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[Dan0]

White reflects on 'The Ultimate Fighter' (Part I of II)

Dec. 4, 2007
By Todd Martin
Special to CBSSports.com


On Saturday, the sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter concludes. It is a show that has been vital to the popularity surge of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It introduced mixed martial arts to many new fans, created new stars, and turned existing stars into pay-per-view attractions. As another season wraps up, UFC president Dana White took time to reflect on the series to date.

"We were trying to get a television deal," White recalls. "We met Craig Piligian, who is one of the most successful reality producers out there. We started talking about putting together a reality show for the UFC. One night I pulled my entire staff into my office and we pulled an all-nighter. We went into my office after work at 8:30 and worked until the morning to create the rough version of The Ultimate Fighter."

Season 1

The first season of The Ultimate Fighter featured Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture as coaches. Liddell and Couture were two of the company's biggest stars, and the show was designed to promote their second fight. In that regard, the show was a success. The fight broke UFC's then buy-rate record, with over 250,000 buys. However, the bigger key to the show ended up being the introduction of a group of new UFC stars.

While other fighters from the first season of The Ultimate Fighter are now bigger stars, the biggest star at the time was Chris Leben. Dana White notes, "Leben had this great personality on television. He talked a lot of [expletive]. A lot of people wanted to see him get beat and a lot of people wanted to see him win."

The most memorable incident on the first season involved Josh Koscheck and Bobby Southworth tormenting Leben with a water hose, followed by Leben rampaging through the house. Alcohol played a role in the incident, leading the UFC to take alcohol away from the house for the remainder of the season. However, alcohol was brought back for future seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, where it led to a number of incidents that garnered TV interest but also made the athletes look bad.

Dana White acknowledges that there were ongoing debates within UFC about whether to provide alcohol to the fighters. The company ultimately decided to leave alcohol in the house.

"Our philosophy was you can't make the sport look bad, because these guys aren't real UFC fighters," White explains. "If we had Chuck and Randy getting drunk and acting like idiots that would be a whole different ballgame. But these guys wanted to be UFC fighters and hadn't proven themselves yet."

The incident involving Koscheck and Leben set up a fight between the two. That fight drew a strong 2.02 rating, demonstrating UFC's ratings potential. However, it was a disappointing fight, and ratings declined in future weeks.

The dull fight resulted in part because Koscheck was still a one-dimensional fighter. He was an excellent wrestler, but inexperienced at other aspects of MMA. He used his wrestling to neutralize Leben, but wasn't able to dominate or finish his opponent.

This demonstrated a potential conundrum for UFC. Wrestlers are frequently great prospects for MMA, because their wrestling base allows them to control where a fight will take place. But early in their careers when their striking and submission abilities aren't fully developed, many wrestlers try to control rather than finish their opponents. That can sour fans on young fighters who become exciting when they develop additional weapons. White, however, doesn't believe this to be a danger and says that featuring wrestlers like Koscheck early in their careers wasn't a concern.

While the turmoil surrounding Leben was an early draw on the show, ultimately the biggest star of the first season would be Forrest Griffin. Griffin won over fans with an exciting finale fight against Stephan Bonnar, a hard fought battle with Tito Ortiz, and a victory over the highly regarded Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.

"The guy goes in and lets it all hang out," White said of Griffin. "People respect what a hard worker he is and how far he has come since The Ultimate Fighter. I think people relate to Forrest."

One of the most surprising stars of the first season was Kenny Florian. Lightly regarded initially, he made it to the finals at 185 pounds. He now competes at 155 pounds where he has been very successful. Florian probably wouldn't have even made it onto the show were it not for a surprising performance against Drew Fickett at an event UFC executives attended.

"I couldn't believe they brought in this local kid with a 2-0 record to get slaughtered," White recalls. "It was a war. Fickett barely won by the skin of his teeth. I was really impressed with Florian." That earned him a spot on the show, and Florian over time made believers out of those who previously dismissed his skills. "He is a serious force at 155," says White.

The first season of the show also produced a number of other stars, including Mike Swick, Stephan Bonnar and Diego Sanchez.

Season 2

The second season of the Ultimate Fighter again featured dueling coaches, but it didn't end up leading to a fight. Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin were chosen as coaches, but the sometimes training partners didn't want to face each other.

