5 Oz. Exclusive: Shane Nelson confirmed for eighth season of “The Ultimate Fighter”
July 1, 2008 by Sam Caplan
FiveOuncesOfPain.com has confirmed that lightweight fighter “Sugar” Shane Nelson is a member of the cast for the upcoming eighth season of the UFC and Spike TV’s hit reality television show “The Ultimate Fighter.”
Two separate sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have revealed the news to Five Ounces of Pain within the last week.
Nelson, 9-3 according to Sherdog’s fight finder, trains under UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn in Hawaii. Having fought primarily in Hawaii, the Hilo resident has recorded notable victories over Harris Sarmiento and Kaleo Kwan.
TUF 8 will feature lightweight and light heavyweight fighters all vying for the right to become the next “Ultimate Fighter” by winning a multi-fight six-figure contract with the UFC. Several sources have indicated that the taping for the upcoming season was completed late last week.
The new season is expected to premiere on Wednesday, September 17. The TUF 8 premiere will be preceded by a live UFC Fight Night 15 telecast that is expected to feature matchups between Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida and Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer.
The coaches for the show will be UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira and former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.
What’s that? A very solid fighter for the show? I’m rather surprised.
Keep in mind they all have to fight and win to actually get into the house.
To be honest I think bringing in fighters that are too experienced detracts from the show. Part of the hook is to see an unaccomplished and unknown fighter battle his way out of the throng to the top of the TUF chain for the contract. It’s hardly a level playing field when they have some guys with zero fights and some guys with 12 or 20 fights, although this guy is not too experienced I suppose. Just speaking in general terms.
Nice. I like to see guys who deserve it make it on the show.
On a complete tangent, i find it funny that MMAjunkie went crazy last season announcing all the fighters before the show started, and now after the rumor that they were reprimanded for it they now publish NOTHING about the cast. Kinda comical.
Its really not important to me to know the cast members before hand anyway. I like to be surprised.
Nick…how where they reprimanded? Do you have a link to the rumor?
@#5 Evan- I read that rumor a long time ago. not sure where, maybe if I stew on it for a little while I will remember. But like I said, it was only rumor. Just seems more like it might have been true that mmajunkie hasn’t been posting anything this season after they were so adamant about posting all the fighters from last season.
“Sugar” Shane Nelson is a member of the cast for the upcoming eighth season
From the wording of the article it sounds like Nelson wins his way into the house (member of the cast).
I think it gets harder and harder to prevent media outlets from finding out who was a part of the cast. word of mouth spreads faster than herpes.
Makes sense to me nick…you probably read it in the comments section of some story. Out of all the MMA website going that don’t have media credentials I can see them getting one so I can imagine they might comply with a request from the UFC to stop.
So, if we know who is on TUF 8, we aren’t supposed to talk about it? Even after the promo was aired?
Gotta Give props to Krzysztof Soszynski for making the show or at least seeing him fight. My Early pick to win Lightheavyweight portion of the event.
Not all the fighters who were rumored for the last season made the house. I remeber Steve Byrnes name popping up, and he lost to Amir to get in.
Is it a fact that they still have to win their way into the house this year? I kind of liked that idea last season. With that there was kind of a sense of the fighters earned their way into the house.
Yes, they have to win a fight-in. I liked it also, but I think the guys should know ahead of time they are doing that, but not who the opponent will be.
Taping was completed recently, the lhw I know is back and I expect the names to start leaking more frequently.
BTW, these guys have to sign a non-disclosure form of some type that puts them on the hook for 5 million bucks if they squawk!
[...] In other TUF news, White apparently thinks he has “the next Anderson Silva” in the form of a lightweight on their eighth season’s cast. Guess it won’t take long to figure out who makes it to the finals. Whoever comes out head and shoulders above the rest destroying people in the first episode is probably the one. Maybe this guy? [...]
bjjdenver, how do you know that there is this disclosure form and the $5mil?
I have always wondered, how the hell does word not leak out of these TUF shows. I mean if one guy tells somebody and he tells somebody and some reporter gets wind of it, how do they know where the original rumor came from? In the past 7 seasons, there haven’t even been rumor’s circulating that so-and-so won the season. I never understood how that level of secrecy is maintained. Anybody have a good answer for that?
Also to HexRei, I agree that it’s not good to bring in experienced guys. Like when Mac Danzig won, how fair was that? The guy had fought in PRIDE (did get his ass kicked) but was way higher in level that the other guys.
I know one of the TUF contestants and that was the info he gave out when prodded for info, lol. I’m going off what he said, not actual visual confirmation of the agreement, so don’t take it as gospel, but knowing Dana, it makes sense.
[...] fighter confirmed by Five Ounces of Pain to be a part of the upcoming season of TUF 8. On Tuesday, we confirmed that Hawaiian lightweight Shane Nelson will be involved with the [...]
shane sucks, he just lays on you and does nothing. the hawaii fans hate to see him fight because he is boring. he also dodges EVERYONE
I BELIEVE THAT SHANE WILL MAKE IT BECAUSE HE HAS THE HEART FOR THE SPORT AND HE WILL BE ABLE TO OVERCOME ALL THE OBSTACLES THAT IS NEEDED TO BE THE BEST…. hE HAS TRAINED HARD AND HE KNOWS WHAT HE WILL NEED TO OVERCOME ALL THAT IS NEEDED TO BE A CHAMP!!!! SO SHANE YOU DO WHAT YOU SO BEST AND GIVE IT YOUR ALL BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!
[...] fights going to the judges -Guy picks his nose throughout this ENTIRE interview -This dude is from BJ Penn’s camp (home to other great fighters like [...]