Over at ProElite there’s a list of additional fighters on the losing end of the “TUF 6” stick that have been cut by the UFC. We mentioned Richie Hightower and Dorian Price already. Joining them are John Kolosci, Paul Georgieff, Dan Barrera, Blake Bowman and Billy Miles. ProElite states:

This is a large amount of cuts so close after a TUF season has ended. The combination between casting inexperienced fighters coupled with welterweight being the UFC’s deepest division is the likely reason behind the high number of cuts.

Hightower was a quarter-finalist and his agent, Ken Pavia (there he is again), has stated that Richie will be back and it seems the plan is for him to go get some quality fights under his belt at 170 – he used to fight at 240 – and then try to come back to the UFC. It didn’t take long to find a home, because Hightower has already signed with the Palace Fighting Championship joint in California.

MMA Junkie has revealed that the eliminated TUF fighter who comes back to replace one of the semi-finalists on Wednesday’s season finale is none other than John Kolosci.

Not to pat myself on the back or nothin’, but I MOTHERFUCKING CALLED THAT SHIT. Tune in on Wednesday to learn which douchebag semi-finalist leaves the house on a non-medical issue, and which two advance to the big show.

Happy Friday,
CP

Just think of the captions that a lesser journalist would come up with. Seriously, just think it this time.

You had to see this one coming. Three weeks out from his unanimous decision defeat to Tim Boetsch at UFC 130, the UFC has decided to part ways with TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove. After defeating Ed Herman to win The Ultimate Fighter 3 back in 2006, Grove has gone 6-6 in the UFC, including losses to Patrick Cote, Mark Munoz and Demian Maia. Aside from Ed Herman, the only fighter that Kendall Grove holds a win over who is still fighting in the UFC is Alan Belcher, who he defeated by D’Arce choke back at UFC 69 in April of 2007.

(Unfortunately for the fan, Tito couldn’t sign the autograph because he couldn’t see how to spell his last name.)

While watching The Ultimate Fighter on Wednesday night, something that caught my eye and made me do a double take was the "Team Punishment" shirt Tito was wearing and how closely it resembled the "Team Ortiz" shirts fighters on his squad were sporting.

I figured they must be made by the same company as a package as part of the show branding. Well it turns out I was wrong.

(Props: Smoogy on this epic UG thread.)

Just as Pop Idol spawned American Idol, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? launched Oh, lucky man!, the UFC wants to turn its Ultimate Fighter property into a global franchise. As Dana White told MMA Junkie following UFC 105, international versions of TUF will begin production in seven or eight countries early next year:

Though we’ve already discussed the salaries of each fighter at the Ultimate Fighter 6 finale on December 8, the customary fight bonuses handed out that night were kept under wraps until yesterday. The “Fight of the Night” was awarded to both the Huerta/Guida main event and the Koppenhaver/Rollins bloodbath, and each of the four fighters received an additional $15,000. Koppenhaver also picked up the $15,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus, while Matt Arroyo scored the “Submission of the Night” purse for his acrobatic armbar of John Kolosci. So, the total payouts for each fighter are:

Following in the footsteps of past Ultimate Fighter finalists like Rashad Evans, Joe Stevenson, and Diego Sanchez, Mac Danzig plans to drop down in weight class after Saturday’s TUF finale — no matter what the outcome of his fight against Tommy Speer. As he says in a profile on UFC.com:

“I decided that before I even went on the show. I really have no business fighting the top five guys at 170, or even the top ten when it comes down to it. It’s not that I can’t beat them, but if you put me in with Matt Hughes or Georges St-Pierre ten times, I’m gonna win a number of those times, but realistically, with all skills being the same, those guys are extremely skilled and much bigger than me. I walk around at 170, those guys walk around at 190, so it’s not a good idea for me. I really want to make a run for a title, and 155 is my weight class. I feel that within a couple of years I can be a world champion at 155.”