"I tried to get them to fight each other and they said no way," White recalls. "I said [expletive] it. They're friends. They'll just be competing. So we had them both fight on the same card instead."

The second season included welterweights and heavyweights. It was the only time heavyweights were featured on the show, and that may have been a mistake. The heavyweight class was of a lower quality than the other weight classes featured on the show. Only two fighters from that class have been successful in the UFC, and both now fight at 205 pounds. White notes, "The problem is there aren't a lot of great heavyweights out there. The pickings are slim. If I had enough guys I'd do a heavyweight show tomorrow."

While only two fighters broke out of that mix, they both had great success. One was Rashad Evans, who was the season champion. Evans had a strong wrestling background and was undefeated, but initially had his detractors, including Matt Hughes and Dana White.

"I would have to say that out of all the seasons, Rashad was the biggest surprise for me," White says. "I counted Rashad out early. I didn't think he was in good enough shape. I didn't think he pushed himself hard enough. But look at him now. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." Evans has gone undefeated since the show, including a win over Michael Bisping in the main event of UFC 78.

The other star from the heavyweight division was Keith Jardine. Jardine was highly respected going into the show, but he didn't particularly distinguish himself on the show. It was only after the show when he defeated Forrest Griffin and Chuck Liddell that his star began to rise.

White recognizes that the show could have done more for Jardine. "I wouldn't say his personality really shown through," White says. "But at the end of the day I don't care if you have the personality of a rock. If you come through and knock people out, that's what people want to see."

One other heavyweight with promise was Mike Whitehead. Whitehead didn't look his best on the show, but his only UFC losses were to Evans and Jardine. UFC released him, and Whitehead responded by winning nine straight fights in other organizations.

Dana White doesn't regret releasing Whitehead. "That was Mike Whitehead's M.O.," he says. "When he came onto the show, he was a world beater on the smaller shows. But on the big show, he couldn't hang."

The winner of the welterweight division was Joe Stevenson. However, many felt that Stevenson even in victory didn't look his best. He struggled at times, and didn't look as dominant as he could have been. Following a surprising loss to Josh Neer, a seemingly re-dedicated Stevenson has looked more impressive. He will fight B.J. Penn for the interim lightweight title at UFC 80.

"I think that the problem with Joe Daddy is he is one of those kids who has an incredible amount of talent and because he's so talented he doesn't work as hard as he should," White says. "That's changed. I think he's working really hard now. If he can pull off a win against B.J. Penn, it changes his whole life and career."

Dana White points to Marcus Davis as one of the success stories of the season. Davis had a strong boxing background going into the show, but was not particularly impressive in MMA. After a loss on the show, he contemplated retirement. But he decided against it, and rode a newly diversified skill set to a five fight winning streak in the UFC.

"I think he refocused himself," Dana White observes. "Talk about a guy who was completely one dimensional. He had great standup but if he went to the ground he was [in trouble]. I think he reevaluated his career after going through that hell. I hate doing that show, and I can go home every night. But if you really want to be a fighter, there is no better opportunity. That's the best training camp you can ever have. These guys learn so much and get so much exposure. I think Marcus Davis looked at that and said 'Why would I give that up now?' And look at all the improvements he has made."

Other stars coming out of the second season included Jorge Gurgel, Josh Burkman and Melvin Guillard. Burkman and Guillard are highly regarded fighters with charismatic personalities, but they ended up eliminating each other in the first fight of the show.

Part 2 of this piece will run later this week.

http://www.sportsline.com/print/mmab...story/10511947

I sure hope part two is better. I think since CBS did the interview they are trying to give the basics of the TUF show to the NON-hardcore fan (which leaves us out). Also this is good for Dana and CBS getting a deal done.

[jlruthven84]

I must be hallucinating...did I really only count two (expletive)s in that whole piece?

[Dan0]

Originally Posted by jlruthven84

I must be hallucinating...did I really only count two (expletive)s in that whole piece?

Yea, EXACTLY, that's why I said i hope part II is much better. Again, I think it's a precursor to a possible TV deal. I think they want to see the response to the story, or the hits on the site for the story or something.

[Texasboyballin]

great read !!!