Warning! The following article may contain opinions that may not reflect your own.
We all know, quite well it was this show that launched the UFC into superstardom, mainstream acceptance and everything else that Dana White preaches. The question among the hardcore fans is whether TUF has lost its sting, as season 1 and 2 was a star making machine: Griffin, Sanchez, Florian, Evans, Stevenson, Leben, Koscheck, Jardine and Petruzelli. Ok maybe not Petruzelli, but that’s beside the point, which is if we go back to season 7 apart from Amir Sadollah, these fighters has kind of fallen by the wayside. I may not be an expert yet but I thought that Taylor, CB or Harris would have become at least relevant to the UFC. The winners themselves as of late have failed to make a significant impact, its likely that they need more time or UFC has expanded to a point where the level of competition is much higher than it was before. So in the spirit of nitpicking, let’s look at how the TUF winners have fared so far in the sport of MMA.
TUF 1 Forrest Griffin –LHW Champion in three years [Win]
You can easily mark him as the poster boy of the UFC right next to chuck; he will always be ready fight against any opponent, in fact his first professional MMA bout was against Dan Severn and he has had a win over Sonnen before he was recruited for Dana’s TV show. Where he performed brilliantly and beating Bonnar put him into a great position, the two losses against Ortiz and Jardine can be forgiven with wins over Shogun and reaching the apex which is only equalled by one other TUF winner.
Defeating Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson for the light heavyweight title, then it was a little slide, downhill. By losing the title to Rashad Evans and suffering utter humiliation at the hands of Anderson Silva, but Forest is still a win because he showed his tenacity by avenging his loss to Tito and headlining UFC 106.
TUF 1 Diego Sanchez – 2009 fight of year winner [Win]
If I had to sum up Diego Sanchez in a few words, they would be a serious MMA fighter, every time this guy steps into the ring he looks like he is ready for anything his opponent can dish out. Defeating names like Florian, Diaz and Parisyan, unfortunately he ran into a brick wall against Koscheck and Fitch both contenders to the Welterweight throne.
I call this guy the king of the TUF finales as he always has a good performance including in 2009 against Clay ‘the carpenter’ Guida, I had to watch this fight online and even with the horrible visual quality, my eyes never left the screen for a minute. His drop down to Lightweight carried him to a title shot against BJ Penn who split his head open, His return to Welterweight wasn’t a giant success but in the end the guy is a total win because he will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
TUF 2 Joe Stevenson – Contender or Gatekeeper? [Win]
Relative to his age, Stevenson has an ample amount of experience, even before TUF. He managed to string together a good amount of victories, including a victory over Luke Cummo to win his season, and I still have to thank him personally for shutting up Guillard. It was at UFC 80 where he got his shot at the Lightweight Championship against BJ Penn, even though he fought gallantly, he ended up getting choked out while covered with his own blood.
Since then it’s been difficult to gage this guy as he has wins against Diaz and Fisher but suffered losses to Florian and Sanchez. His latest fight saw him get outclassed on the ground by George Sotiropopulos, but he always puts on good performances with three fight of the nights under his belt so Stevenson is a win.
TUF 2 Rashad Evans – LHW Champion in three years [Win]
When I talk to my friends about Rashad, they always have said that he is too small to be in the LHW division and are always shocked when I remind them that he won TUF at Heavyweight. When doing a top 10 list of wrestlers in MMA than Evans should be on it no question, need proof well he put Tito on his back and dominates most people with his wrestling skill.
He’s also shown knockout power by crushing the Iceman with the blow that was heard around the world and using the momentum to take Griffin to the ground and pounding him into submission, capturing the Light-Heavyweight title but like Forrest before him when the time came to defend his belt he was dazzled by the unique fighting style of Lyoto Machida getting knocked out in the second round, but going back to his roots saw him neutralize both Thiago Silva and Rampage Jackson in his last two fights, this guy is a win and a glittering Jewel in the crown of Greg Jackson.
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The Ultimate Fighter – Epic Win or Epic Fail [Part 1] By: Julian McLeod (CONTINUED)
TUF 3 Kendall Grove – ...Still employed with the UFC [Fail]
Before he went in the TUF house he had a modest record, but with his amazing reach and his tenacity helped him get to the finals of the Ortiz V Shamrock, even beating my pick for the season Kalib Starnes. After a fantastic performance over Ed Herman, Kendall looked like he was going to sky rocket in the middle weight division, especially since his victory over Alan Belcher.
Then it all started going wrong, two straight knockouts in a row made it seem that he was going to be the first TUF Winner to be cut but managed to get a win over Tanner and Day but he seemed to have diminished somewhat in the eyes of the fans, but there is still hope with a decent performance against Munoz even though he was once again beaten until a merciful stoppage. So as of this point in time I have to say fail.
