TV/Sports: The Ultimate Fighter - Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest

Just got around to watching the season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter...and boy did they come out swinging.

Usually they start with 16 fighters, put them through some training, and then the coaches for each team take turns drafting.

This time they started with 32 fighters. Last night's episode and the next episode are nothing but 16 fights eliminating half of the dudes right off the bat. TIIIIIIGHT.

The coaches this season are Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Forrest Griffin.



These elimination fights were produced brilliantly. They set Rampage, Forrest and Dana White up at small table close to the octagon...all three were miked. They also had the standard ambient mic up, so you hear the regular fight sounds as well as the commentary from the other three.

The 32 guys came in having to weigh in w/i 24 hours and fight w/i 48. This was also a cool element because there were so many guys and so little time that it seems that they all went into their fight knowing little or nothing about their opponents. Thus, they couldn't really prepare for the fight, and that led to some pretty entertaining clashes of fighting styles.

Spike is airing the premiere episode (the first eight fights) and the next episode (the next eight fights) back-to-back this upcoming Wednesday, April 9th starting at 9pm EST.

For the new episode, they're promising the most extreme knock-out the show has ever had...apparently a dude gets wheeled out on a stretcher.

Set your DVRs, a-holes.

Here's the trailer.