News broke over the last few days that Rich Franklin replaced Tito Ortiz during the tapings of The Ultimate Fighter season 11. Further news indicates that Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin is all but set for UFC 115 with the future of Tito Ortiz in serious doubt.

I began hearing rumors of an incident during The Ultimate Fighter taping last week, yet nothing was ever confirmed. The UFC has yet to confirm the Ortiz-Franklin swap, yet every major MMA reporter has confirmed this as fact. The only comment that UFC president Dana White has made on this is through Twitter account. White tweeted that Rich Franklin will be fighting Randy Couture, not Chuck Liddell in his next fight. White never denied or touched on the fact that Tito Ortiz was removed other than to say, “Tito and I are still cool.” At this point the cat is out of the bag so it would probably be in his best interest to address the news.

Multiple reporters are sticking by their stories of a Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin fight. To be fair, most reports indicate that this fight has been verbally agreed upon but not officially signed. It appears to me that Dana White’s denial is either something of a smoke screen or he hasn’t officially informed Randy Couture of the change in plans. Otherwise the whole story is a bit confusing to me quite honestly.

The big news here is what the heck happened to Tito Ortiz? Watching Tito Ortiz on The Ultimate Fighter season three and interviewing him, he came off as arguably the best coach in the history of the show. I can’t imagine what he could do to get thrown off the show, when Rampage Jackson can play pranks and break doors and remain intact throughout the season. My assumption is that this is injury-related and something happened either to Tito that prompted Dana to step in and remove him from the show. Knowing how much Dana White loves controversy, I can’t imagine him removing Tito for a physical altercation, etc. I’d also think if Tito was removed for something like that he would be very upset and openly talking about it. Tito has denied all of these rumors through tweets for the record.

Welcome back to 2005 UFC fans! I really don’t know what I find less exciting here between a Liddell vs. Ortiz, Liddell vs. Franklin, or Franklin vs. Couture match? Regular readers of my writings know that I am not a Rich Franklin fan whatsoever. I think Rich had a good run when his division was weak, but hasn’t done anything impressive since Anderson Silva came into the division. His only big win came against Wanderlei Silva via decision, and in my mind it was questionable at best. However, Franklin should be able to take Liddell apart at this stage in Chuck’s game. Franklin is just faster and will probably fight the same kind of game plan that he used against Wanderlei Silva. It will probably be a less competitive match than Liddell vs. Ortiz, and probably a lot more boring.

So where does this leave the Huntingdon Beach Bad Boy? He signed a long term deal with the UFC last year. Dana White had big plans for Tito Ortiz, yet it has been a rocky road for the former UFC light heavyweight champion. Ortiz’s first fight against Mark Coleman was canceled, Ortiz lost to Forrest Griffin in a very good fight, and now he has been removed from The Ultimate Fighter season 11 and pulled from his next fight. If this is an injury related situation, this could possibly mean the end of Ortiz fighting in the octagon, although nobody in the UFC ever seems to retire. As someone that interviewed Tito a few years back, he seemed like a really great guy so from this end I wish him a speedy recovery from whatever the situation is that took the former UFC champion to this point.

Note to Dana White: When I mentioned how little interest I had in Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell III, I was kidding. The last thing I want to see is Rich Franklin on another Ultimate Fighter season!

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Yeah, I said it. Randy Couture is not a legend! Commonly referred to in the UFC as a “legend” and someone who has revolutionized the sport, Couture is arguably the most popular MMA and fighter in history. Sure, he’s popular but is popularity the only factor that determines “legendary” status?

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a legend as “one popularly regarded as historical” and “a person that inspires legends”. So, in the literal sense, since Couture is indeed “historical” and “inspirational”, he is a legend.

Now let’s take the perceived definition of a legend. When most of us hear that someone was a legend of their sport, we think of someone who was far superior than their peers; someone who put on performances that our children will be reading about and watching 30 years from now; someone who was a constant winner.

Was Randy Couture any of these? Is there any concrete proof that “The Natural” was far superior than the people he fought alongside of? Did Couture compete in matches that our kids will be looking back on years from now in the way that we look back on the clutch performances of Michael Jordan or Tom Brady? Was Couture a winner? The easiest way to answer these questions is to look at the numbers. As the old adage states, “the numbers don’t lie.” The answer to each of these questions is an unequivocal, NO!