TUF 3 Michael Bisping – The best Britain can offer. [Win]
I’m quite smug that I saw him live at cage rage; from then on I knew that he would go far; he seemed like the total package, his demeanour in the TUF competition made him look arrogant, but he managed to back it all up by defeating Josh Haynes in the finale. After a few victories and a controversial decision; he tasted his first defeat at the hands of Rashad Evans which is extra bitter to me since I felt that he won the fight.
In spite of this his three performances showed that he was starting to get title gold in his sights, but at UFC 100 he was hit with two anvils courtesy of Dan Henderson, bouncing back he defeated Kang with ease and put up one heck of a fight against the new Wanderlei Silva losing the decision in the last round and is once again trying to build momentum. Without a doubt he is most likely the best British MMA fighter, and has garnered quite following so for the UFC he is a win, but he has seemed to hit a ceiling by not being able to put away top completion.
The Ultimate Fighter – Epic Win or Epic Fail [Part 1] By: Julian McLeod (CONTINUED)
TUF 4 Matt Serra – Won Welterweight title in
the biggest upset ever! [Fail]
The UFC had now shaken up the formula of the ultimate fighter, bringing back old names so their careers can be hopefully revitalised, Matt Serra had always been a dangerous Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, because of his aggressiveness and even qualified for the Lightweight tournament, unfortunately he was fighting BJ Penn in the first round.
On the TUF show he avenged his memorable loss against Shonie Carter and beat Chris Lytle in the finale to become Season 4 TUF Winner and the most lucrative prize of the entire series a shot against GSP. “He hurt him again!” shouted Joe Rogan sharing the same disbelief I had as Matt Serra became the Welterweight Champion.
Due to an ill-fated injury he now only seems to fight once a year due to his back problems. Losing his title straight away to George Saint-Pierre and again the following year against Matt Hughes than finally banishing Frank Trigg from the UFC, I would have to put this guy in the fail column as he hasn’t fought enough to benefit the UFC or his own career but he is still a great guy.
TUF 4 Travis Lutter- What a Waste! [Fail]
This guy had quite an up and down MMA career in general, even though he was a talented BJJ fighter he had lost to Linland and Prangley and he wasn’t asked back to the UFC until the Season 4 the comeback needed talented fighters to make their return and get a shot at the middleweight title. After a great performance in the TUF house and quickly submitting Patrick Cote the stage was set for his title match, as a great man once said, if the Spider was going to lose the title it wouldn’t be on his feet.
Then Lutter doesn’t make weight, Rogan at the time blamed it on Lutter training himself, but I don’t know the fact remained that it wasn’t the same man who armbared Cote and he himself found himself trapped on the wrong side of a triangle choke and when the elbows began to drop he was forced to tap, then Franklin TKO’d him at UFC 83. Only losing two fights Travis Lutter became the first TUF Winner to be released, whether this was fair or not is a discussion for another time but this TUF Alumni it resulted in a complete and utter failure.
The Ultimate Fighter – Epic Win or Epic Fail [Part 1] By: Julian McLeod (CONTINUED)
TUF 5 Nate Diaz – Respect the 209 B**** [Fail]
The Lightweight Ultimate Fighter was considered by most to be one of the best seasons of the Ultimate fighter; it certainly did have the better fights and thank you Nate Diaz for providing them. At one point he was almost the WEC lightweight champion, so entering the TUF house had him marked for greatness, showing no fear and a lot of attitude brought him to the final, defeating Manny Gamburyan.
He seemed unstoppable through the year of 2008 getting submission after submission then when entering the upper echelon of the Lightweight division he was rocked by two decision losses by Clay Guida, Joe Stevenson and Gray Maynard but he managed to get a submission of the night over Melvin Guillard which makes me happy.
His recent move up to welterweight was a success even though was a catch weight fight and his recent gang fight in Strikeforce didn’t do any favours to MMA as a sport and loss the respect I had for the guy. Overall I would have to say fail as Lightweight TUF winner he didn’t cause many ripples in the division in the end.
TUF 6 Mac Danzig – Won 1 of his last five fights [Fail]
Danzig is a skilled wrestler and has very above average ground game, during my research I saw that he was a dominant King of the Cage champion and it seemed to have transferred over to the UFC as Mac defeated Tommy Speer in the finales of TUF 6.
It seemed that post UFC 83 Danzig has suffered loss after loss after loss. Sure he beat Bucholz but failed to gain any momentum from it, in my humble opinion that Danzig piqued early and now can’t become the star he should have been, I hope he changes my opinion but this is another Ultimate Fighter fail.
The Ultimate Fighter – Epic Win or Epic Fail [Part 1] By: Julian McLeod (CONTINUED)
TUF 7 Amir Sadollah – Early days for the underdog [Win]
I haven’t met a person who picked Sadollah to win TUF 7 but he was a scrapper beating Harris, Brown both my picks for that season, and he beat C.B. Dollaway twice to win the tournament, later though he got screwed in his first fight post TUF at UFC 101.
