411 MMA Interviews: Jason Dent

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 05.27.2009

Jeffrey Harris speaks with Team USA lightweight contestant, Jason Dent, from this season of The Ultimate Fighter. Dent gives his side of the Cameron Dollar feud, his strengths and weaknesses in fighting, and the criticisms of his training and his fight with Jeff Lawson.

Last week, I spoke with professional MMA fighter, Jason Dent, shortly after the broadcast of his quarterfinal fight with Jeff Lawson on the SpikeTV reality series, The Ultimate Fighter. Dent is lightweight contestant for Team USA under coach, Dan Henderson, competing against Team UK, coached by Michael Bisping.

Dent hails from Ohio where he runs his own gym, the GriffonRawl Thaiboxing & MMA Acdemy, where he has been training along with people like Duke Roufus and UFC heavyweight fighter, Patrick Barry. On the TV series, Dent was seen having quite the tumultuous relationship with his fellow Team USA members, Cameron Dollar and Damarques Johnson. In the last episode, Henderson critiqued Dent and labeled him as "hard to coach." Criticisms aside, Dent is a long-time veteran of the MMA sport, with a professional record of 18-9, having finished every single fight he has won with only two career losses where he was finished; the rest being by decision. Dent is no stranger to the UFC either, having competed in the UFC twice before in 2006, losing both those fights by decision. Now after having beaten Rob Browning, brother of last season's infamous Junie Browning, to earn a spot in the house, and then Jeff Lawson to earn his way into the semi-finals, Dent remains a strong prospect to return to the UFC for another run at the lightweight division. Dent was gracious enough to take a break from his training last Friday to speak with me for an exclusive interview:



Jeffrey "The Vile One" Harris: This season has had a lot of criticisms about Team USA and the behavior of Team USA and the lack of camaraderie. Do you think you went in with the right attitude going into the house?

Jason Dent: I mean I think we all could've tried a little harder to get along with each other, but I don't have any regrets. I mean Dana will even tell you, The Ultimate Fighter, you may start out as country vs. country and that may be the theme they are going with, but at the end of the day there's only going to be one winner in each weight class.

TVO: I recently interviewed Cameron Dollar from Team USA who you had some tension with. Cameron thinks you got off on the wrong foot when you lost your wrestling shoes, and you accused him of taking his shoes, and he stepped up to you and confronted you about accusing him. Do you think that's the reason the two you didn't get along?

JD: No. The bad blood with me and Cameron, he came into the house and he was just constantly trash-talking. I know we were there to fight the UK team, but he was just really rude, really arrogant, really loud . . . the shoe thing -- Tapout -- like its free stuff, so who cares? But Tapout comes in and they give you shirts and shoes, and I was sitting downstairs and they give you like three boxes of different styles of shoes. Cameron's down there with me. I turn my back and walk out of the room to say something with somebody. I come back, and one of the boxes of shoes is missing. Cameron's got like 15 pairs of shoes that he packed to the house, he's a little bit of a pretty boy and I guess he likes having that many shoes, I dunno. But they were missing, and me and him got into it about it, and I let the whole thing go . . . And then he [Cameron] says I found them at a later time? Somebody carried them all the way upstairs and put them with the garbage next to my room. I had all three pairs downstairs. So someone grabbed them from downstairs -- I honestly think he [Cameron] grabbed them, stashed them up by my room, and ironically he faked me finding them. He came up and went, "hey are those your shoes?" Its like, come on, you know? I let the whole thing go and I haven't been the one to bring it up. Like I said, I'm surprised he's even bringing it up. I could care less, they're just shoes. I just don't want to deal with someone stealing or getting into my stuff that was my problem.

TVO: I know a lot people were annoyed with Rob Browning getting into the Junie Browning antics. Was it satisfying to lay the beat down on him, or do you try not to bring that into a fight?

JD: You know, I'm usually known for submitting guy, and I purposefully put a little bit of a pounding on him. There's a lot of times I could've taken his back and choke him, or try to put him in an anaconda choke like I did Jeff Lawson, but I figured I'd pound him into submission or let the ref stop it, you know?

TVO: Going back to Cameron Dollar again, he said the reason you didn't get along with the rest of the team is because you would isolate yourself from the rest of the team and then come in later and ask a lot of questions.

JD: Here's my thoughts on that. I butted heads with Cameron Dollar and a little bit with Damarques and basically I'd get away, I'd go outside and get some air, or I'd hang out in my room. And we are Team USA, I went out of my way -- the only reason I spoke to them the whole season, I wasn't getting along with them, but I kept trying to make an effort to get along with them and reunite with the group and any time I try to come in and get caught up in what's going on and try to take a deep breath and try to get along with these guys, he'd [Cameron Dollar] give me a smart ass comment about asking too many questions and stuff so, you know? I kept trying to turn the other cheek and get along with these guys, but no matter what we just seemed to be butt heads.

