The Ultimate Fighter Season 1

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Contents

Background

The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 (aka The Ultimate Fighter 1 or TUF 1) premiered on Spike TV on January 18, 2005.

The show featured 8 light heavyweight (205 lbs.) and 8 middleweight (185 lbs.) mixed martial artists who were situated in a mansion outside of Las Vegas and forced to train and fight against one another as a part of two teams coached by Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell.

The finale was broadcast live on Spike TV on April 9th, 2005 and featured the finalists from each weight class facing off for the six figure UFC contract. The event was headlined by a main event of Ken Shamrock vs. Rich Franklin.

The show consisted of 12 taped episodes and the live finale.

Cast

Fighters

Team Couture:

Team Liddell:

Coaches

Hosts

Format

Choosing Teams

Teams were chosen by both coaches after a two day skills evaluation. Fighters were chosen one at a time their respective coach.

Before the elimination fights, "challenges" were run in both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions to decide which team had to send the least skilled fighter in their weight division home. Team Couture lost both challenges, and Couture chose to send home Jason Thacker and Chris Sanford.

Picking the Fights

The way fights were chosen varied slightly from episode to episode. For the majority of the episodes the team that won that episode's challenge was allowed to pick the fight with the variable being that sometimes the fighter that placed last in the challenge would have to fight regardless.

Tournament Structure

TUF 1 had a very relaxed tournament structure where a fighter could be called on to fight at any time provided they hadn't already lost a fight. Fighters would be eliminated until there were only four fighters left in each weight class. Because of this method both light heavyweights, Sam Hoger and Mike Swick as well as middleweight, Kenny Florian made it to the semi finals without having won a fight.

Places in the finale were decided by "team mate vs. team mate" semi final match-ups.

Fight Results

Episode 1

  • No fights this episode, as teams were chosen by both coaches.

Episode 2

  • No fights again this episode, however both Jason Thacker and Chris Sanford were sent home by Randy Couture inconjuction with Team Couture losing both middleweight and light heavyweight challenges.

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

  • As a result of the previous episode, Leben and Koscheck were made to face off in order to solve their feud. Koscheck defeated Leben via unanimous decision after two uneventful rounds.

Episode 7

  • Josh Rafferty is sent to Team Couture in an effort to keep the teams balanced.
  • Couture chooses Stephan Bonnar to face Bobby Southworth after Team Couture wins the light heavyweight challenge. Bonnar defeats Southworth via split decision after two rounds.

Episode 8

  • Nate Quarry is eliminated from the competition due to his ankle injury, but stays on the show as an assistant coach. Quarry chooses Leben as his replacement.
  • Team Couture wins the middleweight challenge and chooses Josh Rafferty to fight Diego Sanchez. Sanchez defeats Rafferty via TKO at 1.48 of round 1.

Episode 9

  • Team Liddell wins the light heavyweight challenge and selects Forrest Griffin to fight Alex Schoenauer. Griffin defeats Schoenauer via submission (strikes) at 1.20 of round 1.
  • Kenny Florian is sent to Team Couture to balance the teams.

Episode 10

  • In the first middleweight semi-final, Kenny Florian defeats Team Couture team mate, Chris Leben via TKO (cuts) at 3.11 of the second round after Florian opened up Leben above the eye with an elbow.

Episode 11

  • In the second middleweight semi-final, Diego Sanchez defeats Josh Koscheck via split decision after three rounds to move on and face Florian in the final.

Episode 12

  • In the first light heavyweight semi-final, Forrest Griffin defeats Sam Hoger by TKO at 1.05 of round 2.
  • In the second light heavyweight semi-final, Stephan Bonnar defeats Mike Swick via submission (triangle/arm bar) at 4.55 of the first round.

The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale

  • In the middleweight final, Diego Sanchez defeats Kenny Florian by TKO at 2.49 of round 1 to become The Ultimate Fighter 1 middleweight champion.
  • In the light heavyweight final, Forrest Griffin defeats Stephan Bonnar by unanimous decision after three rounds. The fight was an all out war that netted both fighters a six figure contract with the UFC.

Ratings

The Ultimate Fighter 1 drew an average weekly viewership rating of 1.6 with a 2.2 rating in Male 18-34 demographic.

The Ultimate Finale drew a rating of 1.9 with viewers tuning in by the thousands for every passing round of the Griffin vs. Bonnar war.

TUF Chronology

Followed by: The Ultimate Fighter Season 2

External Links


--Sam Cupitt 05:45, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

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