I’m not gonna say all of it is good talent because it has produced some busts but has produced some great talent as well.

I’m not as down on Escudero or Bader as you are. I actually see great futures for both men. Amir Sadollah and Nate Diaz could both still have great futures but it is hard to tell.Season 9 is too early too call. Without a doubt seasons 3,4, and 6 produced the weakest winners.

But you gotta remember nobody was really high on Evans until the Liddell ko and now people consider him one of the better LHW’s in the world. And the Liddell ko was only a year ago.

So who know where any of these guys will be in a year. Now TUF will continue as long as it continues to get ratings and produce some ok talent.The biggest thing about TUF is it allows an easy marketability of fighters because people already know them but the UFC has also stopped relying so on TUF to produce talent and has found talent worldwide and began to market them as well. Guys like Dos Santos, Velazquez, Thiago Silva, Jon Jones, etc..

I really have to disagree with you that the WW division needs anything.
Take a look at this list and tell why it needs help:
GSP, Swick, Alves, Fitch, Davis, Almeida, Kos, Condit, Kampmann, Johnson, Daley, Lytle, Yoshida and Kim off the top of my head.

TUF was not created to make champions. It was designed to develop new talent and get exposure.

Almost every fighter that has had big success from the show has seen it happen a couple years after the fact.

Evans became champ in 12/08, that is 3 years after winning season two. Forrest became champ 3 years, 3 months after winning the show.

Guys from the latter seasons are not going peak for another year or two.

The issue in both the WW and MW divisions is that they each have a champ that is much better than others.

But the MW division has Belfort, Nate and Hendo all ready to step up. Nate has looked like a wrecking machine, I certainly want that rematch.

Much like Strikeforce Challengers, TUF offers up and comers a chance to make it. Only a few guys will ever be good enough to win a title, most fighters are lucky to even get a shot.

If TUF continues to deliver guys like Bisping, Bader, Diaz and Sanchez, that is fine by me.

The main purpose of TUF at this point is to provide entertaining television and create drama between coaches to sell a pay-per-view, not serve as a feeder system for top prospects. Most top prospects are going to find their way into the UFC on merit, not via TUF.

And you should correct your last paragraph. Rashad Evans was from season two, not season three. Forrest Griffin was lhw champion and he came from season one. Kenny Florian from season one has fought for the lightweight title twice. Diego Sanchez is about to. Just because fighters don’t become title holders doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t successful.

If the UFC starts adding lighter weight classes, I think obviously that would be the way to go on TUF. Other than that, maybe another Comeback season. It just seems like LW, MW, WW, and LHW have been mined to death, and there aren’t enough HWs to do seasons like this one very often. Maybe if they waited a year it’d seem less old. As it is it seems like unless they get legit top-notch prospects and some semi-established fighters (perhaps with a larger contract than usual as the reward), they may be beating a dead horse.

The problem with Tuf is they have ran out of decent talent that isn’t in the UFC yet. If someone is making that big of a splash on the smaller shows, they will get offered to fight in the UFC whether or not they go in through the ultimate fighter. Although the show probably still makes a fair bit of money it has probably introduced all of the casual fans that it is going to.

I say they should do an all Brazilian show. They definetly have many credible coaches with titles. There have hardly been any brazilian tuffers (none i can recall) so the talent pool hasn’t been mined dry. I’m sure there is plenty of undiscovered Brazilian talent. What’s more although the show probably wont be a huge draw in America because of the subtitles, it may just be the thing required to make MMA mainstream in Brazil.

I hope TUF keeps going. Anytime we can watch free MMA is great and we get to see some prospects. Despite how you feel about it, its still a decent show and its entertaining and keeps putting fresh faces into the UFC and we get some background on them. More people as in casual fans know more about contestants on TUF than the almighty Fedor. I just dont understand why we have to always bash anything the UFC does.