As one could tell from the opening moments of The Ultimate Fighter 17 premiere a couple weeks back, some drastic improvements have been made to the long neglected reality show. The sleek production, the lack of fabricated drama, the fight quality — nearly everything audiences were demanding over the past few seasons seems to have improved for the time being and has been reflected in the show’s much improved ratings.
And tonight’s episode, featuring a showdown between the highly touted Uriah Hall (Team Sonnen) and the all but completely overlooked Adam Cella (Team Jones), promises to deliver not only one of the most violent KO’s in the show’s history, but in the history of the sport. That is according to noted TUF hypeman and occasional UFC president Dana White, of course.
So in order to do a little TUF-hyping of our own (I know right? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!), we’ve thrown a preview of tonight’s episode above for you all to check out. And indeed, if the audience’s reaction is any indication, then someone is going down in a big way during the night’s main event. Unfortunately for you spoilerphobes, if you freeze frame the video around the 45 second mark, you can see that the fighter strapped to the stretcher appears to be of the African American persuasion. A bit of intentional misleading by the TUF production team, or a massive upset in the making? And more importantly, how many of you Taters will be tuning in to find out?
After the jump: A little more video hype, featuring a sneak peak of Ronda Rousey’s special on Real Sports, which airs February 19th on HBO. Liz Carmouche’s special, on the other hand, will be airing tonight on Lifetime After Dark in the form of a 30-second trailer during the network’s coveted 3 a.m. spot. We kid, we kid; Liz didn’t get a special.
As one could tell from the opening moments of The Ultimate Fighter 17 premiere a couple weeks back, some drastic improvements have been made to the long neglected reality show. The sleek production, the lack of fabricated drama, the fight quality — nearly everything audiences were demanding over the past few seasons seems to have improved for the time being and has been reflected in the show’s much improved ratings.
And tonight’s episode, featuring a showdown between the highly touted Uriah Hall (Team Sonnen) and the all but completely overlooked Adam Cella (Team Jones), promises to deliver not only one of the most violent KO’s in the show’s history, but in the history of the sport. That is according to noted TUF hypeman and occasional UFC president Dana White, of course.
So in order to do a little TUF-hyping of our own (I know right? WHAT YEAR IS THIS?!), we’ve thrown a preview of tonight’s episode above for you all to check out. And indeed, if the audience’s reaction is any indication, then someone is going down in a big way during the night’s main event. Unfortunately for you spoilerphobes, if you freeze frame the video around the 45 second mark, you can see that the fighter strapped to the stretcher appears to be of the African American persuasion. A bit of intentional misleading by the TUF production team, or a massive upset in the making? And more importantly, how many of you Taters will be tuning in to find out?
After the jump: A little more video hype, featuring a sneak peak of Ronda Rousey’s special on Real Sports, which airs February 19th on HBO. Liz Carmouche’s special, on the other hand, will be airing tonight on Lifetime After Dark in the form of a 30-second trailer during the network’s coveted 3 a.m. spot. We kid, we kid; Liz didn’t get a special.
You’d think that Jon Jones would understand the importance of having a tremendous reach advantage, considering it’s one of the key elements of his own success in the UFC. But I’ve already said too much. Read on for our quick breakdown of the best and worst moments from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which produced the season’s first middleweight quarterfinalist.
The Good
– The sheer glee on the faces of the castmembers as they enter the TUF mansion for the first time, especially the ones who are used to living a much more humble lifestyle. Not a single one of them goes straight to the booze closet and starts breaking shit. Luke Barnatt is just thankful for six weeks of free food. The house is “astronomically extraordinary,” according to Gilbert Smith. Enjoy it guys, because that beautiful house will soon become…YOUR PRISON.
– Sonnen wearing wind-pants to every appearance in the gym — gotta love it — and the familiar faces among the assistant coaching staff, including Frank Mir (Team Jones), Vinny Magalhaes (Team Sonnen) and Mike Dolce (Team Sonnen).
– Uriah Hall telling Sonnen he wants to fight the best guys in the house, after Sonnen makes it known that he’d like Hall to get an easy road to the finals. Hall’s attitude is a refreshing contrast to Bubba McDaniel, who is fixated on getting the matchups that would give him the best chance of advancing in the tournament, and spends the first half of the episode lamenting how the Smith vs. Barnatt selection puts Team Jones at risk for losing control of the picks.