Danzig has shown tremendous balls in moving up from from his natural weight to compete on The Ultimate Fighter — and for saying that he could beat Matt Hughes on a good day — and dropping down to lightweight is clearly the right move for his career. But God damn, the UFC really needs to put the brakes on this tradition of finalists dropping down in weight as soon as the show ends. The second season of TUF was partly intended to inject fresh blood into the heavyweight division; of the two finalists, one (Rashad Evans) immediately dropped down to light-heavyweight and the other (Brad Imes) doesn’t even compete in the UFC anymore. The next season of the show will feature middleweights in an attempt to get some new names in the hat for the UFC’s second-weakest division, but the finalists could easily drop down to 170 pounds afterwards, adding to the welterweight division’s gridlock. Many suggestions have been offered to aid The Ultimate Fighter‘s sinking ratings — would it hurt to have the competitors sign an agreement stating that the weight class they competed at on the show is the one they’ll stay at for the length of their initial UFC contract? At this point, I feel that anything that would make the seasons’ results matter more in the long run could help maintain the interest of fans, who are jumping the TUF ship in droves due to its predictability.

Thoughts?

(Source: MMA Fighting via Break.com)

The lovesick ex-Ultimate Fighter contestant — and best man at Matt Serra’s wedding — is opening his own Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy. Also, him and Serra are still tight. Just thought you’d like to know…

On last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter, Tommy proved once again that it’ll take a lot more than geyser-like cuts and fully executed submission holds to make him tap. After a dominating win over Ben Saunders last night, Tommy’s persona went from “strong farm boy” to “invincible cyborg,” and all of a sudden he’s a dark-horse candidate to win it all.

So first of all, the upper-deck thing, which resulted from Troy, War Machine, and Richie sitting around drinking instead of going to practice. After some time spent destroying the house, Troy and War get the idea to poop in the tank of Team Hughes’s shitter. (For the record, it was War’s poop, and Troy handed him the toilet paper.) Billy Miles discovers the prank and tells his teammates; Jared freaks out, kicks down a door and confronts War with the repeated question of “Who shit in our toilet, dog?” When he doesn’t get a satisfying answer, he knocks off War’s hat. War responds by tackling Jared, and a brawl ensues. Luckily, nobody is injured, and those responsible for the upper-decker are ordered to clean the toilet. It is the first — and possibly last — time a toilet is ever cleaned in the TUF house.

Of course, the real excitement comes from the fight between Tommy and Ben, who enter the Octagon somewhat less than 100%. Tommy’s still-wrecked face looks like it could split open at any moment, and Ben wakes up sick on the day of the fight (maybe from the fecal particles floating in the air from the upper-decker?). Round one starts with Ben securing a thai clinch on Tommy and working him over with knees to the body. Tommy takes Ben to the mat, but finds himself being assaulted from the bottom. Ben takes Tommy’s arm and rolls over into an arm-bar that would make Richie Hightower yelp for mercy:

You know how a prank goes too far on tonight’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter? Well, MMA Junkie has revealed that the prank in question is the dreaded “upper-decker.” I’ve changed my mind about these MMA fighters — they’re nothing but mindless animals.

The Junkie has also learned that “for unexplained reasons, and not necessarily health-related reasons…one semifinal qualifier will not be able to compete in next week’s fights, which allows one of the eliminated cast members to step in for a shot at the finals.” I’m putting my money on John Kolosci to come back, based on the fact that TUF.UFC.com originally forgot to put his headshot in black-and-white (it was in color as of Monday). Tune in tomorrow morning for the episode recap…

(“Your face still has my footprint on it, bro.”)

According to the Brazilian website GLOBO, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva and former number one contender Vitor Belfort will be the coaches on the Brazilian version of The Ultimate Fighter, which begins filming in South American country in March 2012.

UFC officials, however told MMAJunkie this afternoon that the report is erroneous, but take the denial with a grain of salt. Remember the company has been guarded in the past when it comes to revealing TUF coaches prior to approximately the month before shooting begins for logistical reasons. The other reason why they could be denying the report, if it is in fact true, is that Silva is likely to face Chael Sonnen in February and it would come off as though they are expecting “The Spider” to win if they were to announce him as a coach, especially if it’s likely that he will defend his title against Belfort at the conclusion of the season. Smoke and mirrors.

