TUF 7 to Feature Heavyweights

FightingIrish · 10-19-2007, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Posted by MMA Junkie on October 19, 2007 at 10:30 pm ET

Dana White“The Ultimate Fighter 7,” which is set to begin production in April 2008, will feature a cast of heavyweight hopefuls.

The pronouncement came today during a question-and-answer session with UFC fan-club members. The informal gathering, which was attended by approximately 1,000 club and media members, preceded today’s UFC 77 weigh-ins at U.S. Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati.

“The Ultimate Fighter,” which is currently in its sixth season, debuted in January 2005 on Spike TV. The hit reality series has launched the careers of approximately two dozen current UFC fighters while serving as a ratings monster for Spike TV.

Spike TV and UFC officials had flirted with the idea of featuring middleweights in the seventh season of the series but have apparently opted for heavyweights instead. The reality series hasn’t featured heavyweight fighters since its second season. Even then, most of the season’s most notable heavyweights — Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine and Rob MacDonald — have all since dropped down to light heavyweight.

By most accounts, the UFC’s middleweight division is the one most in need of new talent, though.

MMAjunkie.com recently spoke to Spike TV officials, who have estimated that the application process for “The Ultimate Fighter 7” will commence in November with the selection process concluding in January. Fighters will be flown to Las Vegas for the show’s taping in or around April.

The current season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which features welterweight champ Matt Serra and future UFC hall-of-famer Matt Hughes as coaches, airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

I was really hoping that it would be MW's but this isn't too bad.

P-Unit · 10-19-2007, 11:55 PM

Any guess as to who the coaches would be? I think Nog would make an awesome coach

Pitbull · 10-19-2007, 11:57 PM

Dang, I was hoping for some MWs too.

I'm with you P-Unit. I'd like to see Big Nog as a coach.

Mouth For War · 10-20-2007, 01:25 AM

nog as a coach and vera/sylvia as a coach perfect lay out

P-Unit · 10-20-2007, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pitbull

Dang, I was hoping for some MWs too.

I think the reason they're not doing that is because if Anderson Silva wins, he wouldn't make a very great coach since he's not fluent in English, and besides him, who else are they going to get to be a coach? I actually think Chris Leben would be a good coach since he knows what the TUF are going through and he's also the head coach at ICON, so he must have pretty decent coaching skills.

GeorgeXVX · 10-20-2007, 02:25 AM

i would love to see Nog v. Vera on TUF... I dont tink Big Timmy has much to offer as a coach sadly. He gave a great tip of the week on mmaweekly.com but it was a striking tip surprise surprise!

sitnspin · 10-20-2007, 06:55 AM

If I were to make some big generalizations (because there have been exceptions), I would say that LW fights are the most exciting and HW fights are the most boring. HWs are slower, often less skilled, and with less gas in the tank so things are pretty sluggish by the third round. Add this to the fact that the second season of TUF was by far my least favourite. I don't know. I'm not too excited by this news.

Bomber · 10-20-2007, 09:11 AM

Just because the next TUF is HW, doesn't mean the coaches have to be.

theEmpiric · 10-20-2007, 01:31 PM

Why would they NOT have a MW season, other than that silva excuse?

Eindar · 10-25-2007, 04:22 AM

In all seriousness, they're missing an opportunity if they do HW and not MW. Both divisions are a little weak, but MW is a bread-and-butter division, HW is not. Not only that, it's going to be hard to find decent HW coaches, whereas you could have Team Franklin vs. Team Leben and that would be a great show with great coaches.

Crashsti · 10-25-2007, 01:34 PM

the Heavyweight division is like the flagship of a promotion. Its what made Pride so great. I think a heavyweight TUF at this point will be good. the show has worked out many of the problems that occured in earlier seasons. why not let the heavyweights shine?

HaVoK · 10-25-2007, 02:04 PM

As long he wins a fight or 2 before the taping starts....I could see Frank Mir being a coach on there. With the possible re-match between him and Big Tim if Mir keeps on winning would create good drama for the show.

Eindar · 10-26-2007, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crashsti

the Heavyweight division is like the flagship of a promotion. Its what made Pride so great. I think a heavyweight TUF at this point will be good. the show has worked out many of the problems that occured in earlier seasons. why not let the heavyweights shine?

