In a surprise announcement yesterday, Dana White announced that he was leaving his post with the UFC and starting a new company, the Ultimate Roided Fucking Killers League, which will be the first fight promotion in history to make the usage of PEDs mandatory for every fighter.
“Literally everything good that has ever happened in this sport has been down to steroids,” said White. “URFKL is aiming to provide highly entertaining match-ups suitable for moronic casual fans.”
(White, seen here “negotiating” the terms of Anderson Silva’s suspension with NSAC.)
In a surprise announcement yesterday, Dana White announced that he was leaving his post with the UFC and starting a new company, the Ultimate Roided Fucking Killers League, which will be the first fight promotion in history to make the usage of PEDs mandatory for every fighter.
“Literally everything good that has ever happened in this sport has been down to steroids,” said White. “URFKL is aiming to provide highly entertaining match-ups suitable for moronic casual fans.”
He continued:
The NSAC has become a fucking sport killer. How are we supposed to put on high-quality entertainment when all our biggest draws are suspended or injured? How can name-fighters continue to fight well into their 40s without PEDs? In our experience, there’s nothing the casual fan likes more than two obviously ‘roided up superfreaks who have no defensive abilities giving each other concussions in wild brawls that never last more than two minutes. And as everyone knows, the causal fan is a much more lucrative audience than actual fight fans.
In a later interview with Arian Helwinny, White nothing short of boasted that “Every fight company knows this, but we are the first to find a legal loophole so airtight that we can actually admit it.”
URFKL’s first event is set to take place later this year and will be filmed in a secret location near the North Pole. There will be no weight classes and no weight limit, although a separate division for super-heavyweights shorter than 5’5” is being considered. All offensive techniques will be legal, but defensive footwork and blocking will be strictly prohibited.
“The safety of our fighters is, of course, our top priority,” said White while trying not laugh, “So they will be checked for illegal weapons on the way into the cage. If any weapons are found they will not be confiscated but if they are used during the fight then the offending fighter may face a suspension.”
“We’re just kinda hoping this won’t lead to any serious problems.”
Weed, however, will remain highly prohibited, according to the former UFC president. “Weed doesn’t make you look like Brock Lesnar, so why are you wasting your money on that shit? At least if they’re on coke they might do something crazy that could help us sell the fight.”
When asked what message URFKL might send to young fighters who want to compete at the top level of MMA without using PEDs, Dana had this to say:
“They need to wake the fuck up. URFKL will be the new top level of MMA and no-one will give a shit about these high-and-mighty fighters with their stupid ideas about honesty and integrity. Jon Fitch vs. Ben Askren? Are you fucking serious? Come on.”
“It’s Like we say in the business, ‘You won’t move the needle if you don’t use the needle.’”
(Fact: This is exactly how Matt Serra sounds after consuming an 18-inch hoagie.)
By Rory Daniel
The prospect of a new year with MMA is always a pleasant one. It won’t be like it was before. We’ve both matured, we know where we went wrong last time and we’re both committed to not repeating our previous mistakes. We’ve been wooed back in by big names – Jones, McGregor, Silva, Diaz, all in January alone – and, what a surprise, just as things looked like they were going to be different, better, lasting…BAM…we’re reduced to tears and calling mom screaming “why can’t anyone love me?” in the rain. Metaphorically speaking.
The news that Chris Weidman has been forced out of his UFC 184 title defence shattered any naïve assumptions that maybe this year would finally see the dastardly injury bug leaving our precious main events alone. Of course, the signs were there before Weidman’s injury…
(Fact: This is exactly how Matt Serra sounds after consuming an 18-inch hoagie.)
By Rory Daniel
The prospect of a new year with MMA is always a pleasant one. It won’t be like it was before. We’ve both matured, we know where we went wrong last time and we’re both committed to not repeating our previous mistakes. We’ve been wooed back in by big names – Jones, McGregor, Silva, Diaz, all in January alone – and, what a surprise, just as things looked like they were going to be different, better, lasting…BAM…we’re reduced to tears and calling mom screaming “why can’t anyone love me?” in the rain. Metaphorically speaking.
