TUF 18 Preview: Could Some Fighters Have Beef with Rousey and Tate?

Nathan McCarter — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:35:38 -0400

The Ultimate Fighter 18 is currently filming, and UFC President Dana White says there is drama every day.

“Miesha and Ronda hate each other,” White said. “It’s like literally crazy drama every day.”

However, that is between the coaches. What about the fighters? Much has been made about the mixed-gender cast heading into this season, but the real drama on the show could be fighters having issues with their coaches.

Why?

Several of the female cast members are long-time veterans of the sport. Rousey, albeit an Olympic medalist in judo, is only 7-0 in the sport. The veterans have been training longer, are more experienced in other disciplines and have had more experienced coaches.

The veterans are likely to give Rousey a break. Her elite status with the UFC, as well as her Olympic background, will gain her favor. The entire cast will at least have that to learn from Rousey.

A couple veteran female fighters took to Twitter prior to the Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zingano battle to complain about her potential coaching. Tara LaRosa and Tonya Evinger were two of them, and they made no bones about their displeasure of Tate.

We have not seen Tate coach, but we have seen her corner, Bryan Caraway, including the infamous “coast” debacle that led to a split decision loss to Takeya Mizugaki in March. It will be interesting to see which fighters remember that bit heading into this season of TUF.

This is all focusing on the female issues with their less experienced coaches. That is not taking into consideration the male fighters of the cast.

Viewers cannot be naive and believe just because of Rousey's background—or Tate's for that matter—that these fighters will enter willing to listen to them immediately. Misogyny is very real with male athletes. Across all sports, it is a concern when a female is the coach.

That is why the most important factor for the coaches could be who they have brought along as their assistants. They may be able to bridge the gap and allow anyone with an issue to quell their concerns.

The angst of the female veterans and potential misogyny from the male cast only adds to the intrigue of this season.

There will be a lot going on outside of the cage. From potential cast beefs with the coaches to the Rousey-Tate rivalry to in-house antics, this could be one of the most intriguing seasons of the show to date.

It seems as if there is more of a chance that fighters would have an issue with Tate than Rousey, but both interactions will be interesting to watch. Rousey has been on the show before but never as a full-time coach.

When The Ultimate Fighter returns, we will have a whole lot to pay attention to outside of the fights.

One can only hope that any potential cast member that has an issue with Rousey or Tate deals with it quickly. The bottom line is that these coaches are at the top of the food chain in their division and are backed by the UFC. The cast members are simply trying to join the organization. They need to know their role.

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TUF 18 Preview: Could Some Fighters Have Beef with Rousey and Tate?