Couture was a bit of a late-starter on the MMA scene. He was 34 when he had his first professional fight against Tony Halme (late WWF star Ludvig Borga) at UFC 13 in the first match of a one-night, 4-man Heavyweight tournament. This would be the first of many times in his career where Couture would be the “David” facing off against a “Goliath”. Couture choked out Halme in just a minute despite being out-weighed by 100 lbs. That same night, he overcame a 70 lb. weight advantage and scored a TKO victory over Steven Graham in a little over three minutes. There stood an old, inexperienced, undersized, yet, victorious Randy Couture basking in the cheers of a crowd that he had just won over for the first of many times. It was a sign of things to come.

It would be Couture’s next fight against a 19-year old Gracie black belt named Vitor Belfort that would add a new layer onto Couture’s legacy. His first two fights painted the picture of a grizzly rookie who could beat even the biggest people in MMA. Even at 15-years-his-junior, Belfort was a heavy favorite. For all 8 minutes, 17 seconds of the fight, Belfort was completely outworked by Couture. Couture exhibited better standup, better grappling, and was far better on the ground. With this win, Couture became the number one contender for the UFC Heavyweight title. This was the fight where Couture became known as a master-strategist. A few months later, Couture earned his first title by defeating Maurice Smith by decision.

If this article were about Couture’s rise to fame and his popularity, I’d continue to chronicle his each and every match. This article isn’t about that, however; it’s about how a guy who started out as a 34 year old rookie that quickly earned the backing of the fans by being an underdog master-strategist has been branded incorrectly as an MMA “legend”.

Don Kelley of MMALinker.com recently posted an article on how Couture, despite his record, is a legend of the sport and should be regarded as one of the best. Kelley went through many of Couture’s biggest matches and explained exactly what Couture did in those matches to earn his titles as a master-strategist and all-time great. In his closing, he explains: “Out of his 17-10 record, 14 of those fights were title fights; Fourteen. Not too many fighters can say they have fought for the title 14 times. 3 of those fights won him the heavyweight title, 2 of them won him the light heavyweight belt, and 9 of those fights were defending his belts or fighting for a belt. What other fighter’s record, in all of MMA, can make a claim like that?”

After all of that, we can conclude that there are 5 reasons why people consider Randy Couture a “legend”. They are because he was very often undersized, often considered to be over-matched, won titles in multiple weight classes multiple times, helped to put MMA in the mainstream, and finally, he did all of this between the ages of 34 and 46. All 5 of these things are true, but it doesn’t make Couture a legend. I think that most fans have taken these 5 factors and run with them. Randy Couture might have skill, popularity, a lion heart, and longevity on his side, but he’s still not a legend.

Randy Couture sure did win the UFC Heavyweight title 3 times. Since he’s not the current UFC Heavyweight Champ, it also means he’s lost it 3 times. He was stripped the first time, lost his second Heavyweight Title to Josh Barnett, and lost his third to Brock Lesnar. After losing his second Heavyweight Title to Barnett, his very next match was for the same belt he had just lost when Barnett was stripped of the belt after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Couture fought Ricco Rodriguez for the vacant title and lost that match as well. So, Couture was in 9 fights that involved the heavyweight title in some way or another.

In these 9 fights, Couture went 6-3 with his 6 wins coming over Maurice Smith, Kevin Randleman, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tim Sylvia, and Gabriel Gonzaga. His 3 losses were thanks to Josh Barnett, Ricco Rodriguez, and Brock Lesnar. It doesn’t take a diehard MMA fan to figure out that the 6 heavyweight’s that Couture beat were nowhere near as good as the 3 that he lost to. Couture beat the mediocre heavyweights and lost to the ones that were actually good. The “Couture was under-sized” argument is moot. Everyone knows that the Heavyweight division is fought by guys between the weights of 205 and 265. It is what it is. If Couture chose to fight in these fights at 220, then that’s on him. He could have put on the weight to be more on par with the guys he was facing. If we’re in a race and you run forwards while I run backwards, we’re still racing.

