coaching staff for the fight, and usually the fighters would be cornered by other members of their team.

For Laprise vs. Johnson, that's not how things went. Laprise was proactive, seeking out a coaching staff for the fight well in advance. He got two Team Canada coaches and one of the Australian coaches to be in his corner, he was being given advice (quietly but not inconspicuously) by head coach Patrick Cote, and he gave his coaches instructions to be super loud to damage Johnson's confidence.



Kajan Johnson appears to be a deeply emotional and sensitive athlete who wears bravado as his armour. He likes to talk and he can get excited, but it's unclear why his coaching staff turned on him. When it was time to fight, Laprise had three loud coaches and Johnson had one coach who didn't really appear to help him much at all. Johnson had so little support from his own team that the Australian team started cheering for him just so that he wouldn't feel so alone in the cage. I wonder if racism played a role in this, as Johnson is a First Nations man, but it's impossible to really know that from watching a reality TV show.

Laprise scares me, to be honest, and he scared me before he eventually did terrible things to Kajan Johnson. Laprise opened up to the camera, talking about how angry and violent he used to be until he found Jesus. I found it creepy and disturbing. To hear him describe it, he doesn't have to feel guilty about being a horrible angry violent person because Jesus has taken his sins away. He makes himself sound like he's thankful he discovered a loophole to sanction acting like a monster. I hope I never have to train with someone like that.

That's pretty heavy-handed but apt.This person legitimately scares me, if I saw Chad Laprise on the street I would GTFO. It's extra disturbing when a scary person is seriously religious, and with this guy, it seems transparent that he tries to keep his head low and hide behind faith. Faith and devotion, like patriotism, have long been the refuge of cowards and monsters.

Chad Laprise proved himself to me in the fight. A fight is a fight, I know that, and I've watched a lot of them over the last few years. I know that there are limitless possibilities for how a fight can play out, and many ways for it to end. Brutal knockouts are not my favourite thing to see, but I feel that when fights end, you often get strange, clear glimpses into who these people might be, and what I saw Chad Laprise do turned my stomach, and it's telling that it also turned the stomachs of professional fighters who were in the room with him.

Laprise landed a huge, brutal right hook that Johnson had no chance to see coming. He landed it hard, flush on Johnson's jaw, knocking out Johnson immediately and breaking his jaw. That's the kind of thing that's hard to watch, but it can happen in a fight. I can't stand Anderson Silva, but I wasn't pleased to see him blow up his leg on Chris Weidman's knee, either.

What's really tough, is what happens next. Knockouts happen fast, and fighters are trained to not let up in the fight until the referee stops them. That said, sometimes a fight is clearly over, and you just look like a monster when you keep coming, throwing two or three more punches into a man's broken, unconscious face. You show more respect than that for your worst enemy, and these two men are training partners in Montreal, allegedly they are friends. When a man drops onto his face, he's done. He doesn't need any more help acquiring additional serious injuries.It's one of the hardest things to see, but it's nice to be reminded that as a fight fan I do still have empathy. Clearly more empathy than Chad Laprise, who broke his friend's jaw and then fed him a few more just for fun. If Chad Laprise was in Jaws, he'd be the shark.

I don't want to glorify Chad Laprise's horrifying actions, so I won't link the video. It's a paradox; I find this sport so exciting, but I truly don't like seeing anyone get seriously hurt.