Four NFL Veterans Join TUF 10 Cast

News

Four NFL veterans are involved in the cast of the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter. There were originally five scheduled former NFL cast members, but promising heavyweight Rex Richards suffered a torn MCL five days before he was scheduled to leave for Las Vegas and wasn’t cleared by a doctor to fight on the show. Which is a shame, because Richards is one of the more promising fighters on the heavyweight landscape in the United States.

MMA Junkie has a superlative report on the background of each of the former NFL players, but here’s a quick rundown:

Marcus Jones (4-1): former 1996 first-round draft pick
Matt Mitrione (0-0): played nine games for the New York Giants in 2002
Brendan Schaub (4-0): signed to the Buffalo Bills but never played a game
Wes Shivers (0-1): Played for the Titans and the Falcons

The favorite out of this group would have to be Jones or Schaub. Both are devastatingly powerful; Schaub gets compared to Shane Carwin, which is probably a good comparison to have in 2009.