TVO: I'm generally impressed with the way Dan Henderson handles himself on the show. Some might say it's laid back, but he seems to be very cool and composed, he doesn't talk trash, and while Bisping is more outlandish and talkative. Were you happy with Dan Henderson's method of coaching, or do you think he needed to be more aggressive?

JD: I was happy with Dan Henderson as a coach even though I got labeled as "hard to coach," I took so much from the show. My takedown defense is so much better now, and I love having Henderson as a coach and I love the way he carried himself. If you watch the first couple episodes, you see a lot of our guys "F-this, F-that." Trash talking the UK team -- and Henderson was the calm coach who was respectful. Team USA, most of us were arrogant and loud. And it was just the opposite for the UK guys. UK guys were humble and quiet, but Bisping was the loud, arrogant one, so it's kind of weird.

TVO: When Henderson and assistant coach, Cyril Diabate, were critiquing how you train, so was it hard to get out of your regular mindset for training?

JD: Its tough because when I fight, if I try to change my whole style in my very next fight, I don't feel confident, I feel like I would lose. So it's a matter of trying piece in pieces of the puzzle of what they're teaching me. What I can add, what I like, what works for me, what doesn't work for me. And I'm never going to fight like Dan Henderson. I'm not a wrestler. I've won off my back a lot. I've TKO'ed guys a lot, I've got good striking. I wasn't going to go out there, and I don't have a wrestling background, I'm not going to straight wrestle. So I was trying to soak in everything Henderson was telling me, but I'm still trying to get some time to get some of the training in that I'm used to, so I think that's why I got labeled as hard to coach.

TVO: There were some criticisms of the Jeff Lawson fight, who you finished by submission in the second round.

JD: Can I sum up the Jeff Lawson fight? . . . It's a tournament. If I was in a single fight in the UFC, it would be balls to the wall, let the hands fly, who cares if you get hurt, you get plenty of time to go before the next fight, but it was a tournament. The whole point was to win, win decisively, I went out there and walked out of the fight without a scratch on me, I submitted my guy, I got my five grand, got a win, and I walked out with the other team underestimating me. To me, it was a perfect day . . . I didn't even tap into my standup in the fight at all.

TVO: The argument for Jeff Lawson was that he was tired and gassed in the second round, and that he didn't have enough time to train properly and get ready for the fight, but that's the nature of fighting sometimes even if you aren't on TUF, you might be in a situation like that.

JD: Right, right. Depending on the person I fight depends on how I fight. So, if I was dealing with somebody who didn't feel like they were going to tire out on top of me, I could hear him [Jeff Lawson] breathing. When he was dropping punches on me, he arches up the punches, if you notice I elbow block the punches. I wasn't helplessly defending myself. I was rolling and blocking the punches; I could hear him breathing every time he dropped the punch. I've got close to 50 fights, and you can tell when a guy is tiring himself out or when he's going to punch himself out. If a guy postured up and hit me with a punch that hurt, I would push away and scramble to my feet and wrap him up. Jeffrey dropped the punches; I was blocking all of them. I could hear him breathing hard; I knew I could gas him out. So it kind of turned into my game plan, you can hear guys breathing, you can feel it.

TVO: Right, so when we see him putting his hands on his knees, you are waiting for the right time to finish him rather than bum-rushing him.

JD: Yeah, I kind of was patient. Like I said, it's a tournament so I was confident I was going to win. I mean, I've got close to 20 kickboxing fights. I've never been knocked out. I'm confident in my standup, and why work harder than you have to?

TVO: You had two fights in the UFC before, having lost to Roger Huerta and Gleison Tibau by decision in both fights. If you fight in the UFC, when you see bigger guys going down to lightweight now, like Diego Sanchez, are you confident you can hang in the current UFC lightweight division?

JD: What everyone needs to know is I've done very well in my career, and I've only ever been finished twice: 1 TKO and 1 submission loss, that's it. In over 30 fights, I've only ever been finished twice. And I've submitted or TKO'ed everybody I've ever beaten. I've never won a decision. And I know that I'm tough enough and durable enough to hang with anybody in the lightweight division. Now beating them, one thing I've never had is been on a real nutrition -- had a nutrition expert with me. I run my own gym and I get to be a fat businessman and boss everybody around, and I don't train the way that I should sometimes, and I've done as well as I've done. The changes I'm making -- I've got guys training me twice a day, totally different then I've ever done in my entire career. And you can see it in my physique. I get away with not even training that hard, just on God-given talent and being really tough and durable, you know? So I think I can hang and be a contender if I get a nutritionist and I put in a little more training.