The news that Chris Weidman has been forced out of his UFC 184 title defence shattered any naïve assumptions that maybe this year would finally see the dastardly injury bug leaving our precious main events alone. Of course, the signs were there before Weidman’s injury. The end of last year saw us lose Dominick Cruz AGAIN*and* Raphael Assuncao in just a few hours, just as the bantamweight division threatened to start looking interesting. Cain Velasquez has been out so long that it’s not unrealistic to expect a significantly less impressive version than the wrecking machine we were used to, let alone the one we’ve been dreaming about watching face off against Jon Jones in the only true superfight worth making.
But now, a fight that was already postponed from its original postponement has once again been postponed, and any hopes the successful January had raised in our foolish hearts have well and truly been doused with concrete. The question remains though: Why can’t we have nice things? We deserve them just as much as fans of other sports, right? Why does it feel like every time the UFC books a true blockbuster main event (something Bellator still cannot manage, despite their improvements), we pessimistically expect it to be snatched from under our nose? Are we just bitter, or has recent history forced us to think this way?
Fortunately for anyone going to UFC 184, there was a second headline worthy fight on the card, but that’s hardly the point. We were promised two title fights. We were promised Weidman vs. post-TRT Belfort, supported by Ronda Rousey‘s latest showcase. And now we have 2015 Josh Koscheck vs. 2015 Jake Ellenberger in the co-main event. Yikes. Is it just bad luck that so many of the UFC’s biggest talents are as breakable as a new Apple product? Well I have a theory, and though I should stress that this is just wild conjecture, but it does make sense (at least in my oddly functioning cranium).
A fight gets the testosterone pumping and the adrenaline running. It forces you to be as competitive as you can, because if you lose it will hurt a lot more than just your pride, unlike other sports. You come in pumped up to training and, look, you get to spar with the champ today, the best guy in the world. Are you just going to let him beat on you? Or are you going to fight extra hard to try and prove to anyone watching, to yourself at least, that you can hang with the best guy in the world? That’s surely something to brag about at Dave & Buster’s on Friday. If, in the heat of the moment, you accidentally injure them, you can’t be blamed for going hard. They’re the champ, they should be able to handle it.
Then again, its often the ego of the trainer and/or the fighter that can get them into trouble. So often you hear fighters bragging that “no one trains harder than I do.” Obviously, this is testicle grabbing bullshit, but the possibility of overtraining and trying to push yourself too hard is very real. It’s the old gunslingers conundrum — as you get to the top of the sport, people start aiming up at you instead of looking past you. You feel like you have to do more than you had previously to stay ahead of these guys, to set an example of how hard someone really can work and to come in better conditioned than whatever opponent you might face. The high intensity, CrossFit-style workouts that many fighters favour are easy to injure yourself in, particularly if you’re only partially instructed when completing them. Pushing the weight your lifting and the reps your getting out are fine if you’re doing them the right way. Too often, however, fighters will focus on pushing through pain rather than listening to it. This is just a fighter’s mindset; pain is nothing.
When training, it is all to easy to ignore pains and expect them to be normal as part of the workout. You don’t want to appear weak by admitting to pain or giving an inch and thus you greatly increase your chance of injury. Personally, I’m a great advocate of CrossFit-style workouts, but you have to be doing things properly. Pushing through injuries is something that is all too common and can often simply lead to the injury deteriorating until pushing through is no longer an option.
These are just theories I have, but for the sake of us at home who still have hope and who still believe that MMA is the right sport for us despite our previous heartbreaks, I would ask anyone in even a decent upcoming fight to please be careful. I’m not sure I can take another long term layoff after a previous injury (looking at you, Pettis). We want and deserve to see the fights we are promised; it’s a simple as that. Here’s to a healthy 2015 from here on out (*manically touches everything wooden within reach*).
Fresh off the most embarrassing UFC Q&A ever involving CM Punk earlier this month in Las Vegas, NV., at UFC 182, the UFC thought it would be a great idea to call upon its featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo, to answer some hard-hitting questions in Boston a day before UFC Fight Night 59 (which takes place tonight, if you haven’t heard already).
It was sort of like a fair exchange, seeing how tonight’s headliner, Conor McGregor, goofed around with the Brazilian fans at his Q&A during UFC 179 weekend in Brazil, teasing the country and calling out some “mamacitas.”
If you predicted this installment was going to be as cringeworthy as the last few, then you deserve the Medal of Honor. Then again, would you rather watch these types of train wrecks, or a respectful and intelligent session with the likes of Cain Velasquez (UFC 180) or T.J. Dillashaw (UFC 181)?
