i wonder if chuck will be getting his standard half mil like he used to…

I hate to do it…..Tito by decision round three.

Ortiz vs. Liddell 3…WHO GIVES A CRAP?!

I’m sorry to shit all over this…but honestly, it completely sucks in my opinion. I could care less if I see these two guys at all. Both are way past their prime and doing nothing but cashing in off their ‘names’ at this point.

I’m sure the noobs/casuals will eat this up though.

Angry Mike: @Ray;Does it take a year to shoot a season of TUF?I don’t think so.The fact that it’s aired once a week for an hour makes it seem like it was a long period of time.I think it’s only a month or two, isn’t it?And why hold up any fighters or titles?Season 4 didn’t had a series of trainers and fighters who showed up once or twice as guests.Who said the coaches always have to fight?Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes didn’t in season 2, and there were no season-long coaches in season 4.Couture and Liddell fought several times, but I don’t think they fought each other as part of the finale of season 1.I don’t think you need to have title holders or contenders as coaches to get ratings.Kimbo’s participation was a huge driver for ratings in season 10, and his fight with Nelson got big numbers.So what would I do?How about teams from different nations like season 9.UFC could feature nations with good prospects like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Japan or Korea.That would generate interest in new television/ppv markets.Use fighters or a series of fighters and trainers for the teams, and throw in a good fight between current UFCfighters to headline the finale.

Announcement of the coaches, then waiting on the filming to begin, then filming which I don’t know how long that takes but I think is around 1.5 months? Maybe 1 month? Anyway, then editing, then getting it on tv, then about 10 weeks or so of episodes, then waiting for the PPV that the coaches fight on.

A year might be an exaggeration, but it is by no means a quick process to film and air a season of TUF. I believe filming alone for season 10 finished some time in August, and just now finished airing. So almost 4 months JUST for the show to be finished editing and airing. That with everything else basically means around a minimum of 6 months between the beginning of filming and the fight between the coaches. And that doesn’t even include the time between when the coaches are announced and when filming actually begins. It’s not like the coaches are going to be fighting anyone before then.

GSP vs Hardy should be in just a few months, but if there was a season of TUF with them as the coaches first we would have quite a wait. I think it is an issue that titles get held up waiting on the show, and I’m happy that these two should put on quite a good season, while not holding up anything at all other than their fight.

Dufresne: As far as actual coaching abilities, both Chuck and Tito are very good.
Look back at how much of an improved ground game Kendal Grove had after just a few months with Tito. And look at Hamill’s improvement. Sure his last fight was not a shining example, but compared to when he was on TUF, he’s light years ahead. As much as I despise Tito as an individual, he seems to have a knack for training young fighters.Chuck has some decent coaching credentials of his own as well. Both Diego and Forrest were members of Chuck’s team on the first season of TUF, and since that time one has become a champ (shortly, but hey, being champ at all is pretty damn impressive in the 205 division) and the other is competing for the belt this weekend.Random side note: I had no idea chuck was a purple belt in BJJ. I doubt we’ll ever see him submit someone, but how cool would that be?

The thing with all those fighters however is that the real progress they didn’t make until after the show when they left those coaches. They were all very true and very good points, but Diego was training with greg Jackson who made him great, and Forrest with Extreme Couture. Kendall still trains with Tito on occasion but he spends most of his time with BJ Penn.

Unfortunately with only 6 some odd weeks, you can make a lot of progress, but not enough to change yourself as a fighter. The biggest things the coaches can do is set proper foundations for training and hep them make sure they have the early steps done right so that when they get to the higher steps they are doing them proper.

My point is although they can make some definite changes with the fighters, the real credit goes to who they train with afterwards, I give Mark Delagrotte much more credit than I give Chuck Liddell for making Kenny Florian the fighter he is today.

Angry Mike: So what would I do? How about teams from different nations like season 9. UFC could feature nations with good prospects like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Japan or Korea. That would generate interest in new television/ppv markets. Use fighters or a series of fighters and trainers for the teams, and throw in a good fight between current UFC fighters to headline the finale.

The only problem I see arising from this is the language barriers that would be involved. Most folks don’t want to watch a TV show with subtitles (I’m okay with it, but that’s because I’m about as deaf as a post anyways)

There was also decent amount of backlash from the die-hard community when they originally announced the UK v US format, but I don’t think they really were too concerned with that. Especially when you consider that they signed Kimbo for the next season and they had to know how much that was going to piss off 80-90% of the hardcore fans.

Overall, lots of very valid points. Well said.

bbond30: I can’t imagine why anyone would think this is a good idea! Dana basically said the two of them are washed up! They would have done better to Make Machida and Shogun the coaches even though neither man speaks English well. This is a tired match up.

then you would have to wait til fall for the rematch,thats a bad idea

Does it take a year to shoot a season of TUF? I don’t think so. The fact that it’s aired once a week for an hour makes it seem like it was a long period of time. I think it’s only a month or two, isn’t it? And why hold up any fighters or titles? Season 4 didn’t had a series of trainers and fighters who showed up once or twice as guests. Who said the coaches always have to fight? Rich Franklin and Matt Hughes didn’t in season 2, and there were no season-long coaches in season 4. Couture and Liddell fought several times, but I don’t think they fought each other as part of the finale of season 1.

