A Sharp Decline - What Happened to The Ultimate Fighter?
Hardcore UFC fans remember it like it was yesterday. On April 29th, 2005, Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonnar fought each other to a near standstill in one of the greatest fights in early MMA. It was a smash hit. At its peak, the fight drew 3 million viewers, making it the most viewed UFC event in the history of the promotion. The fight was enshrined as the reason the UFC is still around, created an untold number of new fans, and became a permanent fixture in the history of MMA. When the UFC plays its signature promotional package at live events, with The Who’s Baba O’Riley in the background, Bonnar and Griffin are given their own section in tribute, even more than 20 years later.
Now the Ultimate Fighter is an afterthought to the UFC. The last season was coached by Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen, who are legends and big personalities but were both long retired at the time the show aired. Instead of seeing a season worth of bad blood fermenting ahead of matchups between elite fighters like Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson or Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson, viewers saw two jovial, retired friends who have a contest together engage in friendly competition.
Equally concerning is the decline in quality of talent coming out of TUF compared to other sources, namely Dana White’s Contender Series. TUF alumni account for nine ufc champions, while DWCS has only three. But the current rankings contain an astounding 30 DWCS fighters, while there are only two from TUF. One of these fighters, former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, won his season more than a decade ago, while the other, Joseph Morales, occupies the number fifteen spot at flyweight.
Such a shift towards the DWCS model is a bleak prospect for the fighters. Although the exact prize is no longer public, winners of TUF historically received a contract worth around 250,000 dollars, in addition to having an entire season of reality TV to build up a fan base. Winners on DWCS, on the other hand, need to not just win the season but win in a fashion that impresses. If they do, they’re treated to a contract that offers them ten thousand to show and ten thousand to win. The result is a revolving door at the bottom of the UFC rankings, where fighters compete for less than a living wage and are replaced with the next DWCS victor if they lose.
As TUF moves to Paramount+, there’s potential for it to return to relevance. Instead of being buried on ESPN+, which traditionally showed only live sports and content about them, TUF will now be on a proper streaming network. It will be among other forms of television as it was before it left network TV. Even with this shift, though, things aren’t looking good. Viewership ratings aren’t available for the ESPN+ seasons of the show, but the fact that fighters on the show lack divisional relevance or star power doesn’t reflect well on them. It’s likely that a shift to Paramount+ is a good thing for the show, but it’s unlikely that it will ever be restored to its former glory.
