Anton Tabuena
UFC president Dana White announces a comeback for The Ultimate Fighter reality series.
When the UFC ended its contract with the FOX network in 2018, the Ultimate Fighter reality series went off the air as well. But according to UFC president Dana White, the platform that launched the careers of Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, and Nate Diaz, to name a few, will be making a comeback.
“[Craig] Piligian and I are working on “The Ultimate Fighter” right now,” White said during a media scrum following the latest episode of the Contender Series (via MMA Fighting). “We’ll figure [the timeline for the return] tonight. They’re waiting for me for dinner right now.”
White went on to reveal how they’re changing a few things upon TUF’s resurgence, seeing how instrumental it is to building up potential new talents to add to their roster.
“We’re going to switch some things around, do some things different but I truly believe that “The Ultimate Fighter” is so key in building young talent,” he said. “This show is fun and guys come in but what they have to go through with cameras in their face 24/7, being away from home, being away from their families and all the bullsh-t, hardcore training everyday with these dream camps that are f—king built, cutting weight, staying on weight, you’ll never go through anything harder than “The Ultimate Fighter”.
“So if you can make it through ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and actually win it, if you go back throughout history and look at ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and the fighters that have come off their, it is just the greatest training ground ever for up and coming fighters. It can’t go away ever.”
The Ultimate Fighter has a total of 28 seasons since it first aired in 2005. TUF 28 (aka The Ultimate Fighter: Heavy Hitters) ran on air from August to October of 2018, with middleweights Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum as the opposing coaches.
The Finale took place on November 30th, with heavyweight Juan Espino Dieppa and women’s featherweight Macy Chiasson as the tournament winners.