I don’t think you need to have title holders or contenders as coaches to get ratings. Kimbo’s participation was a huge driver for ratings in season 10, and his fight with Nelson got big numbers.

So what would I do? How about teams from different nations like season 9. UFC could feature nations with good prospects like Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Japan or Korea. That would generate interest in new television/ppv markets. Use fighters or a series of fighters and trainers for the teams, and throw in a good fight between current UFC fighters to headline the finale.

Look back at how much of an improved ground game Kendal Grove had after just a few months with Tito. And look at Hamill’s improvement. Sure his last fight was not a shining example, but compared to when he was on TUF, he’s light years ahead. As much as I despise Tito as an individual, he seems to have a knack for training young fighters.

Chuck has some decent coaching credentials of his own as well. Both Diego and Forrest were members of Chuck’s team on the first season of TUF, and since that time one has become a champ (shortly, but hey, being champ at all is pretty damn impressive in the 205 division) and the other is competing for the belt this weekend.

Random side note: I had no idea chuck was a purple belt in BJJ. I doubt we’ll ever see him submit someone, but how cool would that be?

Angry Mike: Having these guys reprise their roles as coaches is a bad idea.They’re both on the back nine of their careers.Chuck ain’t the man that he once was, and we’ve already heard all the pissing, whining, and hype that Tito has to offer.Bringing these guys back for season 11 suggests that the show is as tired and worn out as they are. Imo, this move suggests that TUF has jumped the shark.That’s a shame, because season 10 proved that with the right mix, the show has plenty of life and ratings left.

Is it not better they use “old worn out fighters” as the coaches…the show seriously delays fights almost a year….why the hell would you want your champs or up and comers unable to fight for that long? Just because we are told they are the coaches, doesn’t mean they do all the coaching. Have you ever watched TUF? The coach is the face and the CELEBRITY….they have their coaches there…its basically TEAM CHUCK…vs…TEAM TITO…chuck brings in hackleman and his coaches, tito brings in his guys….and the training begins !!!

Everyone goes on about how Rampage wasn’t a coach….yeah that’s true but Tiki and his crew are….Rampage is just the face and there for personality and celebrity, the awe strike some of the fighters and to have a really good sparring partner or demonstrator for the students.

That being said who would you want for TUF? I’m curious, would you want a title held up?

I just think why not take two of the UFC’s largest celebrity’s, who aren’t going to compete for the belt anymore, who have a grudge, and use them as your coaches…it only makes sense…what really makes sense is not even having a fighter as a coach as you could just have team greg jackson vs AKA for TUF or something to that effect with guest appearances each week from the random fighters from each camp that is featured…but they have their format and as long as they stick to their current format I think this is the best fight possible….although here are a few other ones I think would have been decent.

Phil Baroni vs Chris Lytle (Two gamers, Baroni is the cockiest guy on earth, perfect for camera and well neither are going to be champ any time soon)

Kimbo Slice vs Mirko Cro-Cop (Catch weight 215 again…both need to make 205 eventually, give Kimbo one more training run at the cut, give Mirko a training run at cutting a bit of weight. This would bring in ratings because of Kimbo, might be too soon for more TUF Kimbo, but the UFC has Kimbo for ratings and nothing else. Mirko needs to cut to 205…he is way too small for HW, small jaw/head too…and he can easily make cut by his body type…prob don’t want to though but oh well…and yes I think this would get Cro-Cop back in the winners circle and help his confidence in the UFC a lot)

Bisping vs Wandy (Hey I hate the Bisping, he won’t be fighting for belt..Wandy has shown to be slightly washed up but hope 185 suits his jaw better…would have made a decent TUF though)

and lastly the only one I like more than Chuck and Tito

Sherk vs Florian (Rematch of the title, sherk and florian both comming off losses aren’t in title picture for a while anyways…Florian really wants a rematch, I am sure it would be decent)

Tell me what is the purpose of TUF, then? I thought it was the fighters not their coaches?

I’ve seen every season. Hell, I’ve even read both of Tuck and Cheeto’s books. (Not good, btw, but they are fighters not writers.) And what I’ve gotten from all that is that TUF is coming to rely on the standard reality show tropes of bad guy vs. good guy, shitstarter, underdog, crazy pants loner, and prankster. I mean it is called Ultimate Fighter, not Ultimate Coach Grudge. By tapping Chuck and Tito they making as coaches two guys who have already taken their focus off of fighting and instead are seeing themselves as a brand. How does any of this serve the fighters very well? Should the fighters just be grateful for being in the presence of two legends? Or do we not care about the broke talented cannon fodder becuase all that matters is Tuck vs. Cheeto Part 3?

My suggestion for GSP and Hamill was stupid; it was supposed to be. But having two coaches that have a hard time talking smack to each other would put the focus back on the fighters. You don’t need the coaches turning into screaming caricatures of themselves every chance they get in order to have a good leads on the show. Matt Hughes was a gleeful sadist; Nogeria a fatherly mench; Forrest a southern Siddh?rtha, Penn a swanning jock.

I’m not biased for or against Tuck and Cheeto becuase I truly do not care about either one of them. They were both fine coaches before, and I’m sure they’ll be serviceable again. I’d just hate for either of them to fall into the trap of smack talk, which is easy, and neglect training and inspiring their fighters, which is hard. But fuck it, lol. I’ve probably put more thought into Season 11 then White has right now.