Fresh off the most embarrassing UFC Q&A ever involving CM Punk earlier this month in Las Vegas, NV., at UFC 182, the UFC thought it would be a great idea to call upon its featherweight kingpin, Jose Aldo, to answer some hard-hitting questions in Boston a day before UFC Fight Night 59 (which takes place tonight, if you haven’t heard already).
It was sort of like a fair exchange, seeing how tonight’s headliner, Conor McGregor, goofed around with the Brazilian fans at his Q&A during UFC 179 weekend in Brazil, teasing the country and calling out some “mamacitas.”
If you predicted this installment was going to be as cringeworthy as the last few, then you deserve the Medal of Honor. Then again, would you rather watch these types of train wrecks, or a respectful and intelligent session with the likes of Cain Velasquez (UFC 180) or T.J. Dillashaw (UFC 181)?
It’s a tough call, really.
But at the end of the day, the brass is already thinking ahead and promoting a contest between Aldo and McGregor for the UFC featherweight championship, considering the Irishman will crush the living hell out of that guy he’s fighting tonight.
Here are some low-points worth noting:
1:19 – Host Megan Olivi introduces Aldo to the Boston crowd, who gets booed like a classic pro wrestling heel with a smile on his face. The crowd is already chanting.
3:50 – Olivi asks “Are they serving beer here?” Gosh, she’s so naive in a really cute way.
5:20 – Co-host and translator Jorge Gurgel pleads with the audience to keep it down so he can hear the questions.
6:10 – Aldo sneaks in a gem, and says he has his mind on Dennis Siver after being asked a question of who would you rather, Anthony Pettis or T.J. Dillashaw. Either that, or Gurgel got it wrong. We don’t speak Portuguese.
6:30 – A kid who looks like a retired child actor asks Aldo if he would take McGregor seriously after he’s wearing his belt. Look, it’s kind of witty and all, but these trolling sessions are becoming excruciating.
7:34 – A guy asks what Aldo’s thoughts are on Jon Jones and the cocaine scandal, and if he’s “ever been in love with the coco himself.”
10:46 – A nine-year-old child asks what Aldo would think about fighting in Ireland once McGregor beats Siver. We’ll applaud this young hopeful for having the best question out of his peers. A future Helwani in the making.
11:43 – They take a small pause to let the fans chant. It’s getting exhaustive now, and it’s just over 10 minutes in.
12:08 – Some dude who looks like prime Kevin Smith comes up to the mic to laud McGregor, and impersonates his idol, without asking a question.
16:49 – Another young kid asks if Aldo has already started cleaning the belt for McGregor. The balls on this one.
17:45 – Olivi gets booed for saying they shouldn’t serve beer during these ordeals. A drunken buffoon immediately thanks her for “wearing those pants.” He then asks Gurgel for an Aldo vs. McGregor prediction fight, and despite initially refusing, the MMA veteran claims Aldo will beat him.
22:39 – Another wizard with a beer in hand asks roughly the same Pettis or Dillashaw question, thinking he just cracked the Da Vinci code.
24:46 – A guy asks Aldo if he will be rooting for the New England Patriots in their championship game. Sigh.
26:25 – No idea what this bonehead said.
27:17 – Lastly (for us, at least), a guy asks for Conor’s sister’s hand, and then starts chanting, “There’s Only One Conor’s Sister.” Olivi reminds this idiot McGregor has two sisters.
At least Aldo stayed strong and stood his ground with his answers, stating on multiple occasions that he’s going to beat McGregor, and had no problem playing the bad guy. After multiple questions from people reading them on their mobiles and asking for pictures, loud chanting, and a segment that went way too long, the hosts seemed completely exhausted by the end of it all.
Now, we all know the UFC will never garner the mainstream attention it truly desires, but this doesn’t help. It’s hard enough to convince a friend that MMA is really special at times, considering we have to put up with this nonsense more often than not. It also proves that UFC fans (not all of them) really fit the stereotypes of lifeless and bloodthirsty ignoramuses.
Maybe (and this is just an idea) the company should consider cleaning up these types of shindigs. When someone neat and accomplished came through our high school for a Q&A, a teacher normally stood by the mic and asked a student to tell them their question first, before spewing saliva all over the place. It wouldn’t be bad for UFC to send someone down to control the questions, or better yet, control the beer sales.
