The Ultimate Fighter 9 “US vs. UK” To Feature Welterweights and Middleweights
During last night’s Spike TV broadcast of UFC Fight Night 15 UFC announcer Mike Goldberg revealed that the UFC has begun its search for fighters for the ninth installment of The Ultimate Fighter reality series.
The Ultimate Fighter 9 will feature welterweights (170 pounds) and middleweights (185 pounds) in a United States versus United Kingdom format.
Auditions for the series will take place on October 20th in London, England and on October 27th in Chicago, Illinois.
The coaches for the show have not yet been announced, though popular British middleweight Michael Bisping, the winner of the The Ultimate Fighter 3’s light heavyweight tournament, is highly likely to be involved with the series.
The Ultimate Fighter 9 will begin filming later this year or in early-2009 for an anticipated April 2009 debut.
what about something like dan henderson vs. bisping as coaches, then they fight for no. 1 contender….
…thought, comments, suggestions
if bisping handles leben then ya, i’d be cool with that idea. i have absolutely no problem with hendo wipin the floor with bisping.
i do anticipate this bein a really good season and i’m sure it will start up quite a few conversations on this site about how much better the US is than UK, hahaha. just playin guys, can’t wait though.
Nate Quarry would be a good coach, but I don’t think it would make much of a fight. Bisping would rock him bad. Rich Franklin would also be interesting, and would be a huge step up in competition for Bisping. If he get through Leben (which I think he will do) it would be a great step up to really get him in title contention.
well rich is fight at 205 now, and he’s already been a coach on the show (twice if you count his cameo on the comeback season) i agree i would like to see those two fight at 185, but i bet dana and the ufc want something new
The thing is this is bad news for Bisping. Clearly after he wipes the mat with Leben he will have to fight someone else before he fights Anderson Silva. I expected him to be #1 contender after Oct. 18th but I guess he’ll have to fight for it.
A win over Leben does not make a fighter number 1 contender. He would have to beat someone else for a shot at Silva anyways.
I can’t think of anyone who could coach the U.S. team other than Hendo or Nate Marquardt, but from what I hear, those two are supposed to fight for the #1 rematch contender spot. Maybe the plan is to have the winner of Hendo/Marquardt coach against Bisping (so long as he beats Leben, which isn’t guaranteed.) If Bisping loses to Leben, it won’t make TUF 9 look too solid to have Bisping as a coach. I bet the Dana is keeping his fingers crossed for Bisping @ UFC 89.
@ justin
if brock can fight for a belt, bisping can fight for a CHANCE to fight for a belt…
@mburtoni
i wouldnt think that hendo and marquardt would have time to fight and coach before this year, if they’re gonna start filming before 2009
….i just re read justins post, and if he beats leben i was saying him and hendo fight for number one contender…and then somehow we fit marquardt into this…..battle royale
Can anyone tell me when in the hell Hendo as actually fought? if Bisping beats Leben there’s no reason in hell he shouldn’t be fighting Nate for a title shot… Everyone can say what they want about Mike but the guy is so exciting to watch he just doesnt look to score points like ugly ass hammel with is gay ass takedowns he looks to push the pace and end it!
I could that putting him in position to fight for #1. My post was directed at Tmoney.
I could see…**
Leo,
Hendo just fought and beat Palhares.
hendo fought palhares two weeks ago and dominated…and the only reason he was brought up is because we needed an american coach for the show and that was a pretty good one and since the last show had title implications for the coaches, figured this one might as well, and while im not an expert on coaching experience hendo seems like the better pick than nate…and we just gave bisping the job because he’s the only english fighter worth a damn (kidding) ((kinda))
Even though he’s canadian what about st pierre? He’s looking to move up a weight class and go after silva anyway… bisping vs. st pierre, the winner gets silva?
No offense to my UK friends, but I don’t like bisping and hope that Leben KO’s him flat out. He has zero chance against Silva, but then again, Cote is getting a title shot. I still think Henderson has a good chance of beating Silva. I know… I know… Silva submitted him before, but Henderson is such a good fighter that I think he can still beat Silva in a rematch.
I don’t like the USA vs UK format. I’d have to root for the USA and there might be guys that I’d rather see lose. Conversley, I’d have to root against the UK even though they might have some fighters that I favor… I’m in a bad position here as who I should root for… dangit…
IF Bisping beats Leben, I can see Hendo fighting Marquardt @ UFC 92 and the winner will be the U.S. coach. However, no offense to all you Brits, but Bisping actually is the most relevant English fighter at the moment. If he loses to Leben, then the UFC might decide to use a non-British fighter as the coach for the UK team. In that case, the coaches wouldn’t necessarily have to be middleweights and could therefore be anyone.
southcakalak,
u read my mind. i said the same thing when i read this, yeah hendo vs. bisping. one on hand, i would like for hendo to SMASH the gay count but on the other hand, i would like to see silva put the gay count OUT OF COMMISSION!!!
bisping is the gay count.
bisping sucks.
bisping likes boys.
USA! USA! USA! USA!
you could always make ross pointon the english coach
@ MMAFan,
HOW CAN U SAY BISPING WOULD ROCK NATE QUARRY??? did u not see quarry’s fight against pete sell? don’t get me wrong, pete sell isn’t too great, but the damage quarry took in that fight and the power he had left to put pete sell on his ARSE is crazy! bisping would see his first loss at MW against “the rock” if not leben first.
@MMAFAN,
i just read your other post regarding GSP and i must apologize for calling u out in my last post…IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS UR ON CRACK IF U THINK BISPING DESERVES TO FIGHT THE LIKES OF GSP!!!
Kelvin,
What did Bisping’s wife do to deserve you calling her a man, or even a boy for that matter?
Kelvin,
C’mon man… Stop soft soaping it… Tell us how you really feel. Do you like bisping or not?
so….
….nobody thought Ross “The Gladiator” Pointon was a good idea……guys?
dont let his 6-10 record fool you
Ross Pointon is a good punching bag. I don’t see him as being a contender anytime in the near future… or any future. He’s a game fighter and I like the fact that he’ll go in against whoever they put in front of him, but whoever that is usually wins.
Anyway, Ross Pointon isn’t listed in the UFC. I think he’s out.
lol
I saw on another page that Pointon was fighting in Cage Rage.
guys…just kidding about pointon…he’s garbage
i thought my sarcasm was coming thru loud and clear