You’d think that Jon Jones would understand the importance of having a tremendous reach advantage, considering it’s one of the key elements of his own success in the UFC. But I’ve already said too much. Read on for our quick breakdown of the best and worst moments from last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter 17: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen, which produced the season’s first middleweight quarterfinalist.
The Good
– The sheer glee on the faces of the castmembers as they enter the TUF mansion for the first time, especially the ones who are used to living a much more humble lifestyle. Not a single one of them goes straight to the booze closet and starts breaking shit. Luke Barnatt is just thankful for six weeks of free food. The house is “astronomically extraordinary,” according to Gilbert Smith. Enjoy it guys, because that beautiful house will soon become…YOUR PRISON.
– Sonnen wearing wind-pants to every appearance in the gym — gotta love it — and the familiar faces among the assistant coaching staff, including Frank Mir (Team Jones), Vinny Magalhaes (Team Sonnen) and Mike Dolce (Team Sonnen).
– Uriah Hall telling Sonnen he wants to fight the best guys in the house, after Sonnen makes it known that he’d like Hall to get an easy road to the finals. Hall’s attitude is a refreshing contrast to Bubba McDaniel, who is fixated on getting the matchups that would give him the best chance of advancing in the tournament, and spends the first half of the episode lamenting how the Smith vs. Barnatt selection puts Team Jones at risk for losing control of the picks.
– The fight between Gilbert Smith and Luke Barnatt, which Barnatt wins by knockout (flying knee to the head) in round 2. Up until the stoppage, it was a closely-pitched battle, with both men showing off their skills in wrestling and transitions. Unfortunately, Smith’s cardio became a liability later in the fight.
The Bad
– The general lack of support that Gilbert Smith got from his teammates and coaches before the fight, which filled Smith with self-doubt, which led to McDaniel and others calling him out as mentally weak behind his back, then “ambushing” him with their concerns in the locker room. So much for team spirit.
– Jon Jones’s pissed-off reaction to the fight’s result, and his criticism of Smith’s performance, particularly his cardio — as if Jones didn’t have the option to pick a guy who was in better shape and could have better dealt with Barnatt’s length. Look dude, you picked the damn matchup. It would have been nice to hear Jones take some of the responsibility. And hey, reach wins fights. What a concept.
– Bubba McDaniel starting shit with Kevin Casey after the fight, in a desperate (and failed) attempt to influence the next matchup. Sonnen instead selects his #2 pick Uriah Hall to go up against Team Jones’s #6 pick Adam Cella.
As we see in the promo for the next episode, Hall vs. Cella results in one of the most violent knockouts in TUF history.
Team Sonnen
Luke Barnatt – quarterfinalist, defeated Gilbert Smith
Uriah Hall
Zak Cummings
Tor Troeng
Jimmy Quinlan
Kevin Casey
Kelvin Gastelum
Team Jones
Clint Hester
Josh Samman
Robert “Bubba” McDaniel Gilbert Smith
Collin Hart
Adam Cella
Dylan Andrews
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
For that matter, could Good Guy Junior have saved last season?
We’rejust finishing up with a season of The Ultimate Fighter that most of us didn’t even pretend to watch, and are getting ready for a season that we’ll only watch to see how creatively Chael Sonnen can troll Jon Jones. Okay, perhaps some of us actually want to watch TUF for less cynical reasons – say because it’s free MMA or to see if the show discovers a legitimate fighter who has slipped through the cracks – just like how some professional football fans actually keep up with the UFL.
With the show in desperate need of a mix-up, Dana White has been open to the idea of casting Ronda Rousey as a coach, while still keeping the contestants themselves men. The idea picked up even more steam yesterday when White suggested that Ronda Rousey could be coaching against Miesha Tate on an upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. Via MMAFighting:
“It could happen,” White said. “If there’s two people who would probably coach, you kick [the idea] around, this could happen, that could happen. If they did, it could be [Rousey] and Miesha. You know, we’ll see. Timing has a lot do with it.”
