TUFest of the TUF
By Curtis Clontz on Sep 26, 2008
The Ultimate Fighter television show has been the biggest recruiting tool since January of 2005. In the time the show has been running it has provided the UFC with champions, contenders, and has helped shape the sport. The new season has started and tonight we find out who the remaining 8 fighters in the house will be. Every season provided its very own moments and fighters, which really was the best?
Season 1 of TUF provided us with something new. It was a reality show created for the alpha male. The inaugural and most successful season of the show not only increased our vocabulary (spritz), but single handedly secured a spot on the map for the UFC. Almost every fighter in season 1 fought in the UFC. It spawned the likes of Forrest Griffin, Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, Chris Leben, Kenny Florian, Mike Swick, and Stephen Bonnar. This is by far the best group of competitors to come out of the show. Out of the names I just mentioned 1 is the current champion, and 3 are considered to be among the top 3 in the UFC at their weight class. Koscheck, Sanchez, Leben, and Florian are all knocking on the door of becoming a title contender.
Season 2 also had tons of excitement and a share of top fighters. This season had fun with the challenges and after Joe Stevenson completed 204 revolutions in the Scarecrow Challenge it was set as one of the top moments in TUF history. This season like the others was full of future superstars. Josh Burkman, Marcus Davis, Rashad Evans, Melvin Guillard, Jorge Gurgel, Kieth Jardine, and Joe Stevenson were the top names to come out of this season. This group seems to be full of average fighters with the exception of Rashad Evans, Kieth Jardine, and Joe Stevenson. Rashad could be the next inline to take on Forrest at 205, Stevenson is a few fights out of a title fight loss to B.J. Penn, and Jardine is on a current slump that he desperately needs to find a win.
Season 3 was about 4 people, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Michael Bisping, and Matt Hamill. As Hamill proved that he was as incredible wrestler, Bisping proved that he could be a top tier fighter. This led to a great fight between the two and possibly one of the worst decisions in UFC history. Then of course the two coaches who hated each other had to get into it. In terms of talent this was the first disappointing season of the show. Ed Herman was the only other fighter to prove himself in the cage for the UFC.
Season 4 was nicknamed “The Comeback”. It was supposed to give one fighter that was working their way back to the top a chance at redemption. Looking back at it, the show seems more like a convention for washed up fighters. That may be a little too harsh but you get the point. However Matt Serra and Patrick Cote have came through for this season to give it some credibility. Matt Serra stopped a seemingly unstoppable George St. Pierre, and Cote is next in line to take on one of the best fighters in the world in Anderson Silva. If history can repeat itself and Cote can become victorious, this season would be the first with 2 champions.
Season 5 renewed the rivalry between B.J. Penn and Jens Pulver. The cast is still shaping into form but fighters such as Nate Diaz, Joe Lauzon, Gray Maynard, Cole Miller, Corey Hill, and Manny Gamburyan show promise in the future. Out of them all Diaz and Maynard may be the best suited for an extended stay in the UFC.
Season 6 is a season that still owes the fans a fight. Matt Hughes and Matt Serra have been trying to fight since the show ended. Hopefully we will see that fight early in 2009. Out of the cast, Mac Danzig shows the most promise. He is just off of an exciting loss to Clay Guida but that will be merely a speed bump in his career. However, fighters that were once considered promising prospects like Tommy Speer are no longer in the UFC.
Season 7 was supposed to be one that made all of us laugh. Forrest returned to the show to be the first TUF fighter to be coach. It was assumed that Forrest and Rampage would create great moments every show, but the comedy never really surfaced, unless you count Jackson’s B-ball skills comedy… Out of all the fights and moments in this show, it will be most remembered for someone seemingly throwing away their fight career. Jesse Taylor had a run in with the Vegas PD and received the bottom of Dana’s Boot from the finally, only to fight against CB Dollaway a few months later. He lost, and then lost his contract.
It is unknown what Season 8 will bring us. Athletes such as Antwain Britt show great promise and hopefully this season will bring the TUF cast back to the level of Season 1.
TUF Awards
Most Successful
1. Forrest Griffin: Forrest is considered to be the TUFest of them all, and is the true Ultimate Fighter.
2. Matt Serra: This Jits expert showed he had power as he was part of one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.