Randy Couture also was a 3 time UFC Light Heavyweight champion as well; granted, one of these was as an interim champ. The record books still count that as being a champion, so we must as well. It should be pointed out, however, that he only won the Light Heavyweight Title by beating the Light Heavyweight champion twice. Couture fought 6 matches that involved the Light Heavyweight Title in some way or another. In those 6 fights, Couture went 3-3. His 3 wins were the interim title win over Chuck Liddell and the two title victories over Tito Ortiz and Vitor Belfort. His 3 losses came at the hands of Vitor Belfort once and Chuck Liddell twice. A 3-3 record in the most competitive division in MMA seems average to me; not legendary. Earlier I stated that a legend is someone who was far superior than their peers; someone who put on performances that our children will be reading about and watching 30 years from now, and someone who was a constant winner. A 3-3 record shows that Couture was not more superior then his peers and was not a consistent winner. In my opinion, a legend is someone who learns from their losses and mistakes, improves upon them, and comes back a winner. By losing 2 out of 3 to Liddell, Couture proved that Liddell was indeed the superior of the 2. Liddell learned from his lone loss to Couture in their first match and beat him 2 more times to prove that. That doesn’t sound very “master-strategist” like if you ask me.

Couture’s record in itself shows why he is not a legend. He is 18-10. That’s a .643 win percentage which would be great if this were the MLB or NBA. In MMA, a .643 win percentage is mediocre at best. A guy who, on average, loses once every 3 fights isn’t a legend. In fact, that trend gets most people fired from the UFC. Ask Mark Coleman who, at a very comparable 16-10, was just given the boot after a defeat from Couture. And let’s take a closer look at some of Couture’s 10 losses. A few of those blemishes come at the hands of Valentin Overeem (26-25), Enson Inou (11-8), and Mikhail Illoukhine (27-11). Granted the losses to Inou and Illoukhine were at the beginning of his career, the loss to Overeem was while Couture was the UFC Heavyweight Champion for the second time. His loss to Overeem was by guillotine choke just 56-seconds into the match. Really? Couture at the prime of his career loses to a guy who, at the time, was 16-7? So not legendary.

Let’s talk more about the prime of Couture’s career. Since Couture started late, the prime of his career was a little later. Couture had his best, most memorable matches from 2002 until 2007. During those 5 years, Couture fought 11 times with 10 of those fights having some sort of title implications. In these 11 fights during the prime of his career, Couture was a mediocre 6-5. In the PRIME OF HIS CAREER, Couture put up a record of 6-5. Here’s an even better stat. From January 31, 2004 until March 3, 2007, he actually alternated wins and losses. A 3 year span in the prime of his career where Couture couldn’t string together back-to-back wins. Another important thing that a legend tends to do is finish fights in great fashion. Couture, unfortunately, has never been that type of guy either. In fact, 44% of his fights were the result of a decision. (And that’s including the BS decision win that was gifted to him at the expense of Brandon Vera.) But don’t worry – he’s been given a pass because he was smaller than his opponents, was old, and was popular.

One good way to determine exactly how good someone truly is, is by considering how good they would be against other fighters commonly referred to as legends. Is there anyone on this earth who thinks that Couture in his prime (the almighty, invincible, 6-5 prime in which he lost to some guy named Valentin Overeem) could beat the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, or Anderson Silva? (Side note: I know GSP and BJ Penn are in different weight classes, but since Couture has been given a free pass since he was much smaller than some of his opponents, than these guys should be granted the common courtesy.) The answer is NO. Those 4 would rip Couture apart from limb to limb without a doubt in my mind. Pound for pound, Couture isn’t in the top 10 now and isn’t in the top 10 pound for pound of all time.

It’s time to take the numbers for what they are; the truth. Let’s call a spade a spade. Randy Couture is no legend. Randy Couture is a fraud. Randy Couture is the most popular and profitable fighter of all-time. Randy Couture is one hell of a wrestler and striker. “The Natural” has the heart of a lion and has fought people much bigger than him. He started the sport at an age where most have given up. He continues to excel at the sport at a time when others are multiple years removed and permanently damaged from it. He’s won just as many belts as he’s lost and he’s done it at 205 and above. He’s one of the 3 or 4 people responsible for putting the UFC on the map.

