The Official Website for UFC fighter Nik Lentz.

Video Games And How They Rotted My Brain!

Video games have always been my escape from reality. All the way back to when I was five years old, it was the one thing that I couldn't wait to do. I would spend my days at school drawing maps of Zelda terrain and thinking about what I was missing in Dragon Warrior. It was one of the few things I truly enjoyed. I would zone out in front of the TV for hours at a time. I didn't even own a system to play them on, so I would barter and work for people in exchange for NES rental time. I was literally a slave to the Yamauchi family! During this time, my family life was falling apart. My step father had become a ruthless alcoholic, my mother had to work several jobs at the same time to make up for his worthlessness, and our neighborhood was degenerating at a record pace. Still, in the midst of all of this, I could sit like a vegetable in front of the TV and forget about all of it. Sure the TV would have to be moved into the closet or the backyard to avoid the harassment and threats of my step father, but it was all the same to me. I look back at it now and can't picture how drunk one would have to be in order to not see an 8 year olds jimmy rigged concoction of extension cords and equipment wired through the window into the backyard, but somehow it worked!

I never really cared for school when I was a kid. It always seemed to be an interrogation of why I didn't do this or what was going on at home, so in general I just avoided it as much as possible. Seeing as I was far from the only kid to avoid Cook Elementary School ,it was not really noticed. Video games became my source of education. I learned about reading, math, science, etc...at school and from my mother, but I truly developed those skills with video games. It sounds crazy, but just thinking back as I write this I can't remember who my second, third and fourth grade teachers were. In fact I don't remember their faces, what we did, learned, or even what was going on in the world at the time. I literally remember nothing about school. I actually developed and gained all my real world knowledge with the help of old video games. Now that MIT has placed the old games in conjunction with a class of mind-addling math problems known as non-deterministic polynomial-time hard ...its easy to see how this could have and actually did work!

As I got older my mother got divorced, my sister was moved to live with my aunt Patty and I lived with my aunt Pam while my mother tried to piece her life back together. This was a life changing event. Their sectional couch was as big as my old living room, dinning room and kitchen combined. It was a mansion compared to the duplex I grew up in Google Map Pic This transition is when I was introduced to an entirely new set of things. School was challenging, it was painfully clear how far behind I was from the other kids, and I developed my first real friendship with my cousin Jeff.

Years passed, I moved several times and through a long drawn out series of events which would take months and way too many pages for my diseased brain to write...I ended up moving to Minnesota and living with my father. I got into sports, mainly wrestling, and my life changed. My father taught me how to be a man, how to manage my time with games and work, as well as taught me what life was really about. Through out this entire transition, I still always had something to fall back on, and that was the video games. I met all of my high school friends through games. I went on my first date because of video game knowledge, and the best part was I had my own games. My own systems, cases, and controllers. I would read the pamphlets, place them around the room as trophies, wake up in the middle of the night and play them, it was like I was living a dream.

One of the saddest days of my life was when I decided to be a professional fighter. Having zero money and now a full time job that paid almost nothing...I had to sell all of my games. Being in mint condition and extremely valuable because of their age and quality, I made enough money to support myself for the first two and a half years of my pro fighting career. I'm not going to lie, I shed more than a few tears as I sold away my collection and childhood memories. Needless to say, I made the right choice, but I still get a stomach ache just thinking about it.

Video games have certainly rotted my brain, probably more than a fist to the face from Tyson Griffin, but without them I wouldn't be the person I am today. With things like recessions, abuse, hunger, poverty and everything else that happens in this world...is it really that bad to sit in front of the light box babysitter and play something that can erase your cares, frustrations, insecurities and bad luck for a short amount of time? I don't think so, but then again, my upbringing was from an eight bit dude with a orange stick that hit weird looking blobs looking for some random chick....so who knows what the hell goes on in my head!


Posted: Sat, 12 May 2012 12:48:23 AM

Mastering The System

It's now the final days that I will be in L.A. training at 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu. The idea for this trip started a while back. I was watching GSL with my twitter open and saw that Eddie Bravo was talking about me. At first I thought “that’s cool, at least I’m getting noticed,” but then I had a crazy idea. What if I just straight up asked him, “would you teach me the rubber guard!?” I asked, and within minutes he had responded with “Lets do this Shit!!!” I got the plane ticket, a place to stay, and now I’m about to leave from my two week crash course in the rubber guard.

The crazy part is…..is that this was no crash course at all. From the first day I arrived at Eddie’s he had everything mapped out, and he explained it as only a Marijuana Martial Arts Master could. The explanation was an amazing interpretation of the evolution of MMA and No-Gi grappling. He went through steps and phases like no one I had talked to before. From his wandering subjects, to his mind blowing statements, to his inability to find the right place to eat, he truly was a drunken kung fu master! (Just substitute the drunk for…..well you know) I left that day thinking about things I had never thought of before. From the changes that are happening in the game, to the true dangers you can pose to your opponents before a single punch is thrown, and how when you have mastered the guard game everything opens up. It was like I was playing a game of Kal-toh, but the puzzle was changing from an endless mess of pieces with no coherent place to go, into a beautiful symmetric structure of logic.