Until then, these Q&A’s will just be a big drunken party where aspiring journalists will ruin their credibility in six seconds.
WSOF 17: “Shields vs. Foster” took place last night from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV., featuring former Strikeforce champion and UFC alumni Jake Shields against another fellow UFC veteran Brian Foster.
The winner of their contest would go on to challenge Rousimar Palhares for the welterweight title at a later date, and despite the slow start, Shields scored his second consecutive submission win. He’s now 2-0 since being fired from the UFC:
(Photo via Getty)
Did you forget there was a WSOF event on last night? It’s okay, so did the guy on the left … (all GIFS courtesy of ZombieProphet):
WSOF 17: “Shields vs. Foster” took place last night from Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV., featuring former Strikeforce champion and UFC alumni Jake Shields against another fellow UFC veteran Brian Foster.
The winner of their contest would go on to challenge Rousimar Palhares for the welterweight title at a later date, and despite the slow start, Shields scored his second consecutive submission win. He’s now 2-0 since being fired from the UFC:
Shields didn’t play nice in his post-fight interview when asked about the champion, stating he was “a dirty fighter” and that he’s going to “whoop his ass,” too. Apart from that, the event was rather slow, with a few notable occurrences. After all, every MMA media member devoted their Saturday night to a heavyweight boxing fight featuring Bermane Stiverne vs. Deontay Wilder, which also took place in Las Vegas.
Joe Condon hit one hell of a Hail Mary, choking out Johnny Nunez with under one minute left in their co-main event contest. The guillotine was pretty freaking nasty, to say the least (that’s not Brian Cobb, though … he was injured on a treadmill):
Bryson Hansen defeated Rudy Morales in a dud of a fight, minus the fact that Morales was cut in the first round and bled all over the place. This is an early candidate for GIF of the year, presumably titled, “Look Ma! I’m actually not roadkill:”
Danny Davis Jr. defeated Adam Cella via unanimous decision, but he was lucky to not get disqualified for a Steven Gerrard-style bullet to Cella’s cranium:
On the preliminary card, Jordan Rinaldi scored a sweet submission over Soslan Abanokov earlier in the evening, submitting the latter with an americana:
And finally, apart from the other uneventful fights, the torrid theme music, interviews in between fights, shitty video players MMA sites still have the patience for, and a ring announcer named Jazz Securo, referee Kim Winslow really dropped the ball by letting Trey Williams hold onto his anaconda choke for way too long and nearly killed Jamie Point in the process. Point’s stiff, cold body and long stare is downright harrowing:
WSOF 17 QUICK RESULTS:
Main Card:
Jake Shields def. Brian Foster via submission (rear-naked choke) at 2:51 of R1
Joe Condon def. Johnny Nunez via submission (guillotine choke) at 4:22 of R3
Krasimir Mladenov def. Brendan Kornberger via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bryson Hansen def. Rudy Morales via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-26, 30-27)
Danny Davis Jr. def. Adam Cella via unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-27)
Preliminary Card
Jordan Rinaldi def. Soslan Abanokov via submission (armbar) at 3:02 of R3
Donavon Frelow def. Taylor McCorriston via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Trey Williams def. Jamie Point via technical submission (anaconda choke) at 3:52 of R1
This is the last post I’ll ever be making at CagePotato, and this is the last day I’ll ever be tweeting for CagePotato. This is honestly one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. I love CagePotato and I feel so sad leaving, but I’m getting a real media job at a website I adore (assistant social media editor at Salon).
I’m not really sure what to say in a goodbye post. I remember once last year, some Bellator prelim fighter retired. He left his gloves in the ring and friend-of-CagePotato Mike Fagan hilariously buried the guy, comparing this jobber leaving his gloves in the cage to a supermarket clerk leaving his apron in the store parking lot. That’s how I kind of feel with this post. In terms of MMA “journalism,” I didn’t really do anything that spectacular or memorable. I think my lasting contribution to the sport will be asking Ronda Rousey whether she moderated a Pokemon forum in her youth. It’s been three years since I asked and I still see people favoriting that tweet every couple of months.
Still, MMA writing meant a lot to me (even if I didn’t always like the sport or the MMA media) and gave me a direction in life when I didn’t necessarily have one.
