Rise To The Top: The 5 Most Talented Seasons Of The Ultimate Fighter

Love it or hate it, the UFC would not be where it is today without The Ultimate Fighter.

Now the debate has come up if the show should still continue airing. The Ultimate Fighter brought the UFC out of debt and made it into the billion dollar company that it is today.

The talent level of the fighters that have been competing , sadly, is not what it used to be. However, with two former champions in its rank this show has certainly produced a lot of great fighters.

So here are the five most talented seasons of The Ultimate Fighter.

Season 3 Ortiz Vs Shamrock

Yes, The greatest knockout ever. It fills me with joy ever time I see it

During season 3 some of the most important changes to the show were made. First and foremost, the awful team challenges were removed which saved more time for actual fighting and the destruction of the TUF house.

The other important change was that this was the first season where a coach's rivalry has been one of the things focused on.

Now a common thing but before this we had Chuck Liddell talking softly and Matt Hughes yelling when his fighters lost a fight.

The winners of this season Kendall Grove and Micheal Bisping are both contenders in the Middleweight division with Bisping headlining a card against Yoshihiro Akyiama and Grove is facing Jiu-Jitsu ace Demian Maia.

Also on this season is Matt Hamil who has a fight against coach Tito Ortiz approaching.

Best fight: Ortiz vs Shamrock- the yelling

Season 8 Nogueira Vs Mir

Lawlor is the best

This season went back to its roots. Instead of focusing on the fighting it focused on the insane drunken lunatic who thinks he is the best fighter ever known as Junie Browning.

Now I love Chris Leben, but Junie is by far the more insane of the two. Junie's "victories" include throw glass bottles (twice), jumping the cage fence, and dragging poor Ryan Bader into a pool by his sweat shirt.

The main talent in this season was Ryan Bader who used his dominant wrestling and raw punching power to destroy the competition.

Bader is soon fighting Jon Jones for a No. 1 contender spot. God have mercy on him. Other notable fighters include Kyle Kingsbury, Tom Lawlor (JUST BLEED), and Krzysztof Soszynski.

Best fight- Ryan Bader vs Tom Lawlor

Season 2 Hughes Vs Franklin

Rashad proved in this fight that he does have the ability to finish fights.

This is probably the most controversial of the slide placements. Many people probably thought that this would be number 2 if not number 1.

However as time goes by most of the talent shown on this season is slipping away. With Keith Jardine released very recently and Jorge Gurgel(who looked promising at the time) gone as well, not many fighters are still here.

The main talent of this season is of course Rashad Evans followed by Joe Stevenson. But lets face it, the heavyweights on the show had no reason to be heavyweights, at least the good ones didn't.

The welterweight division was basically presented to Stevenson on a silver platter and he beat them all easily. 

However, Rashad did win a title and although his reign only lasted three months that deserves credit and he is the current number one contender.

Stevenson fought for a title but in the end, he is just part of BJ Penn's highlight reel.

Best fight- Jorge Gurgel vs Jason Von Flue

Season 5 Penn Vs Pulver

Don't wag your finger at Nate Diaz. He. Doesn't. Like. That.

Season 5 of the Ultimate Fighter was a great season. The only bad part was watching Gabe Ruedigar try to cut weight. I did find that entertaining though. And I found it disgusting and an insult to hard workers everywhere.

When he laid naked on the floor saying, " BJ, BJ. Put me in BJ. I can do it, I can make weight!" That is one of the funniest moments in TUF history.

Also entertaining was the Penn vs Pulver ping-pong match. Now on the the talent of the fighters. The two main fighters that showed excellent talent and have grown as fighters were Gray Maynard and Manny Gamburyan. 

Maynard has an upcoming title fight against Frankie Edgar( Maynard already holds a victory over the champ and will be a slight favorite). 

Gamburyan just recently lost to champ and top 5 pound for pound fighter Jose Aldo by Knock Out in the second round. The main reason I choose this season over season 2 were the other fighters.

Nate Diaz for example, is only 25 years old and has very slick submissions and is training at one of the best camps in the world, Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

He has also, in my opinion, beat Maynard at UFC Fight Night 20 and has shown a lot of promise at 170.

Other talents include Joe Lauzon, Cole Miller, Matt Wiman, and, I'm ashamed to admit it, Gabe Ruedigar. After Joe Lauzon beat on Ruedigar, Gabe filed a rape charge and whined that Lauzon hit him too hard.

Best Fight- The street fight Marlon Simms vs Noah Thomas. Ended by Tko(cut) when Simms dropped Noah on concrete.

Season 1 Liddell Vs Couture

First champion to come from the Ultimate Fighter house

"So you wanna be a f****** fighter?"

If you don't think that season one was the most talented season of ultimate fighter you are dead wrong.

This show produced 5 people who have fought for titles(Koscheck included) and one who won his fight.

Forrest Griffin is definitely the most talented of this season. After winning the Ultimate Fighter he went 5-2. Then he fought number 1 ranked and current champion Mauricio Rua and won by rear naked choke.

Next he coached TUF 7 winning the season against Rampage Jackson. In his title fight he endured a tough first round before crippling Rampage with leg kicks.

After 3 more back and forth rounds he won a unanimous decision becoming the first ever TUF alumni to win a belt.                                                                                             

Other talents who fought for titles include Kenny Florian who recently lost to Gray Maynard in a decision.

Kenny's trademark elbows and "I finish fights" mentality have done him well as he is fought for the title twice, but he lost both times. Also on this season was the insane being that we call Diego Sanchez.

He is currently a top competitor at lightweight and welterweight and even fought for the Lightweight title but lost to Penn. Another TUF 1 alumni to coach TUF then fight the champion is of course current season bad boy Josh Koscheck.

Who can say he won't follow in Griffin's footsteps and dethrone the champ as a major underdog? Last but not least the man many people seem to forget, Nate Quarry.

A favorite to win the season, Nate was taken out by an ankle injury early but Dana respected him enough to allow him to stay on as an assistant coach. Nate fought Rich Franklin for the title and lost by KO in the first round.

The fighters listed above are enough to make this season the undisputed best. There are even more excellent fighters that made the season interesting.

Perhaps the next best of the other fighters is Chris Leben, one of my personal favorites. Known as the Original Bad Boy the Crippler is 11-5 in his UFC career with a 5 fight win streak before losing to P4P king Anderson Silva and recently winning two fights in two weeks.

Mike Swick also did well going 8-3, fighting for a No. 1 contender spot at welterweight but losing to Dan Hardy.

Stephan Bonnar is also a fan favorite recently snapping a losing streak and have two wars with Krzysztof Soszynski with one winning fight of the night.

Also just making this list is Alex Karalexis, who has had moderate success in the WEC going 6-5 altogether.

Best Fight- Griffin vs Bonnar without this fight the UFC would not be where it is today. Dana White has said many times that this is the most important fight in UFC history and it is one of the best ever.