Having Rousey and Tate coach a season of TUF is an interesting idea on paper. The show would give WMMA exposure, Rousey and Tate would have some memorable clashes throughout the season and the season-ending coaches’ fight would actually be meaningful. It may not be a drastic change, but simply making two skilled female fighters coaches may be able to regenerate interest in the show.
But if the UFC really wants to give the show a complete overhaul, why not cast an all-female season?
My biggest gripe with The Ultimate Fighter is that the show hasn’t been producing relevant fighters, because talented prospects no longer have to go through reality television in order to get a shot in the UFC. Case in point, Hacran Dias was a 20-1-1 fighter when he tried out for TUF Brazil. Rather than being sent through the show, Dias was offered a contract on the spot, and won his UFC debut over Yuri Alcantara at UFC 147. The lesson here is that if you have a shot at immediate relevance, you aren’t fighting on The Ultimate Fighter anymore.
An all-female season could be different because WMMA is still in the early stages of its development. Much like how the first two seasons of The Ultimate Fighter made plenty of previously unknown fighters staples in the UFC for years, it’s possible that there are enough skilled females flying far enough under our radars to be willing to go through a season of TUF in order to land a contract.
For that matter, it’s also possible that established female fighters like Sara McMann would be willing to compete on the show simply because WMMA gets practically zero exposure. Just look at the first article we wrote about Ronda Rousey. When Strikeforce first inked a deal with her, she was…some sort of vegan Olympic judoka, I guess? In hindsight, it’s comical that the collective MMA community wasn’t shitting bricks over such an important signing, but we simply hadn’t heard of her until then. It’s very possible that even more potentially great fighters are going undiscovered due to the lack of coverage that WMMA has been receiving.
The catch is that while fans are more than happy to accept Ronda Rousey as a world-class athlete, they may still not be ready to accept WMMA as a legitimate competition. Female athletes in America simply do not receive the same coverage as their male counterparts, which may make the TUF formula even more stale with the inclusion of women. For example, will an altercation in the TUF house between two women be interpreted by viewers the same way as an altercation between two male contestants, or dismissed as just petty female drama? Logically, the sexes of the contestants shouldn’t make a difference, but it does, and it could wind up turning even more people away from the struggling franchise.
So that leads us directly into our question: Assuming that the editting crews do their best to portray the fighters in a positive light and as serious athletes (i.e. none of this), do you think an all-female season can save The Ultimate Fighter? Would you be more likely to watch the show if Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate are coaches? And what are the odds that something like this happens if they’re coaching an all-male season? Keep it civil, you guys.
(I have no joke prepared. I simply wanted another opportunity to remind you that this was a thing that happened.)
Desperate times call for desperate measures, Nation. And since the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter are nose-diving faster than Charlie Sheen into a silica sandbox, old Dana White has had to step up his obligatory pre-TUF hype a notch. You might recall this from last season’s TUF: Smashes, which Dana declared to be the “CRAZIEST SEASON OF TUF EVER!!!!” in the weeks leading up to it; a claim that — although we cannot refute — we are going to go right ahead and call bullshit on.
So perhaps you should take his recent bit of insider info regarding The Ultimate Fighter 17 with a grain (or a 10-pound bag) of salt. The Baldfather recently told MMAFighting that there is apparently one contestant on the upcoming season so dangerous, so terrifying, that he is “scaring the shit out of” his fellow contestants:
I know you guys are going to call bulls— on me and all that (Ed note: Well, at least he’s honest.). I told you guys, last season of The Ultimate Fighter was the worst season in the history of TUF (Again, props DW). This next season is so awesome and so badass. We have a guy on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, every fight he’s in, someone goes to the hospital.
The whole house is terrified of this guy. F– terrified.
(I have no joke prepared. I simply wanted another opportunity to remind you that this was a thing that happened.)
Desperate times call for desperate measures, Nation. And since the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter are nose-diving faster than Charlie Sheen into a silica sandbox, old Dana White has had to step up his obligatory pre-TUF hype a notch. You might recall this from last season’s TUF: Smashes, which Dana declared to be the “CRAZIEST SEASON OF TUF EVER!!!!” in the weeks leading up to it; a claim that — although we cannot refute — we are going to go right ahead and call bullshit on.
