Details are emerging regarding the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.
Sources told MMAFighting.com’s Guilherme Cruz that the show will feature a cast composed of middleweight and heavyweight fighters.
The UFC held tryouts for fighters in the middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions. While the show will only feature tournaments in the middleweight and heavyweight divisions, it is highly likely that the top talent among the light heavyweight hopefuls will get folded into the heavyweight cast.
While The Ultimate Fighter has featured middleweight competitors on numerous occasions, seasons featuring heavyweights are quite rare. In the 21 seasons of The Ultimate Fighter (which have included 31 tournaments) that have aired thus far, heavyweights have only competed twice: in the show’s second and tenth seasons. Rashad Evans and Roy Nelson won the tournaments, respectively.
The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3 is slated to air later this year. It will feature PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva and former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen as coaches. The two fighters have been locked in one of MMA‘s most intense rivalries over the past six months, and the season will close with a bout between the two.
In spite of the fact that Sonnen is an American, the season will feature an all-Brazilian cast. Both previous seasons of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil have featured coaches from the home country: Vitor Belfort faced off with Wanderlei Silva in the first season, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira faced off with Fabricio Werdum in the second.
No list of fighters has been announced yet, but keep an eye on Bleacher Report for more details on the cast as they become available.
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