Personally, I’d like them to bring in Uncle Chael to coach opposite Anderson. Hell, I’d watch the whole season without subtitles and on mute just to see Anderson’s facial expressions whenever Chael addresses him. It probably won’t happen since 3/4 of the Brazilian MMA fan base don’t know what playing the heel is, which is probably tied into the absence of the Internet in the country and because they often mistake buses for horses.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Spenny12311)

When the UFC announced that Jason Miller would be coaching opposite Michael Bisping next season of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, it really didn’t surprise anyone considering that “Mayhem” already enjoyed success on another Viacom-owned network with MTV’s Bully Beatdown.

In a recent video for UFC.com about his inclusion on the show, Miller spoke about the opportunity of turning UFC fans into Mayhem fans and vice versa.

(Imagine a mugger trying to rob these three on their way home from the gym..)

Grappling star Andre Galvao revealed to Tatame yesterday that he is one step away from being on The Ultimate Fighter.

According to the Wand Fight Team lightweight, he is waiting for word that he will be one of the hopefuls tagged to compete for the coveted six-figure contract next season and that the decision will likely hinge on how well the producers feel the 28-year-old Sao Paulo, Brazil native speaks and understands English.

"We went through a test, we’ve shown some of our Jiu-Jitsu skills, they raffled some guys, and you had to do the grappling with the guy. I did it with an American, it was quick, about one and a half minute. Then we started to do gauntlet and then there was an interview. If you passed one test, they’d give you another one. On my group there were 20 people, and there were only 5 left for the interview. I was one of them, I was interview and they’ve approved me, but maybe they like other guys better on the interview," Galvao says. "Now I don’t know if I made it or not. I’ll just have to wait for them to call me," he explains. "The interview is exactly about that, they want to know your English level. I speak English, I can get things, I can read, I understand what people say and I communicate well. They’ve approved me on the test and let’s see if they’ll let me get in there with my English level, but I can speak good English. There are guys there that can’t (laughs). I think I’m a purple belt on English, fourth grade on the purple belt (laughs)."

OK, maybe it isn’t the singer from Gnarls Barkley, but it looks just like him.

In any case, Spike TV teased this clip a few weeks ago and tonight the altercation between Kos and the male nurse, who is presumably the cageside medic will finally be aired.

Josh seemed kind of pissed off and, for once, was at a loss for words when the dude started on him about being a stinking injury faker.

Fess up, which one of you guys is a murse from Las Vegas?

MMA Payout reports that Affliction: Banned will air on a delayed basis on Bravo TV in the UK. The show is set to air on Sunday July 20 at 9 pm, which means that if you live in the UK and don’t want the results spoiled for you it’s probably best to avoid the internet all together as American-based sites like this one will naturally just assume that anyone who wanted to see the show already has by then. But hey, at least you’re getting in on the action.

Not to be outdone by an Affliction-related announcement, the UFC also has news. Remember the Tim Credeur-Cale Yarbrough fight that was originally scheduled for the TUF 7 Finale but got scrapped when Credeur tested positive for prescription Adderall? It’s back on now, set for the UFC’s July 19 show. Cause why the hell not?

“I wouldn’t say it’s encouraged, but [the producers] told us how extreme we could go. They just didn’t want us breaking windows or burning down the house or anything like that. I don’t understand all the negative attention about it, honestly. I see a lot of people complaining. Some of these guys on the show were even saying it’s disrespectful and things like that. In the back of my head, I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ People build houses 10 times the size of that house just to blow it up for movies and stuff. This is a TV set. This is how we look at it. This isn’t someone’s house. As long as it’s fixable, it’s not really a big deal. You put 16 fighters in one house with nothing to do — and then they give us alcohol after losing fights and stuff? Well, stuff’s going to happen. Most times it isn’t done to entertain the people watching at home. It’s done to entertain ourselves because we have absolutely nothing to do in that house.”

Source: MMA Junkie

Well, it looks like my educated guess was correct on this one, as Team Hughes dropped another match on last night’s The Ultimate Fighter, putting them in a 5-1 hole and giving all control of the quarterfinal matchups to Team Serra. I just didn’t expect the loss to result from awful coaching, an oversized hand and a demonic possession.

Though the featured weight division hasn’t been announced yet, the fighter application for the seventh season of TUF is now online. Be warned that one of the questions in the application is “Have you used any form of steroids in the past year? (PLEASE BE HONEST ALL APPLICANTS WILL BE TESTED!)”

