Machida, Shogun and The Top Five Best TUF 11 Coaching Matchups

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 proper to have St. Pierre follow suit.

The upcoming bout at UFC 105 between Hardy and Swick will determine the number one contender to St. Pierre’s title. GSP has dominated the best fighters in the division with a relative amount of ease, so not very many people are expecting either fighter to last very long against the champion.

However, featuring the new challenger as a coach against St. Pierre on TUF would help the UFC market the title bout as a legitimate headliner and get fans more excited to see the fight. They could even follow Season 9’s format with either a Team Canada vs. Team USA or Team Canada vs. Team U.K format to make things more appealing.

Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes

After knocking Frank Trigg’s head into the first row, TUF season one veteran Koscheck called out former Welterweight champion Hughes. This came to the former champ’s surprise because he couldn’t understand why Koscheck would want to fight him and even went as far as to say that it wasn’t a bout that interested him.

Hughes called Koscheck a “kid” and said he would fight him if the UFC asked him to but it isn’t a fight that he would go out of his way to ask for. This reeks of a potential grudge match. What better way to generate some added tension than to have the two welterweights coach against each other next season?

Neither are strangers to the show as Hughes already coached two seasons and Koscheck competed on the very first season losing in the semi-finals to eventual winner Diego Sanchez. They both know how the format works, and having the two as rival coaches would certainly make for great television.

Yes, Hughes wasn’t exactly the best coach during his stints on season 2 and 6 but regardless bringing him back for a third time would still generate some buzz. Maybe he will have learned his lessons and develop into a more patient coach. Or maybe he’ll have his team read bibles during practice while simultaneously yelling at them all for absolutely no reason. Either way it will make for good television especially with Koscheck’s reputation of getting under his opponent’s skin.

No coaches

Who needs coaches? Why not instead of having two big-name UFC stars hype up their upcoming fight, we change the format completely and make it more about the fighters competing on the show? After all it worked perfectly for season four. You can bring in elite coaches such as Greg Jackson and Shawn Tompkins but let the fighters pick the matchups and the coaching strategy.

As a result, you’d learn much more about the fighters and you'd be able to see how they really operate without having a head coach holding their hand and barking orders at them. The fighters can work with the coaches and the guys that the UFC bring in to help train them but it’s the fighters that control their destiny and not the coaches.

Obviously the ratings would take a huge hit because there wouldn’t be anything appealing to the casual fan so the likelihood of this happening is slim to none. That is unless the UFC can come up with something that would draw viewers to the show.

Enter Jason David Frank, a former Green Power Ranger and longtime martial artist. Frank has been training in MMA for the past few years and has recently announced he would be making his professional debut sometime in 2010. The former Mighty Morphing Power Ranger competes in the middleweight division which alongside the welterweight division is exactly what TUF 11 is going to feature.

Some may view Frank as a joke and a failing actor looking for a publicity stunt but that certainly isn’t the case. Frank is extremely passionate about competing in this sport and there really is no better way to prove that then to compete on TUF and earn a spot in the premiere MMA organization in the world, the UFC.

Sure Frank isn’t as big of a name as Kimbo Slice but he could still prove to be a big ratings draw if given the opportunity. Fans may laugh at this idea but honestly what’s there to laugh at? The man wants to prove himself as a legit MMA fighter, why not give him that chance? Surely people will tune in to see him fight.