The Ultimate Fighter: Power-Ranking Former Coaches

As season 14 of The Ultimate Fighter comes to head, it gives us a chance to look back on not only the former winners, but also the former coaches.

The show parades itself as being focused on the fighters, but for the majority of fans, the focus is on their two coaches.

Some of the coaches have been very hands-on and informative, while others have taken the spotlight and put it on themselves.

While the final contestants from Season 14 will compete Saturday to determine another Ultimate Fighter winner, the coaches of Seasons 1-14 throw down now to decide who is.....the next....Ultimate Coach.

21. Ken Shamrock

Ken Shamrock is going to get a lot of competition from Quinton "Rampage" Jackson for "Worst Coach Ever."

Shamrock couldn't do anything right and his team disintegrated more and more each week. When you're one practice away from a team mutiny, you know you're doing a bad job.

He tried to win the guys over by giving them some extra rest, but when his fighters lost he blamed them for getting lazy.

Shamrock was supposed to be the good guy entering Season 3 opposite of Tito Ortiz, but by the time the show was over, Shamrock had effectively switched roles with Ortiz.

Shamrock also made a silly mistake by choosing to bring on a dietitian instead of another stand-up or grappling coach.

20. Quinton Jackson

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson appeared as a coach twice. The first was when he was scheduled to defend his light-heavyweight title against Forrest Griffin and the other was against rival, Rashad Evans.

Although "Rampage" provided us with plenty of laughs, he was a terrible coach.

Most of his fighters lost in his tenure as coach, and Jackson decided to pick Kimbo Slice as his first choice in the heavyweights season instead of some other more qualified fighters.

A sort of embarrassing moment was when Jackson said he would bet his entire paycheck that his fight with Griffin wouldn't go to a decision.

19. Chuck Liddell

Chuck Liddell coached opposite Randy Couture in Season One and against long time rival Tito Ortiz in Season 11.

Liddell was brought on along with Couture in Season One to draw in casual fans who may not have followed MMA, but still knew who both men were.

In Season 13, Liddell (and Ortiz, for that matter) were brought in to help generate ratings and interest. Both he and Ortiz were nowhere near relevant in the light-heavyweight division, and many fans didn't even care for a third fight between the two.

On set, Liddell seemed to do very little coaching himself. He helped out when necessary but for the most part he let his coach, John Hackleman, do the coaching for him.

It was probably a smart move by "The Iceman" but if the UFC wanted Hackleman in the spotlight, they should have just invited him.

18. Randy Couture

"The Natural" Randy Couture appeared on Season One of the Ultimate Fighter.

He, along with Chuck Liddell, was almost as instrumental in gaining fans for that season as the contestants themselves.

The two men had big drawing power in that time frame and no doubt drew a lot of casual fans' interest.

With Couture, we didn't get to see the mastermind at work. Couture is regarded as one of the best game-planners in the business, but we saw very little of him devising strategic plans.

17. Jens Pulver

Jens Pulver, along with B.J. Penn, helped the return of the lightweights in Season 5 of The Ultimate Fighter.

Penn did everything he could during the season to rattle Pulver, but the latter stayed calm and collective.

When the majority of fighters raised their hands indicating they wanted to be on Team Penn, Pulver pushed it to the side and, instead, focused on coaching what guys were drafted to his team.

Pulver didn't bring any special qualities when he coached, but he was very down-to-earth with his guys and appeared to have effective communication between them.

16. Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar was brought on as a coach for Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter for two reasons: to promote his fight and to get ratings.

Lesnar failed miserably at both. He was once one of the more outspoken guys in the MMA, but he seemed to have toned it down for the TUF filming crew.

Many fans felt Lesnar could do well in a coaching role given his vast background in wrestling, but those hopes failed to materialize into anything more than chicken salad.

Or was it something else?

15. Matt Hughes

Matt Hughes has made two coaching appearances on The Ultimate Fighter. His first was on Season 2 and his other was against rival Matt Serra on Season 6.