Applications are due November 26, so get hustlin’ on your highlight reel…

(“I’LL ASK YOU ONE MORE TIME, JAY, WHO TATTOOED THIS AFFLICTION SHIRT TO YOUR BACK?!”) 

If the first month is any indication, 2013 is going to be a good year for MMA. There hasn’t been a significant injury in weeks (sorry Patricky), title fights are almost starting to make sense, and on top of it all, the UFC’s primetime ratings are slowly beginning their climb out of the abyss. Throw in the fact that Bruce Buffer’s upcoming autobiography is all but a shoe-in for a Pulitzer and we are left with little to complain about. It feels…good.

So before we jinx ourselves, let’s get to the great news regarding the preliminary portion of UFC 156, which was able to pull in record numbers during its run on FX last Saturday despite the fact that it featured several debuting fighters and not a lot of name power. As MMAFighting’s Dave Meltzer reports:

Saturday’s UFC 156 prelims drew 1,897,000 viewers, topping the previous UFC on FX record of 1,860,000 viewers set two weeks earlier for the Vitor Belfort vs. Michael Bisping card from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The number was a huge increase from the prelims on FX on Jan. 26 before the FOX network special from Chicago’s United Center which did 1,208,000 viewers.

The largest previous audience on FX for prelims before a big show came on July 7 when theUFC 148 prelims did 1.8 million viewers. But that was to be expected, since there was more interest in UFC on that day with the Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen middleweight title rematch than any day over the past two years. 

After almost ten minutes of research, we have determined that there are only two real explanations for the UFC’s sudden viewership jump:

By Elias Cepeda

Over the better part of a decade, The Ultimate Fighter reality fighting competition show has seen a number of different format changes and gimmicks, from coaches set to fight for titles and nominally famous singer eye candy hosts, to veterans given a second chance in the UFC with title shots as the prizes. But three things have always stayed constant – the show airing on Spike, seasons being taped months before airing, and fighters in the house being treated to all you could drink liquor buffets while simultaneously being asked to maintain the UFC’s high standards of sober living.

We can only hope that the last item doesn’t change this year, but the first two already have. With the new season of TUF being aired on FX, the UFC has decided to try something new and air all fights live every Friday night. Friday night 32 UFC hopefuls, TUF head coaches Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber, Prez Dana White and a variety of other Nevada judges, referees and oddly placed celebrities in the crowd, gathered in the UFC training center in Las Vegas for 16 fights to determine who got to be in the TUF house for the next three months.

Here’s the action, tater nation, in the present tense, as fast as we could type it all.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/UFC)

The UFC announced the full roster for the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter Live on FX. Included in the 32-man lightweight and middleweight season, which features UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber as coaches, are fighters from the U.S. UK, Ireland and Brazil.

“We’re producing ground-breaking television with The Ultimate Fighter Live and we can’t wait to kick this season off with FX. It’s going to be can’t-miss TV,” UFC president Dana White said of the upcoming season. “Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber are two amazing guys who also happen to be two of the best fighters in the world. They genuinely dislike each other and I expect this to make for the best season yet.”

Season 15 of TUF will run for 13-consecutive weeks and will feature live fights every show, including 16 qualifying bouts in the two-and-a-half-hour-episode on Friday, March 9 at 9:00 pm ET.

The championship bout will air live on June 1 during the three-hour finale on FX.

A second season of the show for the year will air this summer on FX.

We appreciate the novelty of a t-shirt submission, Urijah, but that message is far too long for a voicemail. (Pic: UFC.com)

‘Secure a win, and ask for a title shot.’ It’s something we see from top contenders–and even not-quite top contenders–every event. But last night Urijah Faber seemed intent on finishing his opponent and letting his performance demand the title bout for him. He did. It did.

Faber came out aggressively, throwing powerful combinations that kept Brian Bowles moving backwards. He also found a home for a score of uppercuts, one of which would spell the beginning of the end for the former WEC Bantamweight champion. With a second round ‘submission of the night’ victory, Faber emphatically punched his ticket to a rubbermatch with UFC Bantamweight kingpin Dominick Cruz.

(Sources say the new show will have 75% less bodily fluid ingestion in each season.)