But, make no mistake about it, he wasn’t far superior to his peers; he hasn’t put on multiple performances that our kids will talk about in 30 years; and he wasn’t a consistent winner in a sport where your wins and losses trump all other stats. You live by the sword and you die by the sword. In a sport where people get canned on a daily basis for not winning enough, Randy Couture has received his pass long enough. Dana White can continue milking the Couture-Cash Cow by feeding him easy match after easy match while proclaiming that he’s a legit contender, but we’re not buying it anymore. Randy Couture may be popular and may be a warrior, but Randy Couture is no legend.

Randy Couture is not a legend.

Brett is 26 years old and from Millville, NJ. He has is a life-log fan of the Philadelphia sports teams as well as the Boston red Sox and Cincinnati Bengals. Brett is also a big fan of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. If you would like to comment on one of his stories, please e-mail him at Brettley916@aol.com

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In looking back at the decade, I can’t think of another sport that grew so big quicker than MMA. In the United States, the UFC became a household name by the end of the decade. In Japan, MMA has dominated sports culture and shattered ratings records over the last ten years. While thousands have competed in MMA, only a handful have single handedly made an impact. Today I look back at the MMA Fighter of the Decade.

I can’t ever imagine another decade where MMA will experience the kind of growth that it experienced in the last ten years. The UFC came to pay-per-view here in the United States simply as a vehicle to promote Royce Gracie and Gracie BJJ. As we finish the decade, the “barbaric” events that created the UFC have morphed into a sport featuring Olympic and championship athletes from all over the world.

How do you come up with one MMA Fighter of the Decade? I based my decision on a variety of factors. The first factor would be success. It would be ridiculous to give this award to someone with a subpar record, no matter how big of a star he may be. Two, I look at the quality of opponents. There are some guys that step up and face the best, while there are others who do the best they can to avoid the competition. Third, I look at longevity. As impressive as Brock Lesnar is, he has had four fights in the UFC, and has only fought once in 2009. Four, I look at the impact of the fighter and how well they drew as an entertainer and box office attraction. Finally, I look at reputation and how the fighter is perceived in the world of MMA.

MMA Fighter of the Decade – Fedor Emelianenko

In doing the research for this blog, I put all of the obvious names on paper. The obvious names are Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Royce Gracie, and of course Fedor. The more research I did, the more Fedor just kept blowing these guys away in all of the criteria. By the time I was finished with my research, Fedor ran away with this award. Let’s break down all of the factors and see why Fedor Emelianenko is the MMA Fighter of the Decade.

1 – Success. Fedor has only lost one match in the entire decade. As a matter of a fact, the only loss Fedor suffered came at the end of the year 2000. He hasn’t lost a match in nine years. His overall record is 31-1-1. He fights an average of just under three fights a year, which is a lot in an era where most of the UFC champions fight 1-2 times a year. He has 24 fights that ended by either submission or knockout. There is no other fighter that even comes close to Fedor’s MMA record over the last decade.

2 – Quality of Opponents. Fedor is not a guy that won 31 fights over tomato cans. When Fedor finally made the jump from Rings to Pride, he fought top-level competition right off the bat. He has wins over four former UFC heavyweight champions. He has three wins over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (when he was considered arguably the best fighter in the world), as well as wins over Semmy Schilt, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Ricardo Arona, Mirko Cro Cop (when he was considered unbeatable), Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Matt Lindland, and Mark Hunt just to name a few. He fought most of those guys in their primes. There is no other UFC or MMA fighter that has the same number of quality wins overt he course of ten years that Fedor has. Not even close.

3 – Longevity. Fedor has been fighting for the entire decade. There were some years where he fought five times in one year. UFC president Dana White has criticized Fedor for not fighting frequently over the last few years. However, he has fought the same or more times than almost all of the top UFC fighters have over the last few years. In Pride, he fought 3-5 times a year. Just think for a second about how impressive it is to fight five times in one year! Randy Couture only fought more than twice a year once in 2000 and he is regareded as an MMA legend. Chuck Liddell never fought more than three times in one year. Fedor was a machine for most of the decade.

4 – MMA Impact. This is the only category where Fedor loses to anyone and that would be Chuck Liddell. Fedor was a ratings machine during most of the decade in Japan and some international markets. In the United States, Fedor has been a huge disappointment on pay-per-view and television. He had modest success with Strikeforce depending upon how you judge his CBS ratings. The chances are pretty good that Fedor could walk into a local gas station and nobody would know who he is, whereas Chuck Liddell is a mainstream celebrity. If the criteria were even all of the way for Fedor and Chuck, than Chuck would win based on the impact he had in MMA. Unfortunately, Chuck’s record and his slide over the last few years preclude that from happening. At the same time, Fedor was a megastar in Japan but those days are behind him.

