(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
Four years ago a reality series turned what appeared to be a dying sport into a multi-million dollar phenomenon. The UFC was on a steady decline, and as a last ditch effort they partnered up with Spike TV to form The Ultimate Fighter reality series.
Ten seasons later and MMA is one of the biggest sports in the world and constantly becoming more popular each day. The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights which features coaches Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Rashad Evans as well as street fighting kingpin Kimbo Slice has garnered the highest ratings in the series history so far.
TUF 10 is still in the process of airing new episodes, meanwhile several MMA news outlets have announced that the try-outs for season 11 will begin on October 26th.
Coaches for next season have yet to be discussed but let’s take a look at five potential options for TUF 11 coaches.
Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
After losing what is being dubbed by many as the most controversial decision loss in MMA history, “Shogun” deserves a chance at redemption. For five full rounds Rua did what no other fighter before him was able to do because for the first time in his career Machida was the one being picked apart.
Despite clearly winning four out of the five rounds, the CSAC judges robbed Rua of what would have been the biggest win of his career, awarding Machida with the unanimous decision victory. Even UFC President Dana White disagreed with the decision and has made it known that he would like to set up a rematch as soon as possible.
Well here’s a thought—why not make things a tad more interesting and have the two Brazilians coach TUF 11?
Not only will it be very beneficial for the season’s fighters to work with two of the most technical strikers in the game, but it will also generate a ton of interest from the fans to see how these two perform as coaches which, of course, will help bring in strong ratings.
Watching these two Light-Heavyweight warriors coaching every week on TUF is only going to hype up their second meeting in the Octagon even more. The only problem with this is the fact that neither speaks fluent English which is a must for the reality series.
Brock Lesnar/Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez
After racking up his fifth straight victory in the Octagon with a dominating TKO over “Big” Ben Rothwell, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Velasquez has a title shot awaiting him. The All-American wrestler silenced his critics by completely overwhelming a much more experienced fighter in Rothwell.
If Velasquez does not receive the next shot after Lesnar and Carwin clash at UFC 106, hell will freeze over. The AKA heavyweight deserves a championship bout more than any other heavyweight right now, much more so than the legendary Antonio Rodrigo “Mintauro” Noguiera and former champ Frank Mir combined.
A smart business strategy that would help Velasquez become a bigger PPV draw would be to put him on Spike TV and have him coach against the winner of the Lesnar/Carwin bout. If Lesnar—the UFC’s most valuable commodity—was placed on any television show it would surely create insane ratings records.
Lesnar is the ultimate heel, and his post-fight celebration at UFC 100 is further proof that he’s perfect for reality television because no matter if he’s loved or hated; he’s as real as it gets.
However, if Carwin were to be victorious at UFC 106, a Team Carwin vs. Team Velasquez TUF would still be intriguing but it just wouldn’t be as big of a draw as Team Lesnar would be. If people thought Kimbo was a ratings-machine just imagine the numbers Lesnar would bring in on Spike.
Hopefully he won’t slander the TUF sponsor—Burger King—for not paying him enough by announcing he’s going to grab a Big Mac at McDonalds before making love to his wife in Ronald McDonald’s playground.
Georges St. Pierre and Mike Swick/Dan Hardy
Speaking of ratings, Welterweight champion St. Pierre is both a world-class athlete and a huge PPV draw. It wouldn’t matter who his opponent is, he could be fighting Bill Cosby and people will still pay good money to watch St. Pierre fight.
GSP served as an assistant coach on TUF season 4: The Comeback but he has yet to be featured as a head coach mentoring his own team of up and coming fighters. Some of the biggest names in the industry have coached on the reality series including legends such as Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell so it’s only
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