A couple weeks back on The Bum Rush Radio Show we predicted that SPIKE TV would pick up the slack left by the exit of The Ultimate Fighter by putting together a different MMA-based reality show, likely with Bellator fighters. Considering they are all technically employees of the Viacom-owned channel since the media conglomerate purchased a majority stake in the promotion last month, it would make sense.

In our reality, they would put all of the upcoming opponents from a scheduled card in the same fighter house, which we know would never happen, but we can still dream, right?

Well, according to a report by SI’s Loretta Hunt we were half right.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/MMAHEAT)

The UFC held a conference call today in which Dana White and both main event competitors for the promotion’s inaugural Fox broadcast, Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos, fielded questions from the MMA media.

Among other topics, White addressed the possible scenario that the Velasquez-JDS fight could be over faster then the planned pre-fight extravaganza and said that if it is, then there won’t be any other fights shown on Fox, period.

“There’s only gonna be one fight. The heavyweight championship is the only fight that’s gonna be on Fox, [even if] it goes 10 seconds.”

Check out the highlights of the call after the jump.

(A woman scorned always has her revenge.)

It looks like Spike TV isn’t going to let the UFC walk away from their longtime liaison quietly.

Like a woman scorned , Spike will attempt to sabotage Zuffa’s burgeoning relationship with Fox by counter-programming the network’s first UFC event featuring a heavyweight tilt between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos with a three-hour special “Dos Santos vs. Velasquez: Unleashed” series of shows according to MMA Junkie. The November 12 Unleashed Marathon will begin at 9:00 just as Fox’s inaugural UFC event is set to start.

According to the report,  Spike owns the broadcast rights to the UFC library through 2012, and unless Zuffa buys back the rights the network will likely continue to counter-program Fox’s events for the next year. The catch 22 of the situation is that unless the UFC buys back the rights, Spike cannot air any other promotion’s events, which explains why it is only airing Bellator’s prelims on its website. The move could be a testing ground to see if there’s enough interest to move Bellator’s weekly events to the rotation when the UFC agreement expires.

(Win, lose or draw, Davis comes to fight.)

Warrior One (W-1) MMA has added a new co-main event to its U.S. debut event on October 15, which is set for the Bank United Center at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.

According to W-1 President Jack Bateman, a welterweight scrap between The Ultimate Fighter alumni Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis (19-8) and Chuck “Cold Steel O’Neil (8-4) will replace a previously revealed middleweight bout between Valdir “BBMonster” Araujo (8-2) and Bellator veteran Mike “El Gringo Diablo” Bernhard (9-2), which has been scraped due to injury. Bateman informed CagePotato.com of the bout this afternoon.

(Stann’s weekend just got a whole lot more interesting.)

According to a report by Dave Meltzer from his F4WOnline.com insider newsletter, there’s more than just a win bonus at stake for former WEC light heavyweight champion Brian Stann when he squares off against former Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago. He’ll earn a TUF coaching gig opposite Michael Bisping if he has his hand raised Saturday night.

(Now smile and tell everyone I’m the TUF coach and that it was an easy decision to make.)

By Cage Potato contributor Jason Moles

The second Dana White announced that Brock Lesnar would be taking the reins of one of next season’s The Ultimate Fighter teams, it seems that everyone with a keyboard immediately began furiously typing out their manifestos explaining why, in their "professional opinion" the  former UFC heavyweight champ will suck as a coach.

Well, not everyone agrees with the popular assertion that the ironically seemingly reluctant UFC star who owned the camera while cashing paychecks from the WWE will sink the TUF ship.

We may not necessarily agree with White’s opinion that anyone who thinks it’s possible that Brock might not deliver as a coach is basically a stupid f*cking idiot, as he so eloquently inferred MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani was for asking about the plausibility during a press conference last week, but we are part of the minority who think it may not be so bad.

Check out contributor Jason Moles’ breakdown of why Brock will do TUF some good after the jump.

("I also look cooler in me leather jacket." Photo courtesy of the-fight-site.com)

Okay, maybe he hasn’t said he’s better in bed. But Michael Bisping has been laying into his Ultimate Fighter rival coach Dan Henderson lately, for a number of other reasons. First there was this interesting bit in his new TUF blog for UFC.com: