Anyone remember Jason Thacker?

[Bos Docken]

“They wanted to see someone fail.” Never though of it like that. It certainly made for good TV at the expense of Thacker. I give him credit for staying on the show where so many quit in future seasons.

Thacker did decide to stay on the show, but in another cruel irony, he was the first guy cut by Randy Couture. Literally the second episode. after convincing him to stay, they told him to go home.

And then of course in the TUF Finale event Thacker was destroyed in 90 seconds by Chris Leben. The guy who pissed in Thacker's bed also got to TKO him on national television.

Like I said, the show did Thacker dirty.

 

[TITS]

Eh, true. Titties and Cake Boy had decent enough MMA records.

Too bad we never got to see Rampage vs Meathead.

 

[Liverkick-king56]

And later Mike Whitehead would be convicted for rape.

ESPN: Mike Whitehead gets prison in sex case

Las Vegas Sun: MMA fighter Mike Whitehead makes no-contest plea in sex assault case

Thank you for telling me that. I'll never mention the guy again.
People like that aren't worth being remembered in any way

 

[Pierced7681]

It is a great article, and I'm glad MMAFighting.com took the time and effort to publish such a compelling and empathetic feature about Jason.

As bad as some of the sacrificial lambs on the Contender Series are, nothing compares to Thacker.

He was 100% designated for humiliation. Minimal combat sports experience, physically outmatched by everyone else on the show. They might as well have made him wear a T-shirt that said "Loser"

The show producers weren't just hoping Thacker would be bullied and have a mental breakdown. They were totally counting on it.

And they were right. He was a guppy among sharks on TUF 1. The others in the cast were NCAA athletes and pro fighters. Diego was 12-0 undefeated with every win a finish. Chris Leben had already KO'd Mike Swick in a pro fight before they went on the show.

And then there was Jason, who had been working out by himself with improvised equipment in his barn in northern Canada.



It never occurred to me at the time I was watching the show in 2005. But it was really a scummy show biz set up move by the UFC and Spike TV.

Full sympathies to Jason Thacker. They did you wrong, man.

good post but he’s not from northern Canada lol he’s from the west coast, out in the sticks a little bit from Vancouver

 

[Klaavical]

I’ve always found most of the MMA media to be mediocre but I always thought this article was extremely well researched/well written. I hope he’s doing well. Also lol at him having to spar Dana White in order to fight at the TUF Finale.

https://www.mmafighting.com/platform/amp/2015/3/24/8259545/in-search-of-strange-brew

Loved him in 6th sense

 

[HHJ]

It is a great article but the best thing to do is stop making threads about him. Its always gonna be a re-opening of wounds,and the guy been through enough already.

 

[HHJ]

Reudiger was a level or two above Weems and Thacker, which made him basically around the same level as Schoovover, and not to mention both of them would probably kick the shit out of the TUF coaches who clowned them nowadays.

Ruediger was a moron. He aint beatin no ones ass.
Dude came on there,and started shit with his own teammates for no reason,and then spent the rest of the show crying,not making weight,and not fighting. He might be one of the worst idiots ever to be on the show,just below Junie Browning. Its almost like they paid him on purpose to be a scumbag cos I really dont know his motivations.

 

[MCarpo]

I dislike a great many of MMAFighting’s current and former “writers” as they are incredibly biased and full of themselves. This however was a great read.

Agreed. This article introduced me to Chuck Mindenhall, who to this day remains one of my favorite writers, MMA or otherwise.

 

[Bos Docken]

good post but he’s not from northern Canada lol he’s from the west coast, out in the sticks a little bit from Vancouver

Lol it's Canada, it's all northern to me

I guess it just looks like he lives in the middle of cold-as-fuck nowhere. Vancouver is nice, they used to shoot X-Files there.

 

[cheesus]

I respect the guy. Thacker probably had okay boxing, looks okay on the bag, I think he had a couple of amateur mma bouts and fought in muay thai and apparently he was a better boxer than Dana White so that has to count for something as Dana is a black belt boxerciser.

 

[witt1021]

Mike Whitehead was the guy in Season 2 that called everybody mentally weak and credited himself as a mental giant while giving up mentally against Rashad Evans.
TUF is fun like that.

. Man Mike whitehead, guys life turned out to be sick. He either a registered sex offender or still in prison for it. Mentally weak dude is mentally disturbed as well.

 

[StewDogg11]

It is a great article but the best thing to do is stop making threads about him. Its always gonna be a re-opening of wounds,and the guy been through enough already.

Thacker doesn’t even have a cellphone or a computer. You really think he’s cruising around Sherdog? And if he did that’s his choice.

 

[StewDogg11]

. Man Mike whitehead, guys life turned out to be sick. He either a registered sex offender or still in prison for it. Mentally weak dude is mentally disturbed as well.

He only received a 1-4 year sentence. He’s been out for over a decade.

 

[BangBang]

Who the thack is he?

 

[ThereIsNoSpoon]

Let's pour a glass for Noah Inhofer as well, a fellow TUF alumni who was given a letter in the house to spice the drama but wasn't allowed to make a phone call, so he decided to leave. There was quite a bit of controversy back then whether he should have left or not.

Well, he married the girl he wasn't allowed to call and he's still happily married almost 20 years later, while saving himself from concussions for $5000/$5000.

 

[H41ph_84k3d]

No, no one remembers Jason Thacker leave it at that.

 

[VinceArch]

Did they have some shit? I remember Chris getting picked on by Kos and possibly unrelated is that he is was the Cat Smasher. I'm old and don't remember shit anymore, lol.

Leben pissed on Jason's bed and ended up KO'ing him on TUF finale. That was the end of Thacker's career in the UFC and seemed to be the beginning of the downward spiral in his life, unfortunately.

 

[Pierced7681]

Lol it's Canada, it's all northern to me

I guess it just looks like he lives in the middle of cold-as-fuck nowhere. Vancouver is nice, they used to shoot X-Files there.

bruh, west coast Canada isn’t cold at all, barely hits freezing temp here during the winter lol go to winnipeg in the middle of winter if you want to see how cold it really gets in Canada