Brookins philosophical about opportunity in front of him

You're not going to hear anything about "going to war" or "ripping someone's head off" when Jonathan Brookins discusses his approach to fighting. Nor is he going to brag about his abilities. He certainly can, though, after emerging as one of the top prospects on Season 12 of "The Ultimate Fighter" along with Michael Johnson, his opponent Saturday night.

Brookins admitted that he got matched up with the right coach on TUF 12. Georges St. Pierre's thinking man's approach meshed nicely with his game.

"I think what was starting to happen is like we were starting to kind of be – you know you're kind of locked up, and we were beginning to kind of be [cultured] from these people from all over the world. And it became kind of like, you almost didn't want to brag to the other team, you almost kind of had something to brag about," Brookins said during the TUF 12 teleconference.

St. Pierre brought in American boxing trainer Freddie Roach, French muay thai savant Jean-Charles Skarbowsky and his jiu-jitsu expert John Danaher, a Brit, who was heavy on the cerebral side of fighting. 

"What these guys would kind of start to notice real fast that like they're getting the same guys from, you know, one school, and there's no variety," said Brookins.

Josh Koscheck's team worked exclusively with fighters and coaches from the San Jose-based American Kickboxing Academy.

"And so you can kind of tell kind of quick that we were getting a better coaching staff than the other team."

It only added to Brookins' unique view of the sport.  

"I think the biggest thing that I took from it was just my mental outlook towards fighting. You know everything that I learned is going to – you know, on the physical front, you know, I realized after the show is going to take me years to kind of perfect and to really kind of understand, because that's how long it kind of takes, but – you know, but the way that I perceive the sport, the way I go about it, was changed completely by that set of coaches, and I was really thankful for that," said Brookins.

After the taping of the show, Brookins returned home to Orlando to train out of Gracie-Barra Academy. Johnson took a different approach bouncing around a bit. He spent three weeks at Jackson's Submission Fighting in Albuquerque and got the chance to work with experienced fighters like Donald Cerrone, Diego Sanchez and Carlos Condit.

Video courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

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