Walking and Talking: Junie Browning and Fourth Graders

The more I watch Junie Browning, the more I’m reminded of how proud I am of the kids I used to coach in jiu-jitsu. Part of training is showing respect, part of being a great fighter is acknowledging the abilities of your opponent. This is what keeps us prepared when we fight, this is what makes us stronger, smarter and wiser as fighters, and it gives us something to build on and something to aspire to.

The more I watch Junie Browning, the more I wonder if this kid is really just an idiot, or if he thinks that he can gain some fame by acting the fool. It doesn’t really matter, and it won’t really change how sick I get when I watch him talk smack and listen to him act as though he’s the greatest fighter ever, but it might be interesting, psychologically.

This is a guy who shows flagrant disrespect to his opponents in a way that most fighters never would. You hear about how bad a dude B.J. Penn is when it comes to smack talk, or how much crap Brandon Vera spews, but none of them would ever disrespect an opponent by talking down his accomplishments or his skills. People talk about how it builds confidence, but that kind of confidence is what wrecks a lot of fighters, it creates arrogance and self-assuredness, and those are the guys that makes mistakes.

The talk will influence the walk, and if you talk like it’s going to be easy, and buy into the hype you’ve created, then it always seems harder than it is.

Junie Browning is welcome to talk crap, as most fighters do, but it isn’t his place to disrespect the rank of his opponent, period. Really, though, the frustration that most people feel with Junie is simply that he showed up in a fight against a guy who wasn’t one of the best guys in the house, talked a lot of smack, and then looked terrible.

I’ve said many times that I didn’t think Junie’s performance in the first episode was worth the amount of hype he was giving himself. I haven’t gone into details about it, because I wanted to see a little more footage, and now that the footage is in, I could recite his problems, but it would be a moot point. After all, his biggest problem (his pathetic cardio) was exposed for what it is.

It’s important to remember the context of Junie’s fight. Junie was fighting a guy who didn’t make the original cast, who lost in his first fight to George Roop. This is George Roop, a fighter who isn’t, in my opinion, a top fighter on the show. This is not a fighter that Junie, with all of the game he talks, should be taking to a decision.

All Junie showed in that fight was that his standup is barely good enough to compete with a guy who doesn’t have very good standup. It also shows that Junie wasn’t confident enough, for all of his talk, to go to the ground with Delgado. While that might show some respect for the blackbelt, it also shows that Junie is not as confident in his jiu-jitsu as we all might have thought.

It remains to be seen what kind of character Junie Allen Browning will turn out to be. While he’ll certainly remain the villain on the show, he is, more importantly, in need of some tough love from his coaching staff and his teammates. He reminds me of the little kid who’s parents never tell him “no,” the kid that shows up on the mat and thinks that he can be tough just by showing up.

We all know that kid, and he exists in every sport. The great martial arts instructor will try and exorcise that demon, usually by working it out of him, or, more correctly, forcing the kid to work it out of himself, but it remains to be seen whether the class clown and general bully of this season of the Ultimate Fighter is smart enough to know that he needs to either step his game up or shut his trap.