...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Tony Becerra, Guest Contributor
I know what you're thinking, The Ultimate Fighter has been over since Kimbo Slice's beard made its entrance into the Octagon. But since when has a reality show that is "as real as it gets" become an antiquated thought? I, like every other UFC fan, keep giving TUF another chance.
Like every avid MMA fan, I was itching to see the premier of TUF 17 last week. You have the outspoken Chael Sonnen, and the UFC's golden child Jon Jones, who has crushed a who's who in recent memory to be the king of the mountain at 205 lbs. You have two personalities who have enough of a name to headline an event, but still one has to ask: is that enough to deliver this season?
Will this season be the one to resurrect the struggling franchise? Or is this the beginning of the end? How many times do we have to hear Dana White promise us how this TUF will be different? The reality is that all the camera angles and story lines won’t change the fact that the series is more predictable than an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
As disheartening as it sounds, this may simply be the beginning of the end for the series. The live aspect of TUF was a breath of fresh air, but just like Goldilocks, the porridge was too hot and the UFC went back to what works best, taping the show in advance. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the format, but how many times do we as fans need to be duped into watching the coaches throw tantrums, break down doors, and get into shoving matches?
That's not even to mention Sonnen's professional wrestling mic skills are no longer amusing and border on painful, Minotauro-Nogueira-arm-break painful. Is this the end of The Ultimate Fighter Reality Series? I'd like to believe the UFC has more to offer, but if this is as good as it gets, then Mike Goldberg said it best "It is all over!"
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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