As I finish watching the latest episode of The Ultimate Fighter, it's just come to me that I'm done with the show. I don't even have the energy to fully explain myself, because watching that piece of crap has drained every bit of enthusiasm I once had for this stale series.

I've watched most episodes from every season. For the past 8 or 10 seasons, I've often read or heard comments about how the show has stagnated. I didn't care because I just enjoyed watching fights. Most of the time I'd fast-forward through the juvenile drama to get right to the action. But at this point, even the fights are so terrible that I can't stand to watch any longer. Now, obviously everybody on the show works hard, I can't take that away from them. But I've seen more talent, guts and skill at kids karate classes. We all know why there's a Julian or two every season, but why in the world would anybody else bother showing up? Oh right, it's because the large majority aren't good enough to hack it, and would never, ever make it to the UFC without their charitable exploitation. And what happens to the season winner? He's locked into a contract that pays peanuts.

Every few seasons we get a Ryan Bader, but beyond Season 4, we haven't really seen any lasting talent emerge from TUF. Of course, that's really not the point of the show, but surely it would help the UFC if their 'winners' actually won fights when they did arrive at the big show. But because that's not realistic, we're stuck with watching shaved apes argue, fight, and drink. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

It's not news that this show has been terrible for a long time, I guess this is just part of the grieving process for me, as I mourn the decay of what was once a beautiful, simple idea: Gather 'round the idiot box once per week to watch mostly-naked dude bros drink, throw shit, spazz out, train, and hopefully have an interesting fight every once in a while. I've upheld my part of the bargain for way too long. RIP TUF.