Has The Ultimate Fighter Dried Up as a Source of New UFC Talent?

Probably should disregard season 4 for obvious reasons.

Emerson, too, was cut. Guillard was bounced, but eventually brought back (same for Marcus Davis). Jesse Forbes (TUF 3) was brought back, but dropped two in a row, so he might get cut again. Also, Ed Hermann (TUF 3) is with them still, but sidelined with a busted knee.

How about Bellator-style tournaments for real prospects instead of TUF reality shows. I have trouble believing that there’s no propsect talent out there since Bellator is thriving on it.

…but i think kyle kingsbury is still around from season 8

Bader?

it’s also a good way of expanding a coach or fighters personality

Bring back team challenges from season 1, problem solved.

The UFC makes TONS of money on TUF. Both directly and indirectly. It had a lot to do with their revival.

Is not in the UFC.

Well no I don’t think so. Like your table shows, there are still fighters from previous seasons still in the UFC, and nearly all of them are warranted. If it gets to the point where a season isn’t producing any UFC worthy talent then it’s time for it to be put to rest.

I fully expect fighters like McGee, Noke, Attonito and possibly McCray to stick around for a while in the UFC, which proves this season wasn’t a complete waste of time.

The fight camps are grabbing potential and bringing them up. A lot of fighters are hitting the ground running without being spotlighted on TUF.

I know there was a good portion of people that didn’t enjoy TUF Comeback… But it might be interesting to do a Comeback 2. That season did provide a world champion in Matt Serra. (Insert Matt Serra got lucky against GSP.) But it really revitialized the careers of Matt Serra, Chris Lytle, Patrick Cote, Jorge Rivera, and Rich Clementi for awhile. Maybe a TUF Comeback 2 would provide some REAL experienced talent who could get their careers back on track because of being offered a Title shot. Just a thought.

All you have to do is go back three seasons to find Efrain Escudero, Ryan Bader, Tom Lawlor & Krzystof Soszynsky who are all legit names now. Go back one more and you have C.B. Dollaway, Gerald Harris, Amir Sadollah, Matt Brown & Tim Credeur. One more Mac Danzig, Ben Saunders, George Sotiropoulos etc.

It always takes a few years for TUF fighters to rise above the undercards, but so far every season has eventually produced big names.

For me this was the worst season of TUF. Looks like theyre more focused on ratings thhan getting good prospects.

I believe the well is dry, at least when it comes to trying to fit in so many new fighters like that. There are many fighters that enter TUF that should be spending more time in the smaller shows first, but they get overly excited and want to make it to the big show too soon. For example, a guy like Amir, who ended up winning the show, shouldn’t, in my mind, be starting their professional career 0-0 in the UFC.

Personally, I would like to see TUF move to a more strict, tournament format. Yes, it’s basically a tournament already, but I think 1) do away with the house. Nothing is gained from watching guys play lame pranks on each other. Nothing. 2) Introduce existing UFC fighters with maybe a new prospect or two, with some vets into a true tournement, maybe on a biweekly basis, where you end up producing a contender. The guys at the top wouldn’t be a part of it. I’m more thinking about the Melvin Guillards and the Rory MacDonalds of the UFC. Guys who have been with the UFC for a while, with guys who are new and up and coming, where they’ll fight it out and the winner ends up getting a title shot, or something to that effect. I think it will be a good opportunity to kick start some new careers, and even revive old ones. You could do something where you have a Countdown type production, maybe five minute clips of each fighter as they go through some of their training or personal lives, and then have them fight. Maybe do two fights a night. I don’t know how feasable this would be, but I’d definitely watch.

even though half of these guys are gonna cut to WW anyways and get lost in the chum.

They need to do another LHW season so we can get some 185ers

A ton of time and money has gone into developing fighters like Forrest, Rashad, Kos and others. The first seasons look better because their best guys have been training and competing at a very high level for a while now, and in some cases enjoyed generous ramp-ups in terms of matchmaking.

I agree it’s getting harder to fill up a lineup and there HAVE been dud seasons talent-wise, but it’s about giving fans a backstory as much as it is about actually grooming the best talent.