In his next two fights he showed great Muay Thai skills to dominate the fights and got a big win over Baroni but in his last fight not too long ago he was outwrestled by the stun grenade Dong Hyun Kim. With a record of 3-2 it looks like Sadollah is a flop but you can’t compare his career with Griffin or Evans, I’m confident that he is improving and learning most definitely is a star in the making for UFC so I gave him the Win.
TUF 8 Efrain Escudero – One to look out for [Win]
As we arrive at the later Ultimate Fighter seasons than it becomes increasingly obvious that my opinions on whether they are Wins or Fails is going to be based more on my judgement of their potential rather than their career post TUF.
Efrain won my respect by almost effortlessly beating his enemies in the Ultimate fighter house, coming in with a flawless record to boot. He defeated Phillipe Nover another tough opponent to win the title of Ultimate Fighter, even though he had lost at UFN 20 by armbar he still has a great future in the Lightweight division and is a Win for the UFC.
TUF 8 Ryan Bader – Absolutely Flawless [Win]
The man is the future of Light-Heavyweight Division, I personally cannot wait until he faces off with Jon Jones but I’m a patient man. Coming into the house he was already pegged as the favourite by Nogueria and proved him right by destroying Tom Lawlor, outlasting Elliot Marshall and destroying Vinny Magalhaes.
He can be argued to be the most dominant TUF competitor of all the seasons so far, and he is moving like a freight train through his next two wins, until UFC 110 where he KO’d Jardine after a spectacular flying knee. Standing in his way now is the most stacked division in the UFC, He has already taken his steps in the right direction, Bader has embodied exactly what an Ultimate Fighter Winner should be.
The Ultimate Fighter – Epic Win or Epic Fail [Part 1] By: Julian McLeod (CONTINUED)
TUF 9 Ross Pearson – Can hold his own against top talent [Win]
I have to admit that I’m British so Season 9 of the ultimate fighter; my support was slightly biased. However the British boys managed to prove that they could hang with the Americans, Pearson was quite subtle during his time in the house even though he came in with a strong record, his performances has been quite good, the finale disappointed me slightly but any doubts that I had regarding his career soon vanished as he dominated Aaron Riley at UFC 105 and beat Dennis Siver one of my all time favourite Lightweights.
It seems that the boys at Rough House don’t mess around; Ross has every chance of developing into one of the best strikers in his division, another win.
TUF 9 James Wilks – Might find things tough. [Fail]
During his time in the house he had become Karma incarnate, if his opponent wants to knock out his teeth or submit him in the finals than, you can be sure that Wilks was thinking the same thing, even though he had good performances in the house it was the ultimate finale that showed me how much hard work he had put into improving his all around game. He superbly out grappled the clueless DeMarques, as he slapped on submission after submission until he got the rear naked choke.
Then came 105 which I continually slap myself for not trying hard enough to obtain tickets, where dangerous Matt Brown beat him down, Wilks would get a Unanimous decision against Sobotta but it puts his future in a little bit of doubt the only reason I put fail is so I can be proved wrong.
TUF 10 Roy Nelson – Big country is consistent [Win]
When listening to the best MMA themed radio show in the world, the lights out show. I heard that it was Roy Nelson who was the one to win Season 10. So I did my homework and saw his matches in the IFL where he was the heavyweight champion, for a guy his size he manages his body quite well during a fight but had lost his last two fights before TUF 10.
During the season he was definitely a cut above the rest in terms of experience and won two lacklustre fights and defeated McSweeney easily but when the finale came along he turned it up a notch and KO’d Schaub in the first round. Then he abused Struve at the UFN: Florian V Gomi, while he may look like a plus size Light-Heavyweight he is making a believer out of me but I doubt he’ll get pass Junior Dos Santos but he definitely has the making of a great TUF Champion, one big win.
Hey great article man, I have to give credit where credit is do. However, I have one disagreement and that is Nate Diaz. I do not see how you call Amir Sadollah a win and not Nate Diaz. Nate Diaz won more fights in a row against tougher competition than Amir did. In fact Amir lost his first fight in the UFC, and is 2-2 overall in the UFC. Where Nate only has 2 losses himself to Stevenson and Guida, both tough opponents. Where he has victories over Junior Assuncao, Alvin Robinson, Kurt Pelligrino, Josh Neer, Melvin Guillard (that you gave Stevenson credit for beating), and Rory Markham at Welterweight.
Is he a title contender? No. But he is a relevant fighter in the UFC where I do not believe Amir is. So I have to disagree about your assesment of Nate Diaz. Other than that great article.
P.S I do not think your a douche for stating your opinion.
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