So we had a historic season of The Ultimate Fighter and as usual we had drama and unexpected twists. So here we go reviewing this season:
~ Pranks/Drama ~
The amount of drama this season was definitely off the scales. However, it unexpectedly came mostly from the coaches rather then the fighters themselves, though there was drama in the house. There were the issues with everyone basically alienating Julianna Pena and to a degree Chris Holdsworth and charges of favoritism on Team Tate.
Then there was all the drama between coaches Ronda Rousey and Meisha Tate and between their coaching staffs. Surprisingly though the pranks in the house were rather tame which was a redeeming factor for the show.
~ Women’s Favorites ~
In my preview of this season of The Ultimate Fighter, I listed five women’s fighters who I believed were favored to not only win the show, but should have deserved straight shots into the UFC: Tara LaRosa, Colleen Schneider, Roxanne Modafferi, Shayna Baszler, and Tonya Evinger.
However, looking back on the show and their individual records, I can understand why four of the five of these favorites were put through The Ultimate Fighter and now justifiably so. LaRosa was coming off a loss and hadn’t fought in over a year (not to mention lost a Pancrase fight in September after the airing of her TUF loss), Schneider had an even record, Modafferi had a five fight loosing streak and lost to eventual finalist Jessica Rokoczy, and Baszler had lost two of her last three fights and lost to eventual finalist Pena.
The only fighter I maintain should still get a shot in the UFC should she win her fight this weekend is Tonya Evinger. Regardless I hope Modafferi gets one more fight in the UFC as does Baszler.
~ Weigh-in fiascoes ~
There have been several seasons where fighters fail to make weight and are booted off the show personally by Dana White as a result. However, this is the first season where a failure to make weight happened, TWICE! Cody Bollinger failed to make weight for his quarterfinal bout against Anthony Gutierrez and then Gutierrez turned around and failed to make weight for his semifinal fight against David Grant.
Both coaches took responsibility though White considered both fighters responsible for their diets and not the coaches. The fact of the matter is that both Bollinger and Gutierrez were responsible for their weight and both failed to eat properly and were both booted off the show as a consequence.
~ Rousey’s personality quirks ~
Another thing we got to see that most hardcore MMA fans were already aware of was Ronda Rousey’s issues. There were points during the show where Rousey was portrayed as disrespectful, arrogant, having no sense of humor, and extremely confrontational. While I do believe there are somethings that Rousey could certainly work on such as her language and confrontational banter, there are several other parts of her personality I believe are extremely misunderstood.
During her appearance on UFC Primetime for her UFC 157 bout, Rousey mentioned that she was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and because of the lack of oxygen, she grew up with a speech impediment, had to be home schooled by her mother at times, and was socially awkward at times. Taking all of those factors into mind, it’s very possible that Rousey may have some un-diagnosed learning disability with many of her personality quirts simply being symptoms of said learning disability.
~ Overview ~
It was certainly a ground breaking season being the first on Fox Sports 1, the first season to feature women, and demonstrated the drawing power of women as the ratings could attest. It will be interesting to see how the upcoming TUF 19 and TUF Nations season go.
What did you think of this season of The Ultimate Fighter? Feel free to leave a comment!