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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UFC attempts to follow its biggest event of all-time with UFC 101 this Saturday. UFC travels to Philadelphia, PA for the first-time in UFC history. UFC will feature a lightweight title bout in the main-event. However it is the semi-main event on the show that has had everyone talking for three months.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (24-4) will move up to light heavyweight and take on former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin (16-5). While the odds are stacked against Griffin, the odds are in favor of an exciting fight here. A victory by Forrest Griffin would put him into UFC history for ending the Anderson Silva era.

Silva has done nothing but dominate since coming into UFC. Overall Silva is 12-2 since 2004. One would assume that Silva’s dominance would warm into the hearts of MMA fans. Ironically Silva has turned into one of the most hated men in UFC. UFC fans and Dana White expect more from their fighters than winning.

Silva has been heavily criticized for his performance in his last two fights. Silva was criticized for being boring and non aggressive. As a matter of a fact Dana White called Silva’s performance “embarrassing” following his win over Thales Leites. It almost appears that Silva is so good, that he appears boring in the octagon.

In most sports, someone like Anderson Silva would get a tremendous amount of respect from fans and UFC officials. Yet, there is a bit of a pardox in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Great fighters are often booed in favor of sloppy fighters who just go out there and brawl. Wanderlei Silva is a big UFC fan favorite, yet he has only won one UFC fight since returning. Dana White makes no bones about it, he likes exciting fighters period. Winning is only part of the game in being a successful UFC fighter.

This is what makes this the perfect match for Silva and UFC fans. Griffin will undoubtedly be Silva’s most aggressive opponent. Silva will have no choice but to engage Griffin. Griffin openly questions his own talent, yet trumps the heart he shows in fights. Griffin’s aggression paid off when he dominated Rampage Jackson and won the UFC light heavyweight title.

On the flip side, Griffin’s fighting style has worked against him. Griffin can get a bit jumpy in there and deviate from his game plan. Case in point would be his match against Rashad Evans. Evans is a very patient fighter, much like Silva. Griffin looked anxious and started pressing the fight. Evans took advantage of this with a TKO victory in Round 3 and won the title from Griffin.

I haven’t been this excited for a fight in a long time. This one is probably not going to see Round 3. Chances are these two are goingto come out flying after one another. Not too mention, this will be taking place in Philadelphia and Philadelphia fans like fireworks. Myprediction is a shootout with Anderson Silva taking the win. Silva’s title is not on the line. Yet a win by Forrest would put him into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Griffin is a +250 underdog on  BetUs.com as of this writing. Considering the fact that it is extremely rare for all of the favorites to win on UFC shows, I’d roll the dice with this one. A Griffin win isn’t impossible and there is a good chance you may get better odds on fight night.

The actual main-event of the show features B.J. Penn(13-5) defending the UFC lightweight title against Kenny Florian (11-3). Living in Philadelphia, I am kind of surprised to see these guys featured on the local posters over Griffin-Silva. In my opinion, this fight is getting more hype than it likely deserves.

Penn was destroyed several months ago by Georges St. Pierre. I think too many people are using that fight to analyze this one. For one thing, losing to St.Pierre says nothing about how good or bad you are. Georges is arguably the best p4p fighter in the world. I think too many people are taking too much away from that fight.

B.J. Penn is still one of the best fighters in the sport. I am actually surprised that Silva is more favored to win his fight than Penn. Prior to the St.Pierre fights, Penn was on an amazing streak. Penn arguably had the toughest string of opponents than anyone in his last three fights. Not only did Penn win them, he destroyed and dominated his competition.

For Kenny Florian, I just don’t get it at all. I don’t understand all of the love that Ken Flo gets from MMA fans. He seems like a nice enough guy (and we are LinkedIn together), but I don’t think this guy has a prayer. I don’t know if I would even consider him the top contender in the division at this point.

Florian did dominate Joe Stevenson in his last fight. However, a deep look at Florian’s competition tells me he hasn’t been tested. Florian lost against his two most notable opponents in Diego Sanchez and Sean Sherk (although Sherk tested positive for enhancement drugs). I just don’t see what he is going to bring to the table here that will give B.J. fits?

I just don’t see what Florian brings to the table that is better than what Penn has to offer? They are both BJJ fighters, yet Penn is an expert. If Florian tries to go to the ground against Penn, he is going to be submitted or dominated. Penn showed his stand up brilliance in the Sherk fight. Florian doesn’t have much of a chance standing with Penn. The only one that will beat B.J. Penn is B.J. Penn on Saturday night.

I predict a five-round fight out of these two guys. I think Florian will be cautious and play the waiting game. For Penn, I would expect him to play the counter game as well early on. Penn is chomping at the bit to avenge his loss to St.Pierre. If Penn hasn’t gotten that fight out of his head by now, he could be in trouble. In the end, I predict a decision in Penn’s favor.

Florian is a +180 underdog as of this writing on BetUS.com. I wouldn’t even bother. I would take a stab on one of the undercard dogs before placing a dime on Florian at +180 odds. I don’t see this one as being that close. I would expect Florian to have Griffin odds and vice versa. At -230 Penn is a great bargain in my opinion for you MMA gamblers out there.

In closing, it should be pointed out here where two of the main-event fighters came from. Kenny Florian and Forrest Griffin both entered UFC through UFC’s reality competition, The Ultimate Fighter. Griffin won the first season while Florian finished second in his division. UFC really should be applauded for grooming two fighters off of a reality show into two bonafide main-event competitors. Maybe there is some hope for Kimbo Slice yet?

In other bouts;
Tamdan McCrory vs John Howard
Matt Riddle vs Dan Cramer
George Sotiropoulos vs Rob Emerson
Jesse Lennox vs Danillo Villefort
Kurt Pellegrino vs Josh Neer
Ricardo Almeida vs Kendall
Amir Sadollah vs Johny Hendricks

Place your UFC 101 bets on BetUs.com by clicking here or Boddog.com by clicking here.

New Items Marked Down! Shop the UFC Sale at the UFC Store.

Grab last minute UFC 101 tickets at StubHub.com or get 5% off the ticket purchase at PurchaseTix.com ! – Enter the Coupon Code: fiveforyou.

Order a Cage Fighter Black BJ Penn Walkout shirt by clicking here.

Order Forrest Griffin’s book Got Fight?: The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat by clicking here.