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BY JACOB DEBETS
AUG 16, 2019
The ordering process for Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-views has changed: UFC 241 is only available on ESPN+ in the U.S.
Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.
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UFC President Dana White has confirmed that “The Ultimate Fighter” -- the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s long-running reality series -- would return to airwaves in the near future. In a press scrum following Episode 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series, he praised the program as a vital tool for developing contenders and claimed it at a future for as long as he leads the organization:
“We’re going to switch some things around, do some things different, but I truly believe that ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ is so key in building young talent. This show is fun and guys come in, but what they have to go through with cameras in their face 24/7, being away from home, being away from their families and all the bulls----, hardcore training everyday with these dream camps that are [expletive] built, cutting weight, staying on weight … you’ll never go through anything harder than ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ It’s a big deal. When you come off ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ everybody knows who the hell you are immediately. When we just left Fox, the thing was still pulling big numbers. It was the highest-rated show for original programming on Fox the entire seven years we were there.”
Despite White’s insistence that “The Ultimate Fighter” still pulls “big numbers” on television -- an assertion that’s so patently false that reporters have stopped attempting to call him on it -- the news has been met with predictable apathy from fans and media. With 28 seasons over 15 years, not including international spinoffs, liters of ink have been spilled on opinion columns and forums advocating for the program to be euthanized. Citing consistently shrinking audiences, a tired format, a diluted talent pool, the dubious benefits of the team system in an era of super camps and a vastly more engaging alternative in the Contender Series, the prevailing opinion among commentators and hardcore fans is that it’s time to let “The Ultimate Fighter” go the way of pyrotechnic fighter-walkouts and Mike Goldberg.
However, these arguments, while absolutely correct in highlighting the limited appeal the reality show has for television viewers, ignore its enduring utility as an institution geared towards monopolizing the market for prospects and -- more instrumentally -- preaching the virtues of the UFC brand to its future workforce. Even while the number of fans and media who care about, much less watch or keep up with, “The Ultimate Fighter” has dropped precipitously, the aspiration of many prospects remains to get to the UFC via the TUF House. Although the depth of talent isn’t what it was back in the early seasons -- when multiple contestants went on to challenge for UFC titles -- legitimate and marketable fighters still show up to tryouts and enter the house. Once inside, the UFC exerts unfettered power to mold them into tractable and affordable foot soldiers, all the while extracting valuable intellectual property for their ancillary programming.
Read more at https://www.sherdog.com/news/articl...at-Keeps-Galloping-160183#8gk4edfQJs4L3qoe.99