(Arguably my lasting contribution to MMA writing.)
This is the last post I’ll ever be making at CagePotato, and this is the last day I’ll ever be tweeting for CagePotato. This is honestly one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. I love CagePotato and I feel so sad leaving, but I’m getting a real media job at a website I adore (assistant social media editor at Salon).
I’m not really sure what to say in a goodbye post. I remember once last year, some Bellator prelim fighter retired. He left his gloves in the ring and friend-of-CagePotato Mike Fagan hilariously buried the guy, comparing this jobber leaving his gloves in the cage to a supermarket clerk leaving his apron in the store parking lot. That’s how I kind of feel with this post. In terms of MMA “journalism,” I didn’t really do anything that spectacular or memorable. I think my lasting contribution to the sport will be asking Ronda Rousey whether she moderated a Pokemon forum in her youth. It’s been three years since I asked and I still see people favoriting that tweet every couple of months.
Still, MMA writing meant a lot to me (even if I didn’t always like the sport or the MMA media). It gave me a direction in life when I didn’t necessarily have one.
I first got the idea to start writing about MMA when MMAJunkie started their “Sunday Junkie” writing contest. By that time, I had religiously read that site for years. Before class, I’d enjoy a Pop Tart and a glass of iced tea while listening to the rants of Nick Havok and other amazing characters in the comments section. When Junkie started a forum — back when John Morgan was just KingofAbuelos — I was one of the first members. But eventually reading wasn’t enough. I wanted to be more than a forum poster. I submitted an entry to that weekend’s Sunday Junkie and won.
This was October 2010. Senior year of college had just started. I spent most of my spare time submitting applications to graduate schools — I planned to study history and become a professor one day. However, knowing how tough it could be to get into graduate school, I wanted a backup career. Winning the Sunday Junkie made me consider MMA writing (one whose prospects were even worse than graduate study in history!).
By early 2011, I worked up the courage to submit something to Bleacher Report — an article about how Fedor Emelianenko would lose to Bigfoot Silva. Commenters went nuts, but controversy creates cash. After a few more hot takes, I was getting paid.
I started out as a HUGE Zuffa mark, and I mean huge. How bad? I made Ariel Helwani look like Zach fucking Arnold. I didn’t write anything particularly innovative during this time, just the usual “boxing is dead; the UFC will be bigger than the NFL because fighting is in our DNA” garbage except with the volume turned up to 50 out of 10. Eventually, I came around though.
This is already getting too long so I’ll go through the moments I’m most grateful for in my MMA writing “career:”
1. Appearing on Inside MMA in summer 2013. This was right after Chris Weidman beat Anderson Silva the first time. I had some kind of hot take on it and since Axs.tv already had a crew on Long Island to interview Ray Longo, they asked me to go meet their crew in Longo’s gym to do a brief segment with Bas Rutten. This is easily one of my favorite accomplishments/moments in my life.
I remember watching Inside MMA in senior year of high school. I dreamed about being on the show, but as a fighter since I wanted to be a fighter back then. I was horrible at fighting though. I trained in kickboxing throughout my youth and despite 10+ years of it I was barely average. I possessed even fewer MMA and grappling skills. I trained in MMA and BJJ for two years, 4-5 days a week and MAYBE submitted four people in that time frame. Being an idiot and believing what society said, I thought all it took was hard work. So I kept training more and more, expecting to get better by magic when genetics had other plans. Eventually, I over-trained to the point of permanent injury and now I can’t even do a push-up without being in pain.
So I never thought I’d be on Inside MMA when I stopped training in 2010. But I was! And I was so ecstatic about it, even if the show’s reputation had fallen quite a bit by that time.
2. Predicting the rise of Chris Weidman before anyone else. In November 2011, I went on record saying Chris Weidman would murder Anderson Silva should the two ever meet. As Internet commenters say, “First!”
3. Pretty much everything I did at CagePotato. I could write 10,000 words about how much fun I had here. I won’t though. I’ll just tell you what my two favorite posts were: The 95 These of MMA and the Magic the Gathering cards post. The 95 Theses of MMA was born of my own laziness because I didn’t feel like covering two events in the same day — two events I knew would get no traffic. I figured the stunt of not covering the events and instead offering a scathing critique of MMA would perform far better (and it did). Making Magic the Gathering cards of different fighters is an idea I’ve had since high school. I just didn’t know there was a program to make said cards until last year.
