TUF- best & worst

[jimufctna24]

Keith Hackney was heavily rumoured to be a participant on TUF 4. I have a vague recollection of the Baroni rumours. The show in itself was good, but as I said on the previous page, I couldn't get over the stigma of knowing the results. It took away a lot of the suspense. However, by the end of the series, I was very happy that Serra was the finals. I also had a soft spot for Cote. Wand is correct in saying that the fans had come to expect feuding coaches during this period. I remember the complaints when the format was announced. 

 

TUF 2 didn't work out in terms of coaches. Hughes was an excellent choice to be one of the coaches. His all-round smugness made him a great panto villain. Franklin would have usually been an excellent choice to oppose him, as he was easy to root for. However, the pair were opposed to fighting one another. They were friends and occasional sparring partners. If Tanner would have beaten Franklin at UFC 53 for the vacant Middleweight title - he would have opposed Hughes instead. Hughes was open to challenging for the Middleweight title in 2005/2006 - and wanted to end his career as a double champion. Tanner was a fairly amicable guy, so it would have made for a better series if he coached against Hughes - leading up to their eventual fight. 

 

Hughes's plan to retire as double Champion was swatted again a year later. After Anderson beat Franklin in October of 2006 to win the Middleweight title - Hughes put his name forward as the next challenger. All he needed to do was beat GSP the following month to retain his Welterweight title. Sadly for Hughes, that didn't quite work out. 

[Egg Shen]

this thread is making me wanna bust out some old episodes

[wandshogun09]

I forgot all about the Hackney/TUF 4 rumours. I'd still love to see a TUF style show with a load of the SEG era fighters. I doubt the UFC would ever do it but I bet Bellator would. I'm not even gonna lie, in 2016 I'd rather a MMA reality show featuring Keith Hackney, Pat Smith, Don Frye and Tank Abbott than what TUF is these days.

 

Oh yeah, remember Karo Parisyan being a complete and utter bellend to Nate Diaz on TUF 5? "Bro, do you even know who I am?"

 

COCK.

[jimufctna24]

Oh yeah, remember Karo Parisyan being a complete and utter bellend to Nate Diaz on TUF 5? "Bro, do you even know who I am?"

Aye. He made Nate seem mild-mannered.

 

There were some right knobs on that season. In particular, Marlon, Noah, and Gabe. Not that I'm complaining, it was one of the best seasons. 

[wandshogun09]

I thought Nate came off as a really cool guy on TUF 5. On the whole anyway. He did have that 'gangsta' moment when Rob Emerson scribbled 'Suck it Team Pulver' on the wall but that was quickly forgotten when Manny Gamburyan completely upstaged him with his tantrum.

 

Nate was one of the cooler guys in the house though, I thought. So many of them seemed to have that small man syndrome but Nate seemed more laid back. And him getting on so well with Wayne Weems has to be one of the weirdest TUF friendships ever. He's always seemed a good guy to me actually. He's had his moments where he's come off like a right knob but he's been more good than bad. I thought he came across really well on Conan recently as well. He's a bit more up for having a bit of a joke than Nick and he's likeable when he's taken out of fight mode.

[jimufctna24]

I wanted either Nate or Wiman to win. 

 

Nate was quite laid back. He didn't really care which team he was going to be on, whereas most of the cast wanted to be on Team Penn. 

[Egg Shen]

TUF Latin America Season 3 has started to pretty much zero press...its over on Fight Pass.

[wandshogun09]

I'm rewatching TUF 6. And loving every second of it!

 

Just got to the bit where Matt Serra's finally had enough of Joey Scarola's bellyaching about missing his girlfriend.

 

"Alright guys, listen up. Guys get your sparring in, 'cause I see everybody wants to fucking be here. Alright? I'm going back to the house right now, and I'm sending a pussy home that wants to fucking talk to his girlfriend every day. How many of you guys have kids? You guys have kids? I know you do, you got a little girl, you have a fiancé. You're smiling like a motherfucker 'cause you wanna be here. All of you guys, man. I gotta go and deal with a bitch. You get your sparring on, and I'm kicking this guy the fuck off the show. Alright? So if you don't see that pretty fuck anymore it's his own doing. Alright? Motherfucker!"

Dana's 'Do you wanna be a fuckin' fighter' from TUF 1 gets all the praise but this was one of my favourite TUF outbursts. Scarola still manages to talk him round though. Before leaving anyway, the twat.