I knew after that day this was going to be a great thing for me. I delved into the techniques, each with its own odd name, and story to go with it (a tool for remembering and discussing the mass amount of things that can happen when grappling). I then began to understand the ideas, the purpose, the goals, and the way to become a rubber guard master. I only had one problem, and it was a big one! I was not learning the rubber guard at all!

I was learning sweeps, transitions, chokes, arm locks, leg locks, and every guard in between. The idea that Eddie was just into a simplistic idea of a singular guard was false. He was a realist when it came to Jiu Jitsu. He was not your typical Jiu Jitsu guy. “This is how you do this! The other ways are stupid! The others have it all wrong!” No, Eddie was more of cheat. Every time he saw something new in Jiu Jitsu, he cowardly took it, like the atrocious, No-Gi, back stabbing rat that he was! He then would try to figure out every detail, adding names to transitions that had none, working on them with his students, asking questions until he could teach it in an easy and concise way. That’s where I came in. With the easy ideas and explanations I was picking it up at record speed. Eddie would often stop and ask, “are we going over too much?” The question puzzled me because I was understanding and recreating everything he showed. The obvious answer was “No”. As fast as he could teach me, the more I understood. The more I understood, the more I wanted to know, and soon from what I could tell, Eddie was amazed at how fast I was learning the system. This continued though the entire two weeks, and now in both a sad and ecstatic way, I’m going home. I have so many things to work on and I can’t wait to spend hours, days, weeks, and years mastering the evolving game of MMA based Jiu Jitsu!

Now as you can tell, I have become a huge believer in the ideas and techniques that Eddie Bravo teaches. This is not to say that I have some sort of hero worship for the guy. I could care less if the entire world smoked weed, and I’m pretty sure if I died in the middle of one of his stories he wouldn’t notice for days. The truth of the entire thing is, that training at 10th planet will and has already changed the way I think about Jiu Jitsu. If that was the only thing I learned while I was out here, it would be worth my last FOTN bonus (which by the way Eddie did for Free!). The great part is…..is that I have learned and will continue to learn a system of grappling that 10 years from now will be the norm. It's like I have invested in Star Wars and its only 1976. The future is going to be good for me! Keep track, because with my new training schedules, coaches, weight class change, and attitude, 2012 is my year! Dont forget to follow me on Twitter @NikLentz and check out 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu Posted: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 02:14:06 AM

Thoughts, Plans, Excuses, Media

Hi everyone, Its been a long time since I updated my website. This is mainly do to the fact that I'm more active on the other major social networking sites. From now on, If you want to talk, have a question, interested in an interview, or want to tell me to drop dead as soon as possible.....send it all to @NikLentz on twitter. I responded to almost all messages sent to me on twitter.

Now for the real issues. My fighting career, plans, and future. Lets start with how I feel about my last two fights. The first one with Bocek is simple. I made the mistake of trying to hurt and finish someone, whose only goal was to win by holding me down. Its simple to look back and see that all I needed to do to win that fight was escape from the bottom and continue to dismantle him on the feet. This was mostly bad planning on my part. Trying to land the punches on Bocek left me open for the take down. I should have relaxed on my feet, waited for the right opportunities to land strikes, stopped the inevitable take down attempt and then exploded with punches. Simple planning mistake, but that’s all it takes to lose a fight in the UFC. I did one of the worst things you can do as a fighter. Lose to someone whose skill level is below yours.

The Dunham fight is a different story. For some reason that I don't understand, people are dropping out of fights with injury after injury. This is something that just should not happen. If you are getting injured while practicing on a regular basis (Not injured in a fight).....you are doing something wrong.....I took the Dunham fight and had a total of three weeks to train for it. Three weeks is simply not enough time to train for a fight with a top ten guy, but I wanted to prove to the UFC and fans that I'm worth keeping around. So I asked to be the replacement. Could I be in proper shape for this fight, No......Could I have the perfect game plan, No......but simply put, I said #$%@ that, I'm going to beat him anyway. The fight was exciting, I proved that even without being able to train properly, I belong in the UFC octagon. The outcome is far from what I hoped, but that’s life. Things do not always go as planned.

Trust me when I say this....There is no one on this planet that hates failure more than I do. I was so upset at myself after my last two fights that I wanted to hide in a corner and rip my hair out while ending it Seppuku style. The training for the Bocek fight was horrible. Coming off of the shattered orbital and herniated discs in my neck was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I got sick multiple times during the camp. I had to avoid the normal training because of my neck. I couldn't sleep because my neck was in too much pain. Overall I let the injuries defeat me through most of my training camp for Bocek fight. Maybe I should have just called up the UFC and said, sorry can't fight, but I'm to stupid and hard headed for that...........Going into the Dunham fight, I got my injuries under control and felt like a new man. I truly feel if I would have had a proper ten week training camp for the fight it would have turned out differently. I would have been more explosive, stronger, faster, and overall the better fighter at the end of the day. To bad this is the real world, and I lost the fight. Its no ones fault but my own.

