The UFC continues its growth overseas as The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil is set to return for a second season, led by heavyweight coaches Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fabrico Werdum.
Recently, the two coaches revealed who will be assisting them on the international edition of the long-running reality show.
For the former Pride champ, his team of coaches will be made up of a host of highly trained specialists including brother Antonio Rogerio Nogueira as an MMA coach and Everaldo Penco as a jiu-jitsu coach. Eric Albarracin will cover wrestling while Muay Thai coach Sheymon Moraes and kickboxing coach Vitor Miranda handle the striking department.
On Werdum’s side, a familiar face to the TUF: Brazil series will be handling the MMA coaching duties as Wanderlei Silva joins team Werdum. Silva was a coach on the first season of the Brazilian edition of the show opposite Vitor Belfort.
Also on Werdum’s squad will be Muay Thai coach and famed former head of Chute Boxe Rafael Cordeiro as well as Rubens Cobrinha for jiu-jitsu and Kenny Johnson for wrestling.
Interestingly, the show will feature another brother as an assistant coach as Fabricio’s brother, Felipe Werdum, will be instructing the contestants in capoeira. This also the first time, to my knowledge, that a TUF coach had a capoeira instructor on his staff.
This season will definitely be an interesting one as a new crop of lightweights and welterweight vye for their spots in the UFC. Last year’s winners Rony Mariano Bezerra and Cezar Ferreira have gone undefeated since joining the promotion, so I can only expect the next wave of TUF: Brazil fighters to be just as tough.
I especially can’t wait to see the rematch between “Minotauro” and Werdum, who last faced off in Pride all the way back in 2006, later next year.
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