By taking a chance and financing The Ultimate Fighter television show in early 2005, the Fertitta brothers, Lorenzo and Frank, sparked a global phenomena which would ultimately save the seemingly doomed UFC.
The UFC’s brass decided to select a specific number of fighters in a pair of designated weight classes and then toss them in a house together in Las Vegas where they would form teams and fight one another—a formula that proved brilliantly entertaining from the get-go.
In the finale of the inaugural season, Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar teamed up to put on a captivating display of violence in a fight that’s generally considered the most pivotal and pertinent in the sport’s brief history.
Since the historical The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 finale, the UFC has produced 16 additional seasons. The UFC also produced the show successfully on an international scale, introducing The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil in March 2012 and then unveiling The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes (filmed in Australia) six months later.
In just over eight years, the show’s generated a trio of UFC champions and a cluster of title challengers, a notion that would have been unthinkable in 2005 when the show was spawned.
Here’s a glimpse at the 10 best fighters in the history of The Ultimate Fighter.