At the end of the day I accomplished a great deal of things. The illusion that Nik Lentz is a boring fighter is gone. I won FOTN for the second time, which helps my status with fans and the UFC, not to mention gives me a little extra spending money! I proved that I belong in the UFC and although there will be talk that Lentz is never going to be a contender, or Lentz can't hang in the 55 lb division, I know and proved to myself that this is all bullshit. MMA is not the safe guarded, recorded padding event that boxing has become. Look at the MMA greats, Randy Couture 19-11, BJ Penn 16-8-2, and many more people have tasted defeat and come back stronger. I felt like this one other time in my life, changed what I was doing, and went undefeated for 3+ years.

This is a changing point in my life. The only person to blame for my current failures is myself. Trust me, I wont be down for long. Posted: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:14:10 PM

Interview With WellPlayed

Click Here Posted: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 07:13:18 PM

Nerds Unite!!!!

Video games rot your brain, but if you want to play StarCraft with me my Blizzard ID is TheCarny. You can find me on Facebook or just send me a message on twitter or email. Posted: Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:54:05 AM

The New And Improved NikLentz.com

As many of my fans have seen, my website has not been update on a regular basis. I have been quite busy with my fight training and have had a very busy schedule. I have also just kind of neglected it. So as of now, it will be updated on a regular basis. You will be seeing all my random daily activities along with what you will soon realize is way to much StarCraft playing. I will also be adding some fan pics as well as making sure that everyone is updated on my fight schedule. I look forward to getting to know more people and can't wait to meet more MMA fans. Here is a link to my Latest Fight Posted: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:50:31 AM

Check Out My Latest Interview With Minnesota MMA News

Lentz 'quietly' moving up UFC ladder Posted: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:00:14 PM

UFC 123

So I got home yesterday from my fight with Tyson and I feel a lot better than the last time I got home from a fight. Overall I thought fight night went well, I could have done some things better, but I was pretty happy with my performance. I would like to say one thing about how some people are saying “Lentz lost the fight!” This is just not true. Please do yourself a favor and dont look at the round by round updates from these websites. They are the most inaccurate things in the world. A lot of them say that I won only the third round and thats the one I lost. Watch the fight and make your own judgments (It may or may not be on my facebook) http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=501058965691

This sounds stupid to say, because my fight with Andre was like watching paint dry, but this fight was definitely a lot more exciting than my last fight. Lots of things went wrong in the Andre fight, I think a lot more things went right this time. Thanks to all the supporters that helped me train and get ready for this fight.

I also got to do something for this fight that was fun for me, and that was give one of my fans from Detroit two tickets to the show. (I will be uploading photos later) I will be doing this for everyone of my fights in the future. Where ever the show is, a local UFC fan will get 2 tickets to watch me fight. Stay tuned to my twitter for updates on dates and how to get the tickets.

The last thing I wanted to touch on was that remember I don't make the rules. If it was up to me we would fight until someone won, there would be no such thing as an illegal elbow, Knees and kicks on the ground would be legal, and judges would be a thing of the past, but its not. So I, like everyone else have to fight within the rules that they give me. Posted: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 06:14:28 PM

UFC 118 Thoughts

First off, I would like to thank everyone who was supportive during my training and after the fight. Without the structure and core people that help me prepare for my fights, I would not be anywhere. I would also like to thank the UFC for giving me the ability to fight and do what I feel like I am destined to do.

As far as how the fight went, I am both pleased and disappointed. I am happy that I was able to have my hand raise at the end of the fight. That is, after all, the overall goal of fighting. On the other hand, I wish it would have turned out to be a more exciting fight. In the first round I had a hard time taking him down. His height and length was hard to deal with and was clearly something that I should have prepared for better. It took me a round in a half to figure out what he was doing and how to counter it. I should have opened up and went after him a little more, but that’s easy to say in hindsight. Overall, like I said before, I’m happy I won, but I should have put on a better show.

Before this fight, I have never been so bombarded by people who though I was going to get KO’ed by Winner. I also knew that if I were to slug it out with Winner, even if I were to win the battles, I would have lost. There is no way that I could win a close decision with Winner. It is clear, that if you are going against a TUF alumni that the judges are going to be against you.

I’m sure as my future fights come up, you will see that this fight is an outlier. If you don’t believe me, check out my other fights with Rafeallo, Tavares, and Emerson. Thanks to everyone for writing and checking out my site. If you hate me or love me, I will always respond to everyone who talks to me. Thanks again for all the support and hell, I love you haters to.

The Carny
Posted: Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:23:52 PM