The Ultimate Fighter

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'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.

I have to agree about watching TUF for Diego dishing it out. But I'm not going to lie...watching the fight between Forrest and Stephan in the finale was one of the most memorable and exciting things I can ever remember on television. Even to this day, I have NO idea how they picked a winner...it would have been SO tough.

And I think you brought up a great point. UFC was drowning...fast...and they needed something to put them through the roof. I think TUF did that for them and the enormity of its success was a big shocker to Dana White and fans of the sport.

Me? I'm EXTREMELY glad it came out because I've been a fan of the UFC for as long as I can remember. I really like Chris Leben and was sad to see it end for him so quickly with that cut in the semi finals. I also think Koscheck is a good fighter even though I didn't really like him as a person.

Also, I DO agree about the Bobby/Stephan fight, but I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Not only do I think Forrest would have walked all over Bobby, but Bobby didn't deserve it anyway.

What I was trying to say about the whole thing is; I think TUF is amazing, I haven't missed a single season yet, and I look forward to even MORE UFC and TUF to come in the future :)

I love this show. This TV Show is a great way of showing how fighters act outside or inside the cage with real fighters and real people. I have huge respect for the mental toughness of an indivudual who might have an injury and push past it, still winning his match etc. That's one aspect of what martial arts is all about when competing. Also, another thing I like is when you see a complete tool like Chris Leben in Season 1 who always talks too much about his record and how good he is and then loses all of his fights which proves another thing that as a fighter you must also have good character or you can get swollowed up in your own bullshit. Be humble.

Most of this show is drama but some of the show has conflict when you have two guys that don't like each other and always argue (that's the most fun part). The rest is about the 16 competitors fighting tournament stlye to get to the final fight and becoming an ultimate fighter.

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).