As you can tell, this was really an race between Fedor and Chuck Liddell. While other fighters like Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz have had huge impacts on MMA over the decade, their records completely discount them from consideration. Couture was 23-8 and only beat one high-quality opponent in Chuck Liddell. I think Randy’s stature in the MMA world is more hype than fact. Tito hasn’t beaten anyone in years, unless you count an inexperienced Forrest Griffin three years ago as a huge win. There is no denying that Fedor has eclipsed all of the MMA heavy hitters in terms of big opponents and big matches.

I also think it wouldn’t be fair to write an article about the best MMA fighter of the decade without mentioning BJ Penn. Penn won championships in two different weight classes in the UFC. Penn has been one of the most dominant fighters in his division over the decade. It is arguable that if not for Penn himself, he may have run the table and went undefeated over the decade. Penn’s implosions kept him from reaching his potential until the end of the decade. Unfortunately those implosions came during the two biggest fights in Penn’s career. My suspicion is that if Penn could have pulled off those wins over GSP and Matt Hughes, we may be talking about BJ Penn as the Fighter of the Decade.

I don’t think there will be another fighter to dominate a decade like Fedor did. BJ Penn has a shot over the next ten years, but he has to win a  few Super Fights to be considered. Sure, there will be guys like Brock Lesnar that may fight once or twice a year but I don’t know if he will ever have the consistent level of competition that Fedor had in Pride FC. I can’t ever envision  a fighter that fights and beats high-quality opponents five times a year the way Fedor did a few times over the last decade. Dana White can make fun of Fedor all day, but nobody in the UFC has ever accomplished what Fedor has been able to do in MMA over an entire decade.

Fedor Emelianenko is truly the MMA Fighter of the Decade.

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Check out this video of Dancing with the Stars competitor and UFC fighter, Chuck Liddell having a confrontation with reporters. Chuck is extremely inebriated and is doing his best Leon Spinks impersonation as he gets into a confrontation with the paparazzi. It is hard to understand what led to the confrontation, but something set Chuck off. How ironic in one week both Chuck Liddell and Mike Tyson have scraps with the paparazzi?

In all seriousness, this is a very disturbing video. It won’t take more than one search to find several videos of a drunk Chuck Liddell on You Tube. As a matter of a fact, there are plenty of stories of Chuck being out partying the night before some of his biggest UFC fights. Plenty of UFC journalists have attributed the decline in Chuck Liddell more to his years of partying than to his years of physical abuse in MMA. While he may have given up one sport, it looks like he won’t be retiring from the nightlife anytime soon.

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Check out this video of Chuck Liddell weighing in for Dancing With The Stars. UFC president Dana White made a bet with Chuck that he couldn’t get down in weight for the show. White loses his bet and $10, 000, as the Iceman comes up huge once again. Liddell weighs in at an impressive 213. White speculates that Liddell dropped over 30 pounds for the show.

The most disturbing part of this video may be Chuck Liddell’s pink toes. The Baddest Man on the planet paints his toes pink. Pink toes, Dancing With The Stars, is there something the Iceman wants to reveal to his UFC fans?

Thanks to MMANews.com for the tip!

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The Ultimate Fighter 10 debuts tonight on Spike TV. Kimbo Slice has been stealing the headlines of the returning UFC reality TV show. Lost in all of the excitement is the impact that this show had 10 seasons ago. As much as UFC will try, they will never have another class and show as exciting as The Ultimate Fighter Season 1.

I watched back the entire season of the first The Ultimate Fighter show recently. I remember at the time being hooked on the show the first time I watched it. I felt the same way re-watching the season all over again. The season was filled with drama, tremendous fights, and a cast of characters that has never been quite as engaging as the cast from this season.

First of all, the format was entirely different on the show. The show featured weekly physical challenges ala Survivor. Unlike today where it was as simple as winning teams picks next fight, fight choices were determined by whoever won these challenges. In looking back, it is amazing that none of the guys got seriously hurt on these challenges.

