TUF But Not Enough: The Five Worst Coaches In Ultimate Fighter History

In eleven seasons of The Ultimate Fighter, everything from the emergence of nutcases and douchebags to the showing of one hell of a fight has been showcased for one hour every week for a six-week period.

On each show, one thing doesn't change (besides Dana White dropping the F-bomb at least once before the end of the season), and that is that one coach is always going to be a little bit better than another.

Of course, over eleven seasons, there have been instances of coaches just kind-of not being all there on coaching, but they did enjoy the thought of facing the opposing coach in the cage after the season had ended.

So what about the coaches who weren't so great?

What about the ones with the okay-to-shabby records on the show, or the ones that didn't really seem to improve their fighters at all, or even the ones that were just not memorable?

They're right here.

Sure. these five coaches are a who's who, and some are among the best fighters in the world, but as a fighter... these guys are just not the type of guys you'd want to have coaching you during a season of TUF.

5. BJ Penn (Season 5, Penn Vs. Pulver)

Coaching record: 5-8

Main problem: From the onset, BJ tried and tried but couldn't get a bunch of his guys under control. Anyone watching the show couldn't see the whole team in dysfunction because guys like Gray Maynard, Joe Lauzon, and Rob Emerson really weren't causing too much friction, but between Andy Wang's pleas to get back on Team Penn, the feud between Matt Wiman and Gabe Ruediger, and of course Ruediger's weight cutting problem, there was all the makings of a team dysfunction within Team Penn, and very little that BJ could really do about it.

Hey, at least he avenged his loss to Jens Pulver.

Funny "WTF" Moment: At the beginning of the season, he asked the sixteen 155ers to raise their hands if they wanted to be a part of Team Penn and have nothing to do with Lil' Evil. The verbal hilarity that ensued before BJ finally picked Maynard at least gave the impression that the season was going to be entertaining.

4. Frank Mir (Season 8, Nogueira Vs. Mir)

Coaching record: 5-7

Main Problem: You'd think not really any, considering Vinny Magalhaes made the finals and Krzystof Soszynski made it to the semifinals, but in the end the only problem Mir had was Junie Browning.

None for nothing, Junie is a good fighter, but he was just such a loose cannon on a show that was never meant to be MMA's version of The Real World (or heaven forbid, Jersey Shore).

From day one, Junie was making Chris Leben look so much like Diego Sanchez did in the first season that it eventually stopped being funny.

Even less humoring was Browning's attitude towards the fight that was his last fight on the show when he fought Efrain Escudero.

See, he did beat Roli Delgado in one of his first bouts on the show, consequently spitting on a black-belt afterwards, and he did hop the cage to try and get to Efrain as Efrain was still in the cage after a fight, but when the semis were announced and Junie really did have to fight Efrain, that's when Mir started to see that Junie was more than just a problem around the rest of the cast.

He also trained on a different level -- a lower level than even Junie had hoped he'd be -- in preparation for Escudero.

Looks like the bout that sent Junie out of the running was something of Mir's "problem solver", but as a coach, you'd think someone like Mir would at least contemplate kicking Junie off Team Mir himself.

Hey, BJ did it to Wang.

And heck, if Mir was looking to be a little bit nice about sending Junie off, he could've reacted to Junie's loss the same way Forrest Griffin reacted to Jesse Taylor getting booted from the show.

Just say, "Hey, sorry bro. Nothing I can do about it."

Good thing for Mir that Minotauro was the opposing coach... pretty good way to let off the steam from Junie, I'd say.

3. Dan Henderson (Season 9, US Vs. UK)

Coaching record: 5-8

Main problem: Henderson wasn't really aggressive during the season, which is sometimes fine as far as coaching goes -- after all, Rich Franklin wasn't really too much of a hard-ass during the two seasons that he was on the show either.

The real problem on Season Nine was that he had to deal with a guy in Jason Pierce, who at first was thought to be really injured and unable to go in the quarterfinals.

Again, not a problem considering guys like Nick Ring last season had an injury that they sustained or re-aggravated and thus it kept them from competing.

From what Dana and Henderson got from Pierce, though, it just didn't seem like Pierce was on Team USA because he wanted to fight.

Dana thought he had an attitude like he didn't want to fight at all, and clearly, so did the other members of Team USA (sans Jason Dent) and eventually Henderson.

It just becomes a problem when you've got a guy with that much talent

2. Quinton Rampage Jackson (Season 10,

Coaching record: 6-17

The Rampage we all saw in Season 7 opposite Forrest Griffin was one thing.

At least there was no actual urge to legitimately hit Forrest on the show -- Forrest just wanted a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight title, and Rampage was the only thing keeping Forrest from getting the belt (Rampage was the champ, by the way).

Well, season 11 was a different story for Mr. Jackson.

Main problem: As if the hatred for Rashad Evans wasn't enough, Rampage just didn't really prove to be that great of a coach overall.

Granted, I watched because, well, I was pulling for Marcus Jones and I also didn't think what ended up happening with Rampage would happen at all.

Besides, if you did a "Most entertaining/Most F'N Hilarious TUF coaches" list, I'd think Rampage earns an argument for the top five most entertaining coaches in TUF history.

In the back of my mind though, I did question exactly what kind of coach of a previous TUF winner handled his fighter's loss by tearing up the door of the UFC Gym or what kind of coach thought it'd be getting under his opposing coach's skin by calling one of the opposing team's members by the name of "Titties".

What ended up happening because of all that, plus the "advice" Rampage shouted to some of his guys during the show?

Marcus Jones got beat by Matt Mitrione -- who by the way fights Joey Beltran at UFC 119, James McSweeney ended up being the one to beat up Darrill Schoonover (a.k.a. "the guy Rampage called 'Titties'"), and Kimbo Slice went three rounds against Houston Alexander in what would be Alexander's last fight in the UFC.

Note how there wasn't one mention of a Team Rampage fighter making it to the Heavyweights season's Final.

Brendan Schaub was on Team Rashad.

So was "Big Country" Roy Nelson.

Season 10 was a good season, but it wasn't Rampage's season.

Oh well... at least he has CB Dollaway to his TUF credit.

1. Ken Shamrock (Season 3, Ortiz Vs. Shamrock)

Coaching record: 3-10

Main problem: We could talk about the Ortiz-Shamrock feud until someone had the insane idea that Ken would beat Tito in a fourth encounter if we wanted to, but in Season Three, Ken's coaching was due only partially to his hatred for Tito.

He actually took time out from training a few times and gave his team time to relax while Tito pushed and pushed his guys to train their asses off and become the best they could be.

Maybe Ken just didn't want to push them too hard so as to keep them healthy and still able to fight, but whatever the reason was, he ended up not pushing them hard enough in training.

Maybe because he was questioned about his methods once and then a fighter got injured another time, but the risk would have been worth the reward if Ken was able to improve his fighters and at least get more than just Ed Herman to the Finals.

No sweat though, Ken -- for what it's worth, Kendall Grove thought the fight could've gone either way in that Middleweight Final.