Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber and 10 Other TUF Coaching Candidates

The Ultimate Fighter

The Ultimate Fighter is a show that has become pretty boring and stale the last couple of seasons. Since The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, the show has become almost unwatchable because nobody knows the fighters on the show and there are no good storylines.

The early days of The Ultimate Fighter launched careers and many have become world champions in their respected weight classes. Now, the winner is usually someone who no one has ever heard of and honestly no one cares who wins the show.

The rumors are out that Dominick Cruz will go up against Urijah Faber on the next installment of TUF. The two men actually do not like each other so that may create a watchable show. But I do believe that there are better options out there.

Chael Sonnen/Anderson Silva

Everybody knows the beef between Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva. Chael is a must watch every time he grabs a microphone, so just imagine him with a camera in front of him at all times.

Anderson Silva may be the harder of the two coaches to convince to be on the show, however. Silva speaks a bit of English, but mostly Portuguese. Chael would make up for Silva and would make the show very watchable.

Love him or hate him Chael Sonnen would rejuvenate The Ultimate Fighter.

Georges St. Pierre/Nick Diaz

The fight between Georges St. Pierre and Nick Diaz is already scheduled to happen in February at UFC 143, so having them coach seems to be out of the question. Regardless, what if the fight gets scratched once again and the two want to make some extra money?

Georges St. Pierre has been a coach before, when he went head to head with Josh Koscheck. Nick Diaz hates doing pressers and says whatever he wants during interviews.

Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu would be in full force and it would be just a matter of time before they would start throwing punches. GSP has said that Diaz disrespected him and wants to beat him down.

Ratings galore if these two would square off on the show.

Dan Henderson/Rashad Evans

Dan Henderson is coming off of the possible fight of the year with Shogun Rua and has proved to be an entertaining coach. Rashad Evans is without a fight and has also coached before.

Hendo is a fun guy, and he can really teach his team the ins and outs of the fight game. Rashad needs a big name opponent to prove that he is the No. 1 contender. Jon Jones would be the main reason these two would make appropriate coaches because he could delay a possible title opportunity for each of these fighters.

Hendo vs. Suga would also make a great fight at the end of the season.

Rashad Evans/Jon Jones

Jon Jones is the reigning Light Heavyweight Champion of the world, as he has barely been tested by his opponents. Rashad Evans has been the No. 1 contender even before Jon Jones put on the belt.

If that wasn’t good enough, these two fighters can’t stand one another. Evans claims Jon Jones and Greg Jackson somewhat forced him out of Team Jackson. Jones seems to keep dodging Evans and continues fighting other challengers.

Evans made season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter interesting because of his hate of Rampage Jackson. Evans and Jones could create a huge buzz around the show and who wouldn’t want to see Rashad Evans have a chance to pummel Greg Jackson?

Kenny Florian/Gilbert Melendez

Stop, before you flip to the next slide here me out on this one. Kenny Florian has become the ultimate choke artist in the UFC, as he has had chance after chance to capture UFC gold. Florian was the runner-up on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter and does not have a fight scheduled as of yet.

Gilbert Melendez fights Jorge Masvidal on December 17^th and is expected to destroy the young prospect. Melendez says that he is deserving of a Lightweight Championship bout with Frankie Edgar, but that fight seems pretty far away.

Melendez could get his name out there by coaching against Kenny Florian, then proving that he belongs amongst the elite in the Lightweight division. Also, Melendez would be helped by the “Scrap Pack.” Instant entertainment would ensue.

Royce Gracie/Matt Hughes

Royce Gracie has been begging UFC brass to give him Matt Hughes one more time so that he can prove he still has what it takes. Matt Hughes claims to be retired, but he has said that before, then came back and fought.

Hughes has coached the show on two separate occasions so he knows how to handle young fighters. Royce Gracie speaks very poor English, so he would most likely need Brazilian fighters on his team.

How about a Team U.S.A. coached by Matt Hughes vs. Team Brazil coached by Royce Gracie. Every Brazilian in the world would jump at a chance to be coached by one of the all-time greats. This matchup seems like a long shot, but don’t ever count out Dana White’s magic.

Team Nogueira

The Team Nogueira concept is a lot like the second season of The Ultimate Fighter when Matt Hughes coached against Rich Franklin. The two fighters picked different fighters and formed teams just all of the other seasons.

Since an upcoming season of the show has been announced to feature Brazilian fighters this would make perfect sense. They could put the Nogueira brothers on one team and put Anderson Silva and Junior Dos Santos on the other team.

Who knows more about Brazilian fighters than Team Nogueira? This season would feature a whole lot of subtitles.

Wanderlei Silva/Hector Lombard

This one is totally hypothetical because Hector Lombard isn’t even in the UFC yet. Wanderlei Silva is coming off of maybe his best UFC performance yet after he defeated Cung Le at UFC 139. Lombard is coming off another (T)KO win over Trevor Prangley.

Lombard hasn’t lost a fight since 2006 and is 31-2-1 overall. He hasn’t been beating top notch fighters by any means, but that record is pretty incredible. Fans could see if Lombard is a serious contender by facing off against Wanderlei Silva.

The two would make interesting coaches because it would be funny to see fighters try and understand Silva, and it would be scary to see if Lombard could spar without hurting his whole team.

Cain Velasquez/Frank Mir

Cain Velasquez was knocked out in a little over one minute and lost his Heavyweight title to Junior Dos Santos at UFC on Fox. Frank Mir has a fight at UFC 140 against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. If Frank Mir could defeat Big Nog once again, then a Velasquez/Mir matchup could be a No. 1 contender bout.

Mir was entertaining in season eight and has a great personality for TV. Velasquez poses a huge threat for Mir in the octagon, but could he coach his team to a win?

Since Dana White has already stated that the winner of Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem gets a shot at Junior Dos Santos’ title, then Mir and Velasquez have plenty of time to coach the show.

Frank Mir vs. Cain Velasquez would not only be great in the cage, but would be great coaches on The Ultimate Fighter.

Forrest Griffin/Stephan Bonnar

The fight between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar may be the greatest fight in UFC history. It was certainly the most significant fight.

Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar battled on the finale of season one of the show and Griffin has even coached a season before.

Griffin had been rumored to be fighting Rampage Jackson in Japan in February, but apparently he is now without a fight. Bonnar is coming off a complete domination of Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 139.

The two have already fought twice, with Griffin being the winner of both. Both fighters are at the same point in their careers and why not have a Griffin/Bonnar III. The fight may not be as good as the first one, but it is guaranteed to be a slugfest.