And then there’s CagePotato’s twitter account. I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun on the Internet than I did live-tweeting MMA events for CagePotato over the last year and a half. I was so amazed/honored/humbled that people actually liked what I had to say about these events and thought the tweets were funny. I’m still heartbroken I’ll never do that again. The few events that I do watch in the future will feel so lonely and sad now…
When I started running CagePotato’s twitter, Ben and I both agreed we wanted it to be different from the other MMA sites. Maybe at times it was too different, but the following increased by over six thousand people. If nothing else, CagePotato’s twitter had a unique voice that I was really proud of. The last thing Ben and I wanted CagePotato’s twitter to be was one in 1,000 identical voices in the MMA sphere: “What a great fight for [winner], but [loser] will be back stronger than ever!”
I’m sad to go, but this is the way it’s gotta be. CagePotato really meant a lot to me. It was the only positive thing during a time in my life when there were very few of them.
I want to thank Ben Goldstein for letting me write here and tweet about elder gods beaming their consciousness into slices of buffalo chicken pizza and other psycho shit every weekend. Funny story: The only time Ben ever really got mad at me was when I wanted to put guy vs. guy Ultimate Surrender videos in our Ultimate Surrender post. I told him gender equality demanded we do that but he remained unconvinced. For real though, outside of the ring girl galleries, Ben Goldstein is the classiest guy in MMA. Working with him has been a dream. Thanks for everything, Ben.
I’d also like to thank the rest of the CagePotato crew, all the readers, and all of CagePotato’s twitter followers. Thanks to anyone who believed in me as well.
On Jan. 17, 2005, Spike TV aired a new show titled The Ultimate Fighter, which featured 16 combat sports athletes living under one roof in Las Vegas, competing for a six-figure contract with the UFC. What we didn’t know, however, was this exhaustive program was going to last over 20 seasons, complete with the FOX treatment, and plenty of drunken debauchery in between.
Long story short, the Zuffa brass was in serious trouble since their big gamble to buy the struggling Ultimate Fighting Championship wasn’t paying off. Simply put, that Fertitta money was being blown fast, with no real profit or indication of improvement. Spike TV founder Albie Hecht wanted a program that brought in a lot of viewers from all over, presumably because there are only so many reruns of the hyper masculine shows a person could watch.
On Jan. 17, 2005, Spike TV aired a new show titled The Ultimate Fighter, which featured 16 combat sports athletes living under one roof in Las Vegas, competing for a six-figure contract with the UFC. What we didn’t know, however, was this exhaustive program was going to last over 20 seasons, complete with the FOX treatment, and plenty of drunken debauchery in between.
Long story short, the Zuffa brass was in serious trouble since their big gamble to buy the struggling Ultimate Fighting Championship wasn’t paying off. Simply put, that Fertitta money was being blown fast, with no real profit or indication of improvement. Spike TV founder Albie Hecht wanted a program that brought in a lot of viewers from all over, presumably because there are only so many reruns of the hyper masculine shows a person could watch.
With one last ditch to bring this beautiful but often-problematic sport into the mainstream, both Fertitta brothers (Lorenzo and Frank III) were dealt an ace when Hecht flew over to Japan and insulted a gangster running K-1. It resulted in talks falling through with the officials running the kickboxing promotion, and TUF had a home. The show would air directly after WWE Raw (and they say MMA and pro wrestling are only distant cousins).
Anyhow, the show actually ended up being pretty damn good. Today marks the 10th anniversary of the very first episode, led by coaches Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture (who would fight in a rematch for the light heavyweight strap later on that year at UFC 52), Willa Ford, and 16 fighters that became major stars as the sport progressed (most of them, anyway).
The season finale pretty much saved the purchase, as Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar engaged in warfare for three rounds, in a bout widely perceived as the greatest fight of all-time (it got its fair share of competition over the years, for what it’s worth).
More importantly, people started to tune in by the hundred thousands, and the first-ever live MMA event on free television amassed approximately 1,900,000 viewers. The fight was so epic that Spike TV renewed the show for another season, and UFC President Dana White gave both men six-figure contracts for their efforts. Or, maybe he was onto something, seeing how judging would become atrocious in Nevada, and thought maybe Bonnar won (it’s not the boldest of claims if you rewatch the fight).
