(“Trust me, this is gonna be the craziest elimination round in the history of the show.”)

The UFC announced yesterday that they will soon begin production of a new season of The Ultimate Fighter that will be shot and aired in Australia, and will pit an Aussie team against a team from the United Kingdom. According to the press release:

The Australian series, dubbed The Smashes™ — a play on the 130 year-old cricket rivalry — will see undiscovered professional MMA fighters from Australia and the United Kingdom live together in The Ultimate Fighter House in Australia and compete against each other for a prized UFC contract. This is only the second time in TUF’s seven-year history that teams will represent their country of origin, the first taking place in 2009, during the ninth series, as Team USA took on Team UK.

‘Australia and the UK have a fierce, long-standing rivalry, and where better to settle the score than in the UFC’s Octagon,’ said Marshall Zelaznik, UFC’s Managing Director of International Development.

The UFC is now accepting applications from fighters who want to be on the next international season of TUF, which follows the ongoing Brazil season coached by rivals Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort. We’re guessing you either have to be British, Australian or do a damn good fake accent from one of those places to be considered for The Smashes. Aspiring Australian fighters should go here for registration forms, rules and qualification criteria. UK fighters should go here.

There are live tryouts scheduled for June 12 in Sydney and June 15 in London, which will be open to fighters ranging in weight from 61kg to 77kg (bantamweight to welterweight, basically). If you’re trying out, bonne chance, as they say in Australia. We’d love to see a Tater Nation member getting after it on whatever more-rugged version of television that Australia has. So who would you like to see coach these guys? Our vote is for Michael Bisping vs. that chin-in-eye dude…