{"id":109754,"date":"2014-08-26T04:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=109754"},"modified":"2022-02-04T20:37:35","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T04:37:35","slug":"lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufc-fight-night-40-results-lentz-picks-up-unanimous-decision-win-over-gamburyan\/nik-lentz-wins\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-96829\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nik-Lentz-Wins.png\" alt=\"\" title=\"Nik Lentz Wins\" width=\"390\" height=\"270\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-96829\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nik-Lentz-Wins.png 390w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nik-Lentz-Wins-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nik-Lentz-Wins-361x250.png 361w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>At UFC Fight Night 50, Nik Lentz is suiting up to square off against Charles Oliveira. This is not the first time these two have squared off in the UFC, however, and Lentz claims he was &#8220;wasted talent&#8221; the first time they fought in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/2014\/08\/nik-lentz-explains-why-he-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-in-first-fight-with-charles-oliveira\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAJunkie<\/a>&#8216;s Ben Fowlkes, Lentz professed that things were falling apart at his camp during the training for their 2011 bout.<\/p>\n<p>Lentz was content with going through a sub-par camp for the convenience of it. After all, he was training with the likes of Sean Sherk and Nick Thompson. Once those elite teamates started retiring, though, that was when Lentz realized something needed to change.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cRight at that time, my team kind of fell apart in Minnesota&#8230; A lot of the guys I trained with wound up retiring, guys like Sean Sherk, Nick Thompson, Derrick Noble. A lot of my main partners went away and I didn\u2019t have anyone to train with, and instead of being a man and being smart, in my head I was kind of like, \u2018Everything\u2019s going to be fine. You can still train. You\u2019re still tough.\u2019&#8230; It wasn\u2019t until I started having adversity, started not doing as well as I should, that it dawned on me, hey, you\u2019re really messing this up, and you need to get your ass in gear.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since then, Nik Lentz has joined American Top Team, one of the top camps in mixed martial arts, and has since stated that he was a \u201ccomplete waste of talent\u201d throughout his career before then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At UFC Fight Night 50, Nik Lentz is suiting up to square off against Charles Oliveira. This is not the first time these two have squared off in the UFC, however, and Lentz claims he was &#8220;wasted talent&#8221; the first time they fought in 2011. In a recent interview with MMAJunkie&#8216;s Ben Fowlkes, Lentz professed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":96829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2681],"tags":[203,649,674,8335,16],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At UFC Fight Night 50, Nik Lentz is suiting up to square off against Charles Oliveira. This is not the first time these two have squared off in the UFC, however, and Lentz claims he was &#8220;wasted talent&#8221; the first time they fought in 2011. In a recent interview with MMAJunkie&#8216;s Ben Fowlkes, Lentz professed [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-26T11:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T04:37:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Nik-Lentz-Wins.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"bjpenndotcom\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/7c8b8d1602cb47040b7a5cd250d5b90a\"},\"headline\":\"Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-26T11:00:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T04:37:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"charles oliveira\",\"MMA NEWS\",\"Nik Lentz\",\"ufc fight night 50\",\"ufc news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"UFC NEWS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2014\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\",\"name\":\"Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-26T11:00:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T04:37:35+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/lentz-i-was-a-complete-waste-of-talent-before-joining-american-top-team\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UFC NEWS\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/ufcnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Lentz: I Was a Complete Waste of Talent Before Joining American Top Team\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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