Sure, 2005 had a lot of big stars throughout the full year, including Liddell, Couture, Rich Franklin, Tito Ortiz, and Andrei Arlovski, but the sport was still pretty freaking niche for it to generate widespread appeal. To be honest, TUF really did save the UFC, and introduces many new fans to the sport known as “TUF Noobs.” If it weren’t for TUF, who knows … maybe Pride would still be around and putting on the best events fight fans would ever see.
As for the first episode titled “The Quest Begins,” this approach seemed refreshing. Later on, we also witnessed Dana White’s epic “Do You Want To Be A F*cking Fighter” rant, Chris Leben extremely drunk and pissing in people’s beds, Josh Koscheck and Bobby Southworth hosing “The Crippler” and calling him “a fatherless bastard,” Southworth killing himself cutting weight and almost getting killed by White when he mouthed off to him, a thief in the house, Bonnar and Diego Sanchez arguing over spilled bathwater, and some pretty good scraps.
Then, it all sort of went downhill from there.
Barring seasons two to four, which were all mildly entertaining, everything from season five onwards felt a little forced. We definitely appreciated the influx of lightweights that emerged from the fifth installment, yet did we really need a season six?
It all came full circle by season seven, and it was then made official that TUF was simply a reality show devoted to drunken mayhem and drama, just like the rest of them. Junie Browning cemented his status as the throne holder of TUF douchbaggery, starting fights with everyone and their mother. Season eight and nine were both snorefests, minus the fact that the Dan Henderson vs. Michael Bisping-led season was the United States vs. England. The show returned with a vengeance in season 10, due to the bitter quarrel between Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans, and the presence of Internet sensation Kimbo Slice. The brawler, who was mocked by White and then chosen as a participant, was matched up against jiu-jitsu black belt Roy Nelson, which turned out to be his demise. Still, it seemed like the first few episodes were good, and it became boring towards the end.
TUF moved to FX a year later after the relationship between UFC and Spike TV turned sour, implementing a live format. It ran simultaneously with TUF: Brazil, and we’ve been depressed ever since. The show is so stale, they’ve ventured off to places like China and Latin America, turning it into a proving ground for fighters with a two-fight record. With that said, we even got seasons like TUF: Smashes (U.K. vs. Australia), TUF: Canada vs. Australia, and they’ve had multiple seasons in Brazil that only South Americans care about.
I guess that’s the point, since it’s not really designed for us to watch; yet, there’s a reason why good things must come to an end before the plot becomes lost. Can you imagine if Touched By An Angel was still running?
For the past few seasons, the brass teases how the show will be different, and how it’s going to blow you away, and so on. TUF 18 was the first co-ed season, and everyone tuned in because they thought they were getting Big Brother-style sex scenes. Instead, Jessamyn Duke vs. Raquel Pennington and Edmund Tarverdyan vs. Dennis Hallman was the best part of that garbage.
When White said TUF 19 was the worst season ever, you’d think he’d get a clue, however, they salvaged some interest with an all-womens TUF 20, with the inaugural women’s strawweight championship on the line. The problem is the promos were so sexist, and we got more shots of backsides than anything else. The rivalries were okay, however, nothing stood out to convince anyone to continue this putrid offering.
We’re now being told that TUF 21: ATT vs. The Blackzilians is going to be completely different, even though we’re going to ditch it midway into episode two. On the flipside, a string of TUF winners have gone on to claim gold in the Octagon, including Griffin, Evans, Matt Serra, and Carla Esparza, with many blooming prospects like Dodson, Kelvin Gastelum, and Tony Ferguson breaking out as fighters to watch.
On the contrary, some TUF winners aren’t even employed by the UFC anymore, including Jonathan Brookins and Colton Smith, and before his third UFC stint, Efrain Escudero was given the boot, too. With the influx of signees overpopulating the roster, does winning the reality show mean anything anymore? Or, is it about promoting bouts involving the coaches, more than anything?
So, all this to say TUF has been pretty central to the UFC’s growth. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe MMA fans still watch the damn thing, considering how boring and drawn out it is. Yes, there have been hilarious moments and superb fights (like Matt Riddle vs. Tim Credeur on season seven, Damarques Johnson vs. Nick Osipczak on season 9, among others), but the volume of unworthy footage doesn’t add up in the end.
