I've received a couple of emails in response to my assertion that the UFC dropped the ball on the hype for Forrest-Rampage during The Ultimate Fighter 7.  Here is one (with expletives redacted):

I agree that there is no big issue between them, but if that's the case, UFC has to work with what they are given.  They can't just completely fabricate an issue when there isn't one.  The failure is more on the part of Quinton and Forrest, who spent more time joking around than making it seem like they couldn't wait to kick the crap out of their opponent.

I agree that a good share of the blame goes to Quinton and Forrest, but a view like this assumes that there has to be a hate-fueled issue to effectively hype a fight.  That is just not the case.

So much time on TUF is wasted on relatively unimportant and boring things.  It makes the show hard to watch at times, and frankly, I think the hour the show is on the air would be time better spent if at least 5 out of the 42 minutes per week was completely dedicated to the fight coming up at the end of the season.  They could include training footage from the actual camps, comments from coaches, comments from both fighters, and general hype for the fight that we often see on their countdown shows, but instead of waiting until a week before the fight to do it in front of half the audience that normally sees TUF, you could give the 1.2-1.5 million regular viewers a weekly dose of solid hype for 12 weeks straight.

The UFC is not in the financial position to spend tens of millions of dollars on 24/7-esque shows like the ones HBO does.  Still, if they are going to keep putting on a show that produces fighters that can't hang with UFC competition, they may as well get a big buyrate out of it at the end of the season.