Season 6 was arguably one of the more forgettable seasons as far as the fighters are concerned.

But the back-and-forth between Hughes and Serra would provide for some quality television. It was clear both men disliked each other, and every time Hughes would give off that cocky image, Serra was right there to try and bring him back to Earth.

Unfortunately, the bout was heavily delayed, but at least we finally got to see the conclusion to their rivalry.

14. Matt Serra

Matt "The Terror" Serra was making his second appearance on the show in Season Six. He had appeared and won Season Four, but was coming back to coach against heated rival Matt Hughes.

Serra did his best to try to focus on training his guys but his hatred of Hughes would lead to the show being more focused on the two coaches rather than the fights themselves.

If you've ever watched any videos of Serra at his gym or heard him speak about the sport, you know he is a very knowledgeable guy, but it just didn't come off that way given his constant focus on Hughes..

13. Rich Franklin

Rich "Ace" Franklin coached opposite of Matt Hughes in Season Two and came on as a late replacement for Tito Ortiz in Season 11.

Franklin's first appearance on The Ultimate Fighter saw him coaching against Hughes, but the two did not fight each other after the season.

"Ace" did have a moment of brilliance with coaching in Season Two, as he forfeited a challenge in order to save his fighters. Team Hughes' fighters were exhausted after going first, and Franklin decided it was better to save his fighters' strength than attempt to win a team challenge.

Franklin brought something different to the table with his appearances on the show. He didn't have a great amateur background, and was for all intents and purposes an "average guy."

His background in teaching is well known and it is probably why Franklin was one of the better coaches at teaching the younger guys and communicating effectively with them.

12. B.J. Penn

B.J. Penn's appearance on The Ultimate Fighter helped bring back the lightweight division into the UFC.

He coached opposite his rival Jens Pulver in Season Five.

Penn's coaching was very good, but there were a few moments that showed Penn wasn't ready to be a coach.

When one of his teammates was left in tears following a loss, Penn chose to "leave him behind" and said that if his fighter had listened, Penn would be more caring.

There's a time to be harsh, but given that a fighter's dream had just ended, the time wasn't then.

11. Frank Mir

Frank Mir is considered a knowledgeable guy when it comes to MMA. If you've ever heard him talk or do color commentary, it's clear Mir knows a lot about the sport.

Unfortunately, Mir didn't shine as a coach in the way most people thought he would.

He did a good job of staying out of the pranks and house tension that came about during Season Eight, but his failure as a coach was highlighted by Junie Browning.

In Browning's match against Efrain Escudero, Mir noticeably sat quietly by during the second round that saw Browning finished with a D'Arce choke.

Mir explained that he didn't give instructions because Browning wouldn't listen and is not a cheerleader. Regardless of if a fighter listens or not, a coach shouldn't stoop to that level and leave their fighter out to dry.

10. Forrest Griffin

Forrest Griffin coached opposite Quinton "Rampage" Jackson on Season Seven and is also the TUF winner from Season 1.

As a coach, Griffin was able to bring a unique perspective to the show, as he had already gone through what many of the contestants had gone through.

Griffin never displayed any characteristics of being a "great coach," but he wasn't terrible either. He was able to be his normal joking self and still maintained a level of seriousness, especially when Rampage was around.

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira made a lot of good impressions in Season Eight.

He proved to be an excellent coach, and attempted to teach the young and brash fighters about the discipline that one would expect a life-long martial artists to have.

He also spoke fairly well given that his English is not always the best. A lot of people get annoyed with foreign fighters having to be subtitled, but "Big Nog" showed his English is good.

8. Rashad Evans

Rashad Evans became one of the more disliked fighters from the moment he won The Ultimate Fighter as a heavyweight, and that thinking was only reinforced by coaching against fan favorite Rampage Jackson in Season 10.

Evans did his best to control his ego, and it worked out for the most part as he was the calm and collected one compared to Rampage's emotional outbursts.