So perhaps you should take his recent bit of insider info regarding The Ultimate Fighter 17 with a grain (or a 10-pound bag) of salt. The Baldfather recently told MMAFighting that there is apparently one contestant on the upcoming season so dangerous, so terrifying, that he is “scaring the shit out of” his fellow contestants:
I know you guys are going to call bulls— on me and all that (Ed note: Well, at least he’s honest.). I told you guys, last season of The Ultimate Fighter was the worst season in the history of TUF (Again, props DW). This next season is so awesome and so badass. We have a guy on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, every fight he’s in, someone goes to the hospital.
The whole house is terrified of this guy. F– terrified. Everybody. I picked this fight, and this guy is lined up with the guy I’m telling you about, and the guy has a nervous breakdown in the house over the weekend. Has a f– nervous breakdown. Freaks out and has a nervous breakdown. This guy scared the living s— out of everyone. It’s awesome.
That’s right, TUF has officially fallen so far that Dana is hyping the episodes where the fights don’t even happen because one of the fighters is too scared. Next week, Pacey and Jen share a kiss at the barnyard dance and Jesse hilariously struggles with a pill addiction.
Now, we’re not going to get into whether or not Dana should find it “awesome” that these fighters are being sent to the hospital on a regular basis. We’re not even going to discuss how sad it is that the president of the UFC would rather trot out this same dog and pony show each year instead of putting Old Yeller down once and for all. Instead, we’d rather like to speculate about the supposed injuries these fighters are being hospitalized with. Based on recent events, we’re going to go with the following: wet locker room floor, salmonella, and of course, air hockey table accident. We swear to God, that last one has a mind of its own and it hates British people.
The list of TUF 17 contestants has yet to be released, but we’ll make sure to keep you updated as details are made available. Until then, we’ll continue to slap a pair of ballroom shoes on this turd and call it a princess.
*Super Friends announcer voice* MEANWHILE, IN THE DINING ROOM…
If you thought watching the sixteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter was hell, just wait until you hear how bad it was to be one of the show’s participants, and a winning one at that. As finalist Mike Ricci will tell you, TUF 16 wasn’t exactly Dancing With the Stars, where everyone got to take their perfect-bodied Ukranian supermodel partner home and have their way with them (although to be fair, the above video makes the case that there certainly was a lot of banging going on). No, TUF was much, much uglier. In fact, during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Ricci admitted that he hated his time on the show so much — despite being a finalist, mind you — that he wished he could sue the show for the “psychological damages” he suffered:
It was an absolute nightmare, I wanted to sue for psychological damage, I wasn’t the same person. I actually thought I had a case, ‘I’m not the same person, I can do this and win.’ But, I felt like don’t get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into I knew how I was going to react. Even some of the producers in the house toward the end were like, ‘Geez, you’re the most institutionalized fighter we’ve ever seen, we’ve done 11 seasons and we’ve never seen anyone like you, you’re like a robot now.
Much more from this interview is after the jump.
*Super Friends announcer voice* MEANWHILE, IN THE DINING ROOM…
If you thought watching the sixteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter was hell, just wait until you hear how bad it was to be one of the show’s participants, and a winning one at that. As finalist Mike Ricci will tell you, TUF 16 wasn’t exactly Dancing With the Stars, where everyone got to take their perfect-bodied Ukranian supermodel partner home and have their way with them (although to be fair, the above video makes the case that there certainly was a lot of banging going on). No, TUF was much, much uglier. In fact, during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Ricci admitted that he hated his time on the show so much — despite being a finalist, mind you — that he wished he could sue the show for the “psychological damages” he suffered:
It was an absolute nightmare, I wanted to sue for psychological damage, I wasn’t the same person. I actually thought I had a case, ‘I’m not the same person, I can do this and win.’ But, I felt like don’t get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into I knew how I was going to react. Even some of the producers in the house toward the end were like, ‘Geez, you’re the most institutionalized fighter we’ve ever seen, we’ve done 11 seasons and we’ve never seen anyone like you, you’re like a robot now.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “How will Danga shoehorn a Shawshank Redemption reference into the next couple sentences?” Truth be told, I thought about it. Hell, I even wrote a couple quotes down. But I’m not going to do it, Nation, because I honestly feel for Ricci here and wouldn’t want to reduce his plight to a few lines from a film, albeit a great one at that. Because CagePotato is kind of like the TUF set, if you replaced wannabe fighters with wannabe writers. In here, we’re important men, we’re educated men. On the outside, we’re nothing, just a bunch of used up cons-DAMN IT.