I think HW is the flagship of boxing, and it might have been that way also for PRIDE, but they had a much different fight structure than the UFC. For instance, you'll never see some sort of Royal Rumble between weight classes in the UFC. For the UFC, I'd say LHW is their flagship, with WW and MW being the next two "recognized" divisions.

As a "for example", if you asked casual fans to name Heavyweight fighters in the UFC, they'd be able to give you Couture no problem, and some would be able to give you Sylvia, but that's it. I guarantee you those same casual fans know Liddell, Rampage, and Forrest Griffin, and they're probably aware of Tito Ortiz, as sad as that is.

I'm not saying Heavyweight can't be a marquee division for the UFC, but until they get guys who are more talented and in better shape, I just don't see it.

marnold · 10-26-2007, 12:48 PM

I forsee some lumbering out of shape men sweating through the thrid round. I hope I am wrong.

subgenius · 10-26-2007, 01:49 PM

I like it that they want HWs for TUF-7. I think that Pat Miletich and Greg Jackson would be the best coaches for a season of TUF. And, as for HW fighters, it would have been cool if they had put Brock Lesnar into the line-up of the TUF-7 heavyweights. It would have given Lesnar some fights that would not show up on his record that would have shown his skills and progression as an MMA fighter in training. If he won TUF, then he would have a great start in the UFC.

Toshinden · 10-26-2007, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eindar

In all seriousness, they're missing an opportunity if they do HW and not MW.

whereas you could have Team Franklin vs. Team Leben and that would be a great show with great coaches.

I agree that they're missing out on a big opportunity to take a step in the direction of pumping up the MW division a little bit... but I do like HW's as well - I just hope they don't all end up dropping down to LHW immediately afterwards.

As for the second part of that quote... seriously? Team Franklin vs. Team Leben? Geez, we might as well expect TUF8 in the LHW division with Team Shogun vs. Team Salmon

futurecloser34 · 10-26-2007, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeorgeXVX

i would love to see Nog v. Vera on TUF... I dont tink Big Timmy has much to offer as a coach sadly. He gave a great tip of the week on mmaweekly.com but it was a striking tip surprise surprise!

Can Nog speaka da Engleesh? I doubt TUF would have a coach than viewers couldn't understand. That means you probably couldn't do Anderson Silva for MW's, though.

It'd be F'in' sweet to Arlovski coach. He can speak English, right?

Heatwaves · 10-26-2007, 09:26 PM

??? mmajunkie's rumor section says that TUF 7 WILL feature middleweights.

FightingIrish · 10-27-2007, 12:36 AM

Ya but that looks like it hasn't been updated in a while. Check the link inside of it, that info is from like August.

Eindar · 11-01-2007, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toshinden

I agree that they're missing out on a big opportunity to take a step in the direction of pumping up the MW division a little bit... but I do like HW's as well - I just hope they don't all end up dropping down to LHW immediately afterwards.

As for the second part of that quote... seriously? Team Franklin vs. Team Leben? Geez, we might as well expect TUF8 in the LHW division with Team Shogun vs. Team Salmon

First off, it's not my fault that the Middleweight division sucks. Silva doesn't speak English, nor does Okami. Henderson isn't even sure he wants to drop to 185 with a virtually guaranteed title shot in the mix, I think him coaching on a reality show is a non-starter. Who else does that leave? Leben is easily recognized and would be great for a quote for the show. He also is an MMA coach when he isn't training, so he has experience.

Second, did you see Leben's last fight? Much like Griffin, he's fighting smarter now. While he doesn't have the same work ethic as Griffin, and isn't as intelligent, he has knockout power with both hands, and has a knack for being more dangerous the more trouble he's in. If that Leben keeps showing up to fights, he's top 5 in the division, and that should be enough to make him a respectable coach.

As to what you're implying, which is "can he beat Franklin?", the answer is an unmitigated yes. Franklin has proven that he can be stunned with a well-timed punch, and Leben has a strong, strong hook. If you want my opinion as to how a fight between them turns out, I'd say Franklin wins a decision. Putting Leben in there is a coach actually makes a hell of a lot of sense in this regard, because it allows Franklin to be an ambassador to the sport on national TV every week, and it also gives him a "stepping stone" match on his way back to a title shot. For Leben, it gives him a chance to knock out a legend and catapult himself into the mix for a title shot. The fact that Franklin is so straight-laced and Leben is so...eccentric, also makes for good television, Odd Couple style.

What's not to like?