He didn't really need to coach, as he brought arguably the sport's best coach, Greg Jackson, with him. Evans was there for his teammates, and talked about things such as who would be chosen to fight with his team, which more than likely indicates that he could be a good coach if given the opportunity.

7. Michael Bisping

Michael Bisping first gained notoriety with MMA fans when he became one of the first foreign fighters to appear on The Ultimate Fighter.

His coaching stint against Dan Henderson firmly branded him as one of MMA's bad boys. He came across as very cocky and was never short on ways to try and piss off either Henderson or his team.

He continued his arrogant ways against Jason "Mayhem" Miller in Season 14 of the show.

Bisping had issues in both seasons with showing up for his guys' fights, and seemingly provided no explanations other than "I'm sorry," which didn't sit well with a lot of his guys.

Like most fighters who are egotistical, though, once we got past all the arrogance, Bisping actually showed he could be a good coach and keep his fighters from getting too much out of control.

6. Dan Henderson

Dan Henderson had a lot riding on his shoulders in Season Nine of The Ultimate Fighter.

Not only did he want to win the team competition and coach his fighters to the finale, but he also had the backing of the entire United States as he coached against British bad boy Michael Bisping.

Hendo didn't really come across as being a great coach, but I'm sure he parlayed some of his wrestling knowledge to the fighters.

He also did a good job of not letting Bisping get to him throughout the taping of the show, and waited until UFC 100 to get his revenge.

5. Josh Koscheck

Josh Koscheck became an overnight sensation when he played the villain role in Season One of The Ultimate Fighter. Since then, Kos has managed to make it easy for fans to hate him, and had no trouble being the bad guy when coaching against Georges St-Pierre.

Koscheck's wealth of wrestling knowledge was easy to see and coaching seemed to come a little more naturally to him, due to his coaching experience at the University of Buffalo.

Like St-Pierre, Kos didn't really need to do a lot of coaching considering the assistant coaches he brought were "who's who"s of MMA coaches.

4. Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre was a guest coach during Season Four and appeared as a full time coach during Season 12.

GSP didn't really need to do a lot of coaching, given that his assistants were some of the best coaching staff ever assembled. He chose to instead work out with his team and provide a more hands-on style of feedback.

It seemed to work very well and will probably be used by future coaches, given the changes in the format of The Ultimate Fighter.

3. Junior Dos Santos

Junior dos Santos was supposed to be the quiet, nice guy compared to the loud Brock Lesnar.

It seemed like the two switched roles as dos Santos was the more vocal of coaches. He was always seen joking around with his team and seemed to help gel the team together.

The ratings (if there were any for this season) seemed to come from dos Santos rather than Lesnar. Dos Santos and assistant coach Lew Polley regularly disagreed on things, which eventually led to Polley being removed from the show by dos Santos himself.

2. Tito Ortiz

Tito Ortiz pulled off a miracle in Season Three of The Ultimate Fighter. He went from being the most hated fighter in the world to winning over a lot of fans.

He appeared to drop the asshole gimmick and instead focused on helping his guys the best he could. Perhaps it was because Ken Shamrock was just that bad of a coach, but Ortiz looked like the good guy in Season Three.

Yet as good as he was that season, Ortiz was just as bad in Season 11. His coaching was still top-notch, but there was more focus on his match-up with Chuck Liddell—something we all knew wasn't going to happen.

And if I ever have to hear Ortiz say, "Up up up up!" ever again, it will be too soon.

1. Jason Miller

Given the fact that Jason "Mayhem" Miller has one of the wildest personalities in the MMA, many fans expected him to be bouncing off the wall for the entire season.

What we got was the exact opposite. Mayhem managed to keep a cool head, and showed everyone that behind all the craziness was a guy who actually knew a lot about the sport.

He managed to make guys laugh and work hard at the same time, not an easy thing to do.

And he got his team compression suits, a pretty nice gift from a coach you just met.