The Ultimate Fighter

I'm no big fan of the UFC(Ultimate fighting championship), and I only heard about the UFC when it became Spike TV's only truly original money train. I gotta admit, I only started watching TUF on season 7 when they started having their contestants actually fight for a place on the show, and I saw an add for a local gym using one of the contestants(who actually made it to the final bout). I did get hooked, because this reality show didn't have the audience choose a weekly loser or have the other contestant vote him off, they had to duke it out to prove they still belonged in the house. Some who did lose on the show still impressed someone because I see them in opening bouts for other UFC events, so I guess some prove their mettle in somewhat less publicized ways than the big names and over all winner(s) of the show. Of course I watch the show of the fights outside the octagon and inside the house. Do you really think these fighters can leave their competitiveness in the gym? Some guys have to stay macho 24/7, and those that try the hardest usually lose the worst in the octagon, and those that just think of it as a sport and respect it as such, get a whole lot farther. As with any sport(and reality show that feeds on it) you get the guys who are always out to prove something and the guys that need help more than to prove themselves. But hey, it still makes for good TV, right? I still root for the fighters from my home town, the scapegoats, the losing team, or the guy who gets on to the show by default. They all have a chance, but as stated in comments before: the committed, trainable, and trained always win.

I've watched many seasons of this show, and it was great. Good action, up and coming fighters were fun to watch. They're not always that polished as fighters, nor as good as the veteran pros on the UFC PPVs, but entertaining none the less.

Sadly, the horrible camera work on the current season has made the show unwatchable. Constant zoom in, zoom out, pan around, wobbly hand-held cam makes this worse than watching an badly shot home video. Such a shame, I won't be watching it anymore.

Shaky cam is so 10 years ago, get a cameraman who can hold the camera steady at a constant zoom. Not someone's relative who just got a camcorder for their birthday or something.

The Ultimate Fighter is a reality TV show where 16 contestants live together and battle each other in MMA fights.

As a reality show, it had some moments in the house. As a competition show, the fights rock. As for its influence, it changed the world of fighting.

Before the show, boxing was still on top. MMA was just a fringe sport. It had the feel of an illegal dog fight. What this show did was to demystified the world of MMA. It show these fighter as athletes rather than maniacs. It opened this world to the general public allowing more people to join.

It's hard to believe that the first season of the ultimate fighter came out in 2005, and here I am in 2010 looking back on it. And when considering that it has only been five years, it is amazing to think about how much the UFC and the sport of MMA has grown.

The history of this show is well documented by now. The UFC was losing money, there was no mma on cable television, and the UFC was worried about being pulled from PPV (again). It's also been said that the UFC funded the show with their own money and sold it to Spike TV. Considering the show's backstory, few would have thought that it would have caught on with the public, and helped make the UFC what it is today.

When reviewing the first season, the first thing that comes to mind is all the great fighters on Team Couture and Team Liddell. The season included UFC stars: Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Mike Swick, Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, and Chris Leben. The season also included many classic battles, including the fight that was voted as the best UFC fight of all time in a UFC poll.

If you are a fan of the UFC, or MMA in general, be sure to check out the Ultimate Fighter, where you will see future stars of the game compete for a contract into the UFC.

I don't really watch this show anymore, to be honest, as the overall ninth season kinda blows. For instance, the UK dude who was suppose to be way better than everyone else (allegedly) gassed after one round, and couldn't even answer the bell in the 3rd round despite not even being 'hurt'.

All I see is dudes gassed after 3 minutes this year… it's nuts! If I was DH or MB I'd just make my guys run, all day, everyday, set a curfew and bed time and toss all the beer out of the house. I don't see one UFC quality fighter in the bunch. These guys aren't even WEC or Strikeforce material.

Looking back at the years, there really has only been like one real UFC fighter from each season (season 1 was loaded though, season 2-3, had a couple, since then, its just been one guy).