Personally, I’d like to see them just cast from the lower divisional rungs of guys who have proven to have UFC-level game. It seems ridiculous in general to take guys out of regional promotions and THEN boost their careers to be fighting with more spotlight and recognition than the lesser-known guys who got to the big show the hard way.

I would like to see TUF go to once a year, for several reasons.

1) At this point, the majority of the most well-known fighters have been used as coaches, and they’re re-using coaches fairly often now (Hughes, Rampage, Chuck, Tito, Rich, soon to be GSP). It keeps prime fighters tied up for long stretches (reducing the compelling number of fights available to the UFC), and either we keep seeing the same guys, or you end up having to reach for mid-tier fighters who won’t provide a hook to draw in the casual viewer.

2) Since introducing the fight-your-way-in gimmick in Season 7 (my favourite addition to the series), they now require twice as many fighters in one casting season. That means that in a calendar year, they have to try and find 64 fighters capable of filling out the roster. This is a tremendous strain on the fight community to generate that many worthy fighters every year, and I think this is partially why the wild-card format was introduced because they couldn’t find enough deserving fighters to fill out a 32-person cast. Reduce the frequency of seasons and you improve the quantity.

3) From a television perspective, they are modelling themselves after other successful competitive reality shows like Survivor and Amazing Race by doing bi-annual seasons. The problem with that is those competitions can re-invent themselves by keeping things fresher, because the competition doesn’t revolve around a single specific activity (ie, a fight). People are starting to tune out the non-fighting stuff, so I think scaling back the frequency would ease some of the blowback against the show, typically directed at all of the footage that has little to do with actual fighting.

Season 11 is light-years worse than any previous season. Either the UFC is intentionally not using TUF to develop/expose new talent (instead they are bringing them immediately into the UFC) or top talent doesn’t want any part of TUF (either due to monetary or risk-reward reasons).

I think 3 of the British fighters from season 9 are being overlooked, Pearson, Winner and Nick O. are all very solid with lots of upside.

it’s not about title shots or prospects or any of that shit.

It’s a chance to prove you are a legit fighter, worthy of fighting in the UFC.

Dana’s question is still relevant:

Do you wanna be a fucking fighter?

-They seem much quicker to pull the trigger on cuts from the more recent seasons. Not sure if that means they weren’t that good, or the UFC just has less patience in a competitive marketplace.

-they should do a TUF comeback season, where guys that were on TUF, but didn’t quite make it, get another shot.

-They need to do WEC seasons. lighter weights, more exciting fights, more of an untapped resource.

In the sense that the stacked talent created an expectation for every season to produce multiple contenders. Remember before season 1 we all thought only one fighter from the show would end up fighting in the UFC? My point is if we look for each season to only produce 1 or 2 stars TUF is ok and hasn’t dried up. If the expectation is for each season of TUF to produce a champ & multiple stars then yes it’s bone dry.

Luckily, the UFC does not care about this question.

Does The Ultimate Fighter Still Attract Viewers To The UFC And Earn The UFC Profit?

Yes. Yes it does.

Once upon a time this show seriously had some contestants who were contenders in their divisions. Now they’re just using this show to fill up roster spots. It’s become a huge waste of time and if it weren’t for TUF-winner cred you know Danzig would not be in the UFC right now.

TUF just isn’t good anymore.

The fact that they pass over some talented fighters due to giving spots to people who are there for their entertainment value definitely doesn’t help but I don’t see TUF going away any time soon.

Perhaps sounds silly, but what if for future seasons the UFC had an age limit on who could enter to be on the show? What if they said you had to be under 24 to be in the house for example? This could mean that they find fighters who are much greener and have not yet been spotted by the likes of Bellator? Could be interesting I think as the guys on the show would be a long way off realising their potential so you wouldn’t know for certain how they would do at their peak. Guess it means the winners would get murdered when they actually get to the UFC proper but its just an idea I had

From his record alone, it has to be Rashad Evans.

His only loss was in his first title defense and has defeated a # of top 10 opponents. But due to his wrestling based style and his unexpected finishes against fan favorites like Chuck and Forrest have made him a villain of sorts.

Give the little guys their due Dana, LET THEM EAT.