“What I eventually want to do is do The Ultimate Fighter in all these different countries. We’ll kick it off at the same time and then the winner of those countries will then fight the winners of the other countries. So it almost becomes the World Cup and you end up with one winner worldwide.” – UFC president Dana White
White revealed at last night’s UFC on Fuel TV 2 post-fight press conference that he is getting closer and closer to realizing that goal.
The UFC kicked off the first international version of The Ultimate Fighter recently with TUF: Brazil and, considering the program’s massive success, the promotion is already developing other international versions of their flagship reality show.
“Well, the next Ultimate Fighter that we’re working on, whichever one ends up going first, is going to be India,” White said. “We’re doing one in Australia which will probably be Australia vs. the U.K.. Doing Canada, doing the Phillipines, I think, and god knows whatever else pops up over the next couple of months.
“We’re really rolling right now on The Ultimate Fighter. The one in Brazil is a huge success.”
Currently, The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil airs simultaneously with The Ultimate Fighter: Live, the newly revamped Stateside version of the show. No word yet on what format the other international versions will adopt, or on which fighters might be tapped for coaching duty.
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This would be great
The greatest plan ever! this will bring countless more incredible fighters to the UFC, give the UFC and mma in general tons more publicity, and bring the level of competition to a brand new level! only downside is I don’t know if i have the time to watch like 8 seasons of TUF at once :)
I agree cody, I love this plan, but being able to follow all the seasons at once would prove very challenging to most of of us. BUT, I think one of the advantages of doing this would be all the countries where these TUF shows are taped will be super excited to see how their shows winner does in the “world cup”. I’m picking the winner of the Canadian TUF show as the guy to win it all :) and that’s not just because I’m Canadian :)
I think it’s time for UFC to have their own TV station so i can stop guessing where all these shows will be airing…i would gladly pay a reasonable monthly bill to watch.
Agreed!
That’s a clear example of “thinking out of the box”.
guess he could use ufc.com
I’ve seen this before… a bunch of fighters from different regions of the world coming to fight each other. ” Round 1, FIGHT!”
Or better yet one of the fighters isn’t who he says he is and is only going to steal a giant cold dragon statue only to get caught and for his life he has to win the tournament.