For nine seasons, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s flagship television program, The Ultimate Fighter, has introduced a new generation of fighters to fight fans worldwide. The show has created a bevy of star performers, including three world champions: Forrest Griffin, Matt Serra, and Rashad Evans. If that was all they had accomplished with their reality television concept, it would still be a tremendous success.
The key to the UFC’s rapid growth is that it is much more than a star factory, churning out fighters to fill the undercards of UFC shows. It was brilliantly conceived as a dual purpose showcase. Not only did the contestants become stars, The Ultimate Fighter also reinvented and revitalized the current crop of main event fighters like Matt Hughes and Quinton Jackson. But after nine seasons the show was faltering, both creatively and as a breeding ground for new talent. And the ratings were reflecting it.
For the tenth season Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, went all out to recreate the show that put them on the map. After several years of less than promising prospects, fighter houses full of athletes with no hope of making an impact in the big leagues, this season features teams filled with legitimate prospects.
“You’re in the house with some people who do this every single day for a living,” contestant Marcus Jones said. “They’re some of the baddest dudes on the planet. Understand this man. I didn’t have a fighting background. I was in the house with a four-time Greco-Roman National Champion, a Division II wrestling champ, a kickboxing champ, an IFL champ, a Victory Fighting champ. These are guys who are lifers in this business who are working their ass off to make a name for themselves.”
Jones is one of several ex-NFL football players taking the UFC by storm. While many are players who didn’t quite make it and are looking for new athletic ground to conquer, Jones actually had a a successful NFL career. A former first round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he learned some important lessons from some of the best players of his era that he’s taken with him into MMA.
“The thing that I have learned, from watching John Lynch and watching Derrick Brooks, these upper echelon football players-they became succesful because they were students of the game,” Jones said. “They knew every play, not just where they were supposed to be, but where you were supposed to be. They knew everything about the sport. I never truly became a student of the game. I was one of those people lucky enough to have the physical attributes you needed to play the game. I was fortunate enough to be on a team with those kind of players, players who were totally dedicated to the art of football. Lifers. On the flipside, while they were taking the time to study al those plays, I was at home watching the first UFC’s and watching Royce Gracie put it down. I was that guy. I’m finally able to do something I’m passionate about.”
While the UFC has focused on the NFL players, still looking for legitimacy among mainstream sports fans, some of the other fighters on the show were not as excited by the gridiron invasion.
“I was thinking after the season, after the finale, after all that, I would ask for some time off,” veteran fighter Wes Sims said. “I think I’ll go play in the NFL for a brief stint. Because as everyone now knows, you don’t have to have much talent to cross over and go between the two sports.”
Sims, one of the sport’s great characters and a veteran of all most 40 professional fights, is a training partner of two former UFC Heavyweight Champions (Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman). He and fellow veteran Roy Nelson, along with the legendary street fighter Kimbo Slice, are there representing the professional fighter rather than the professional athlete. Slice in particular is expected to draw record viewers for the show.
“I ain’t got no image, I’m me,” Slice told the media earlier this year explaining his appeal. “This is what you get. With or without the cameras, I’m me, so I don’t try to be someone I’m not.”
The show is filmed under a veil of secrecy, but allegedly Sims snuck a message out to an internet message board, detailing exactly what happened to Slice during the show’s filming. No one associated with the show, even Sims himself, will reveal whether the rumors were true, or even whether they were posted by Sims.
“You have to wait and see the show,” Sims said. “The cameras were on me 24/7. They might have even gotten a shot of my abnormally large crotch. Because the camera was on me even when I was in the bathroom. So, you’ll see. If I did anything, you’ll see it.”
From the Slice mystery, to the NFL experiment, to the veteran presence of Nelson and Sims, the UFC has gone all out to make the show special again. The two coaches, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans, are two of the UFC’s most personable fighters and both understand how to make reality television work.
“It’s a good show. A lot of stuff happens on this show,” Evans said. “Really good T.V. Really intense. Me and Rampage, we got into it almost every day man.”
The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 debuts Wednesday on SPIKE TV. For complete transcripts of interviews with Jones and Sims visit Heavy.com.