I don’t know if there have been a better paid of coaches than Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture. The guys were true pros and both seemed to have the best interests of their fighters. This was at a time right before the two blew up and became mainstream stars. Randy Couture in particular was fantastic, especially during the Southworth-Bonnar fight when he told Bonnar exactly what Chuck would be advising Southworth.

Joe Rogan has called the cast, “The heart and soul of ultimate fighting.” The cast was truly a classic. From their personalities to the legacy they would build in UFC. It’s funny, because they were portrayed as young hungry inexperienced MMA stars. Yet, a lot of them had great pedigrees and probably would have wound up in UFC at some point. Guys like Chris Leben and Bobby Southworth had good careers going before the show. It really shouldn’t be a huge surprise in retrospect that a lot of them easily transitioned into the UFC.

The cast featured a ton of guys that would go on to main-event UFC Fight Nights and Pay-Per-Views. Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Chris Leben, Josh Koscheck, Mike Swick, Stephan Bonnar, Kenny Florian, and Nate Quarry. If you just became an MMA fan in the last few years, you wouldn’t believe that all of these UFC fighters came through a reality show. The amount of talent that UFC was able to amass from the show was just amazing.

The first season saw the coaches pick teams. It is funny watching this draft back in retrospect to see how wrong Chuck and Randy were. Out of that entire class named above, none of them were picked #1 overall. The #1 overall pick was Bobby Southworth on Team Liddell. Arguably the biggest star to come out of the show, Forrest Griffin wasn’t picked until close to the end of the draft. It just goes to show you that there is no way to measure a fighter’s heart.

Chris Leben was the star of the show early on. If you heard Leben interviewed today, you would never realize that this was the same kid. Leben was a loud mouthed, arrogant, cocky, drunk during most of the show. Leben went from peeing in one of the fighter’s beds in the first episode to crying in a sleeping bag with Nate Quarry. The guy was an emotional roller coaster and really made his mark.

The most memorable thing about the show was probably the rivalry between Leben and Josh Koshcheck. Things came to a head when Southworth called Leben a, “fatherless bastard” one night while partying. Leben broke down crying and wound up sleeping outside of the house. Koshcheck and Southworth proceeded to dump water on Leben while he was sleeping. Leben got up and in a crazed state wound up going through the house punching walls and windows.

Dana White immediately capitalized on this and made a fight between Leben and Koshcheck. In my opinion, Koshcheck seemed scared going into the fight. This was the kind of a fight that would have made money if it was put on pay-per-view. Koshcheck actually pulled off the upset and won. The fight turned out to be kind of boring with Koshcheck continually grounding Leben. Koshcheck was just too good of a wrestler for Leben to go the ground with. It still amazes me that UFC has never re-matched the two fighters.

For a guy that was in his mid-30s, Southworth probably came out as the biggest idiot of the show. The guy was completely immature both in and out of the octagon. He reminded me of the little kid that encourages the bully in those 1980s movies, but won’t do anything himself. After losing a decision to Stephan Bonnar, Southworth whined and complained. The fight was definitely close, but it was his fault for not finishing. Two minutes after the fight he threw his UFC career out the window when he told Dana White to leave his room. White was angry and well, we have not seen Southworth in UFC since.

Plenty has been written about the finale between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar and how it impacted UFC and MMA. Diego Sanchez defeated Kenny Florian in the middleweight final. These are two guys that are and have recently fought for the UFC Middleweight title. The level of talent that came out of the show will never be repeated for so many different reasons.

Tonight’s show will kick off the most anticipated season since Ortiz and Shamrock were coaching. Kimbo Slice will take the spotlight and will go from MMA joke to UFC fighter in a matter of hours. People call it hypocrisy, I call it genius. Only two of the lone heavyweight class of past Ultimate Fighters remains in UFC today, and neither are heavyweight. I don’t expect a class to make the impact of the first season, but there are some guys with serious potential this season.

Ten seasons and five years, and I still don’t think UFC has been able to recreate the magic of season one. There have been more talented fighters, but nobody has translated to television like the first class. Getting one star out of a reality show like this is a miracle for anybody like a UFC. Getting 8 future stars out of a 12-man class is unheard of and an unequivocal success. That alone is the reason why no season of The Ultimate Fighter will ever capture the magic of season one.

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