[jimufctna24]

They didn't really mend fences after the show. 

 

As for his relationship with Matt Serra, Joe says he’s seen him sporadically over the years. They say hello, but that’s about it. “It’s not the same as it was,” Joe says resignedly, “It won’t ever be the same. We lead two different lives now. We’ll always be friendly, but it’s sad because I was closer to him than anyone.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, they were close enough that Scarola was Serra's best man at his wedding.

 

Another TUF 6 quote. Dorian Price on his disappointment at losing his fight;

 

"The fact that I tapped out, that's probably discouraged me the most. I should've probably went to la-la land and had a nice little dream or something. Dream about some fat hookers. And a little Latino midget"

[jimufctna24]

Just checked the TUF 6 Wikipedia page. There's quite a few names that I don't remember - Billy Miles, John Kolosci, Paul Georgieff, and Matt Arroyo. I always remember Tommy Speer for getting knocked out cold by Rumble. 

 

I didn't remember Dorian Price at first. However, one of the episode descriptions noted that he clashed with crew members. That prompted my memory a bit better, I remember him now. 

[Gus Mears]

I only watched one series of TUF, which was the one with Tito and Ken (3?). In hindsight I wish I had bothered with it more, because I remember it being brilliant.

 

My memory is slightly hazy, but I recall Tito coming across as a really sound trainer and Ken was basically teaching Double J MMA. Just fuck loads of leg locks, no cardio, stuff like that. Unsurprisingly, Ken's team lost IIRC the first five matches and he started cracking up. About the only thing Ken won that season was a pool match against Tito.

 

It also featured some guy called Noah quitting because his girlfriend was worried that he'd have an affair. Leading to more Dana greatness along the lines of:

 

 

So he wants to go home because he got a letter from his girlfriend?...(laughs) I don't give a fuck!

[Egg Shen]

Didn't Matt Arroyo go on to be a successful author of some kind?

 

Im gonna have to go back and re-watch some TUF's.

[wandshogun09]

I didn't remember Dorian Price at first. However, one of the episode descriptions noted that he clashed with crew members. That prompted my memory a bit better, I remember him now.

Yeah, he had his bell rung in sparring and Team Hughes told him to sit out of that training session so he wouldn't take anymore damage. He was stressed about it and thought it made him look like a big wimp so, when he kept seeing the camera man filming him, he went a bit mad and started walking up on the camera crew. The camera guy was probably a 50 year old fat bloke called Clive. He must've shit his pants when some 6'4" (or whatever he was) fighter started coming at him aggressively for doing his job. Dana came to the gym to bollock Price for it and Price was on his best behaviour after that. I quite liked him apart from that.

 

 

He reminded me of Snoop Dogg, except he actually was hard. His voice and mannerisms were very Snoop-like though, I thought.

 

He had some really good Muay Thai but his ground game just wasn't up to par and Team Serra knew it and matched him with one of their best BJJ guys in Arroyo. Aside from threatening the crew, I thought he came off as a fairly good guy on the show. I think the whole TUF experience really got to him though. He seemed paranoid right from the start about when he was going to fight and who against. Then the thing with the camera crew. He was cracking up in there. Mac Danzig had to talk him out of quitting at one point.

 

I just looked him up and apparently he went back into Muay Thai after losing his fight at the finale and his next fight after that. He's helped train fighters as well. Didn't know he's good friends with Matt Brown and works with him a lot. You can see it actually in the way Brown's striking has developed over the years.

 

I remember he helped train Dustin Hazelett as well, leading into Hazelett's fight against Paul Daley in the UFC. I remember Price and Daley having digs at each other on the Countdown and it actually made me want to see them fight more than Daley vs Hazelett.

 

This could've gone in the Where Are They Now? thread actually.

[jimufctna24]

My memory is slightly hazy, but I recall Tito coming across as a really sound trainer and Ken was basically teaching Double J MMA. Just fuck loads of leg locks, no cardio, stuff like that. Unsurprisingly, Ken's team lost IIRC the first five matches and he started cracking up. About the only thing Ken won that season was a pool match against Tito.

Shamrock's training was that crap that the UFC occasionally brought in their own coaches to train Shamrock's squad. There was an episode where Shamrock doesn't turn up for a session - for reasons that are never explained.  He also walked out on a session if I recall correctly. 

 

Ken is meant to be a class act away from the cage, but TUF 3 was an anomaly for him.