The Ultimate Fighter Season 5

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Contents

Background

The Ultimate Fighter Season 5 (aka The Ultimate Fighter 5 or TUF 5) is the fifth season of the reality TV show, "The Ultimate Fighter". It premiered on Spike TV on April 5th, 2007.

The show featured 16 lightweight (155 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 heated rivals BJ Penn and Jens Pulver.

The finale was broadcast live on Spike TV on June 23rd, 2007 and featured the finalists facing off against each other for the six figure UFC contract. The card was headlined by the grudge match between both coaches, Penn and Pulver.

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

Cast

Fighters

Team Penn:

Team Pulver:


Coaches and Trainers

Team Penn:

Team Pulver:

Host

Format

Choosing Teams

TUF 5 shared a similar team selection method as season 3. After a fighter evaluation period coaches Penn and Pulver would choose a fighter one at a time for their team. The only difference being this season, there was only one divsision to choose fighters from.

Confusion arose during the selection process when Penn asked any fighter who didn't want anything with Team Pulver to raise their hand. After the majority of fighters raised their hands both coaches were all for the idea of making the teams decided by that question. UFC president, and show host, Dana White had none of it however and made the coaches choose teams how it had been done for the first three seasons.

Picking the Fights

The way fights were chosen stayed the same as TUF 3 and TUF 4 with a coin toss deciding the team who got to choose the first fight. From there, matchmaking duties were decided by the team who won the last fight.

Tournament Structure

TUF 5 featured for the first time a structured 16-man tournament. The tournament consisted of four elimination rounds where a fighter would have to win four times over the course of the show and the live finale to be declared the "Ultimate Fighter".

Fight Results

Episode 1

  • After some initial gamesmanship by BJ Penn, both coaches pick their teams.
  • Team Pulver has control and chooses Cole Miller to face Allen Berube in their first preliminary fight. Miller defeats Berube via submission (triangle choke) in round 1.

Episode 2

  • Having retained matchmaking duties, Team Pulver selects Manny Gamburyan to face Noah Thomas. After knocking Thomas down, Gamburyan secures a vicious looking kimura to force the tap early in the first round.

Episode 3

  • For the third preliminary bout, Team Pulver's Nate Diaz selects Rob Emerson. In a high quality fast paced bout, Diaz proves victorious via submission (rear-naked choke) in round 2.

Episode 4

  • Team Pulver selects Brandon Melendez to face Andy Wang. Completely disregarding Penn's advice and gameplan, Wang decides to stand with the superior striker Melendez instead of utilizing his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Wang gets picked apart on the way to unanimous decision loss. Penn is furious and Wang is inexplicably in tears.

Episode 5

  • Team Pulver selects Corey Hill to fight the weight troubled Gabe Ruediger. After an epic and hilarious struggle to make weight, Ruediger is taken to the hospital for IV fluids at 159 lbs.. Ruediger is kicked off the show and Rob Emerson takes his place.
  • As a result of Ruediger's antics, Team Penn is penalized with Dana White awarding Team Pulver the next two fight picks regardless of fight results. Pulver selects Brian Geraghty to fight Joe Lauzon and Corey Hill to fight Rob Emerson.

Episode 6

Episode 7

Episode 8

  • After a drunken in-house argument between Noah Thomas and Marlon Sims, they come to blows in what was described by Nate Diaz as, "the most technical street fight I have ever seen". The whole time being encouranged by Allen Berube, the stouche ends with Thomas locking up an arm bar and Sims spiking his head onto the concrete. The next day, Dana White learns of the fight and kicks both Thomas and Sims out of the house, as well as Berube for instigating it.
  • In the planned fight for the episode, Joe Lauzon defeats Cole Miller via TKO in the second round. Lauzon was penalized early in the second round for strikes to the back of the head which clearly dazed Miller. Miller continued, albeit groggily, but was stopped shortly thereafter.

Episode 9

Episode 10

Episode 11

  • In the first semi-final, Manny Gamburyan shocked the house by taking a unanimous decision over Joe Lauzon to move into the finale.

Episode 12

  • In the final episode before the finale, Nate Diaz submits Gray Maynard via submission (guillotine choke) in the second round in an excellent fight to move on to fight Manny in the finale.

The Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale

  • In the final of The Ultimate Fighter 5 lightweight tournament Nate Diaz defeats Manny Gamburyan via submission due to injury. Gamburyan dislocated his shoulder in a takedown attempt earning Diaz the victory and the six figure contract with the UFC.

Ratings

Ratings for this season of TUF continued to droop as TUF 5 brought in an overall rating of 1.18.

In the male 18-34 demographic this season scored a 1.6.

TUF Chronology

Preceded by: The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback

Followed by: The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra

External Links

--Sam Cupitt 12:42, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

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