Anyway, Ricci also claimed that it was the time away from his family and friends that truly made the experience unbearable. Again, I just want to clarify that we’re talking about the favorite to win the season here:
I was taken away from my family and from my friends and from life, you literally, you vanish, you’re gone, there’s no sign of you whatsoever. Its almost like to everyone in the outside world you’re dead and you’re gone. There’s no sign of you whatsoever. And, things like for instance I didn’t know what was happening with my people on the outside, it was upsetting, people had gotten new jobs or changed their hairstyle or experienced different things I missed out on, it just upset me. It still upsets me to this day.
OK, Ricci, now I’m kind of glad I went the Shawshank route when breaking down your case. If the sacrifice you had to make in order to launch your career – the career you chose, by the way – was to miss out on a friend getting a haircut or telling you that they now work at the Jiffy Lube instead of the Outback’s Steakhouse (quite a career change, I realize), then I’d say you’ve got fuck all to complain about. For Christ’s sake, Michael Chiesa lost both his father AND his home last season, and cried about it for approximately five seconds. But yeah, continue to talk about the dark, depressing loneliness that eats at your soul because you missed out on a trip to Fantastic Sam’s.
So why, one would ask, would Ricci choose to partake in such a venture, knowing full well how grueling TUF can be from the 15 previous seasons that documented this exact process?
I feel it was an opportunity for me to get ahead and go faster than I would have by the usual route, fighting your way up on undercards. I know that it was a lot of work that was going to be crammed into a short amount of time, but if I looked good and was successful … I feel like I brought in just as much exposure and gone as far forward fighting four fights for TUF than I would have four fights outside of TUF. But the time status is those four fights could be in a year, and I did it all in the span of a summer. That’s why I did it.
So there you have it, in order to become semi-famous in one’s trade, one might be forced to neglect their tanning regimen for a few months. No wonder Colin Fletcher is one of the TUF: Smashes finalists, dude must have been neglecting his G.T.L. for years now.
(Nah, that’s cool. It’s not like we need to see the champion’s face or anything. / Image via MMAJunkie)
The Ultimate Fighter‘s year of wandering the Friday-night desert may be coming to a merciful end. Following two seasons on FX in which the show’s viewership went from really bad to straight-up abysmal, a new ad in UFC 360 (formerly UFC Magazine) claims that TUF 17: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen will debut Tuesday, January 22nd, at 9 p.m. ET. Says MMAJunkie.com:
UFC and FX officials have yet to make an official announcement, however representatives from both companies have since confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.com. UFC President Dana White was a little more coy.
“That day sounds good to me,” White told MMAjunkie.com.
TUF 17, which began filming in October, will feature a cast of middleweight fighters to be named shortly. The question is: Will you start watching it again? Before you answer, keep in mind that these guys will no longer be on the show.
(Nah, that’s cool. It’s not like we need to see the champion’s face or anything. / Image via MMAJunkie)
The Ultimate Fighter‘s year of wandering the Friday-night desert may be coming to a merciful end. Following two seasons on FX in which the show’s viewership went from really bad to straight-up abysmal, a new ad in UFC 360 (formerly UFC Magazine) claims that TUF 17: Team Jones vs. Team Sonnen will debut Tuesday, January 22nd, at 9 p.m. ET. Says MMAJunkie.com:
UFC and FX officials have yet to make an official announcement, however representatives from both companies have since confirmed the change with MMAjunkie.com. UFC President Dana White was a little more coy.
“That day sounds good to me,” White told MMAjunkie.com.
TUF 17, which began filming in October, will feature a cast of middleweight fighters to be named shortly. The question is: Will you start watching it again? Before you answer, keep in mind that these guys will no longer be on the show.