3. Rashad Evans: Proved that he is more than a wrestler as he was the victor via KO over UFC poster boy Chuck Liddell.
Most Disappointing
1. Kalib Starnes: Did his best Usain Bolt impersonation against Nate Quarry and could be the most embarrassing moment in UFC history for any fighter.
2. Jesse taylor: Made it to the finals, got booted for being dumb, got a UFC fight, lost, and got cut.
3. Jorge Gurgel: Disappointing only due to his record. Gurgel has insane jits but has never been able to string wins together inside the cage.
Best Season
1. Season 1: They say a sequel can never be as good as the first…
2. Season 2: More top fighters and great moments.
3. Season 5: Penn and Pulver provided a spark every night of the show.
Best Moment
1. Griffin vs. Bonnar 1: Stephen for what it is worth I think you should have got the decision. This fight changed the face of MMA and could be responsible for its growth and status today.
2. Chris Leben: So many… Spritzing is a personal favorite, but mostly Leben’s heart. He seemed like a punk kid that loved to drink way too much on the show, only to finish the treadmill challenge after a night of alcohol. To this day he is known for taken 5 to throw 1.
3. Your pick! Let me know what your favorite moment is in the comments section.
Filed Under: Opinion
Comments (3)
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Favorite moments… I would have to say the Lutter vs. Cote fight is up there. I thought Cote was a huge favorite going into that fight, but Travis Lutter is such a submission machine and he put on a clinic.
Also, the challenges out in the desert during the first season. One of the things that made that show great to watch was the fact that they pushed the athleticism, and then allowed to fighters to prove, in the cage, that athleticism isn’t everything.
In terms of TUF performance, I think Ed Herman should be remembered, though his UFC career has not been so well established. He was the one warrior from Team Shamrock that made good on his promise to go to the finals, and he did it without the help of his coach.
CURTIS. you hit the nail on the head with griffen/bonner being the #1 moment. legend has it that spike had not even decided to renew tuf for a 2nd season, even with the good ratings, and a new deal was struck right after the griffen/bonnar fight in the back alley of the hard rock. i know this is probably an overstatment, but that fight might be the single most important fight in mma history to date. i enjoyed your whole analysis and agree with everything. off topic, ive read that dream is in a bit of trouble and i would love to see most of their great lws in the ufc, if they cant succeed in japan. i know it sounds like a gimmick, but a tuf with dream’s lw’s would be awesome imo and would make the non-hardcore u.s fans more aware of them.
I actually enjoyed season 4 the comeback a lot I thought the idea was good and the choice of characters also. I didn’t know who half of them were because after watching the first few UFCs from the first onwards I wasn’t able to see anymore. I’m a Brit and until the internet was up to scratch and people were uploading UFC shows there was no chance of seeing them. The first 8 UFCs were released on VHS in the UK, years back, and after, the supply dried up. Unless you ordered them from them US that is and it was expensive to do so back then.
Anyway back to the topic at hand. Season 4 was great. I identified with the fighters more and enjoyed the team camaraderie. Serra shone not only as the winner but as the central character revealing himself in a way that established fighters don’t usually do unless they’ve been through that house.
Season one was good and I watched it this year along with the other seasons for the first time for the same reason I wrote above. I started following the seasons on a weekly basis in the middle of season 5 with Pulver and BJ. I liked it although even though, including Diaz, the fighters didn’t stand out much for me and season 6 was worse. I don’t like Danzig and he came across as a real twat during the show. It also gave me great pleasure when Speers was eventually destroyed by Johnson as he was also overrated and a symbol of a weak cast.
The latest season was more of the same. Including much more fighting was great yet at the same time something was lost. I think they need to make the show more human again so that viewers can connect with another side of the fighters and not only their stupid drunkenness, which most people seem fed up with anyway. They could focus on more of the team, group aspects of the interaction when training for example and…dare I say it…they could bring back some challenges. Yes, I mean it. Not the stupid ones that featured in the first season like cutting up logs. Instead challenges related to martial arts. They could have the students roll with the teachers as a challenge or test scientifically who can punch or kick the hardest. Just a thought.