TVO: What do you think of the Roger Huerta fight from 2006?

JD: You know, the Roger Huerta fight I really -- I fight a lot of title fights back here at home. I've got like any local, professional shows up here in Northeastern Ohio, I own every single title. I do very well in longer fights, like five round fights. The Huerta fight, I think I was starting to wear him out. Going into the third round, I think I had him gassed, depleted and I was starting to pick him apart. He was a little more athletic than me, and a little bit better wrestling, and I know more now then what I knew then. I mean I agree, he got the decision, but it's just because he outwrestled me a little bit.

TVO: Any thoughts on teammate, Jason Pierce?

JD: I've got opposite thoughts on Jason Pierce then most other people. A couple thing people got to look at, Pierce is a little older. He's got a little different mindset than what a lot guys in the house got, but he beat one of the toughest guys to get into the show. He showed up and all these other guys are fighting guys I've never heard of. I've been following this this sport, doing it for 15-16 years. When we got there, I'm like "Oh man, Steve Berger is here." Steve Berger is a UFC vet. He's old school, he's more of a veteran than I am. So it's like, wow. And Pierce cuts a lot of weight. So that being said, he stepped up. He beat Berger to get into the house. He messed up his ankle really bad, it's hugely swollen. He can't cut weight; he can't work out on it. Every time he tried the thing was like a balloon. And then to beat that, he got staph in the same calf of the same ankle. So I agree with everybody else. I think he should've went in and fought anyways, even if he got his ass kicked because by his not fighting, the way Dana's mindset is, they're not going to bring him back into the UFC is my bet. So I think he should've went out there even if it was to take an ass beating, but I think everybody's being a little too judgmental on him telling him he's not a fighter, he doesn't enjoy fighting. Like I said, he beat one of the toughest guys to get on the show, so I think everyone needs to back off a little bit. He obviously wanted to fight. It's not a perfect world. You're not always--things aren't always going to go your way. No one else had to deal with the injuries he had to deal with.

TVO: So what have you been doing since you left the show?

JD: Since I left the show, preparing for whatever next fight I may have. I'm flying up to Milwaukee and training with Duke Roufus currently, and I just got back to my gym in Ohio to spend like 4 or 5 days -- but I've been up there doing two a days, two hours in the morning, two hours at night, training my ass off. And I've been working on a lot of the stuff I learned from Dan Henderson with the takedown defense and takedowns. And since I came back just yesterday, I've had three of the best wrestlers in my gym you know do some round robin takedowns and rolling with me in the cage we got in the gym and only one of them got me down one time. I stuffed every other attempt and stopped all the other guys.

TVO: Of your fighting background, how did you get into fighting? You're a veteran and you've been in this sport quite a while, even before it became much more popular.

JD: I'm in a weird position because I was a huge fan of the sport before it got popular, then it got popular. I had to work my way from the small shows to the big shows. I got to the big shows, stalled out with decision losses. Figured the best part of your career is over. Came back to fight locally and won a bunch of local pro titles, and ended up working my way back up to the big time. So literally -- everybody says its -- but literally it's been a rollercoaster ride of up and downs.

TVO: Do you ever foresee a change of weight class, or do you feel lightweight is your ideal weight class?

JD: I think if I put on some muscle, 155 is my ideal weight class. It gets the most respect. I'm very well at 155. If I start dropping enough losses, the cut to 145 could be possible down the line, but I think I'm talented enough. I think my frame's big enough. I just think I'm a little chubby, and I got to get my diet together and put on a little bit of muscle. And I've been working on that since the show too.

TVO: You're into Muay Thai and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. Is there any style of fighting of mixed martial arts that you favor?

JD: You know I'm actually a purple belt under Helson Gracie, and when it comes to Muay Thai, I've got about 17 kickboxing fights. I prefer to stand with guys and look for a knockout, but I somehow always end up getting the submissions.

TVO: Any shout-outs to anyone or sponsors you would like to thank?

JD: I want to thank Duke Roufus, The Rock House, and Dan Rawlings, my Muay Thai coach, my academy the GriffonRawl Thaiboxing & MMA Academy, and Ganley Ford. Still looking for more sponsorships.

Season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter: USA VS. UK, featuring Jason Dent, continues to air on SpikeTV. The live finale is scheduled to air June 20.

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