The UFC president spoke with Yahoo Sports MMA contributor Ben Fowlkes on what makes the series so compelling.
Video Transcript
Dana, one of the things that I’ve wondered, as I’ve been watching the Contender series over the years is, it seems like what it’s doing is more or less what you originally set out to do with the ultimate fighter, you know, kind of creating a, a contest system to win a UFC contract.
And it seems like to those of us who have been watching a lot of the ultimate fighter seasons over the years and years and years of it, the contender series does it a little more efficiently and you get straight to the fights.
Makes me wonder a little bit, why not, why continue doing the ultimate fighter?
Why not just do more contender series fights and, and get the same result?
Yeah.
No, it’s, it’s, it’s a great question.
Uh, the reason is because the, uh, you know, people still like tough.
I mean, during a season of tough, I still have like a loyal fan base of people that will hit me up and tell me that they, that they love the ultimate fighter.
The network still loves it so we still do it.
Um, you know, I wish listen to me.
So the Contender series was created for the same reason.
Tough was to, to take talent that, you know, uh that, that nobody’s heard about, nobody knows, cultivate it, get people to care about them and turn them into stars.
So if you take Tough, the Contender series and looking for a fight, they all accomplish the same goals.
But in different ways, I, if there was enough young up and coming talent out there, I wish we could do this every Tuesday for 52 weeks a year.
I love this show so much.
Like yesterday I up and, and I thought yesterday was Tuesday.
So I was excited like all morning, like I can’t wait to see the contender tonight and then realized it was Monday.
And uh yeah, so that’s how I feel today.
I love the contender series.
One of my, if you’re a fight fan, literally even have this much of a fight fan in you.
It’s the best show on television, period.
End of story.
Well, one difference it seems between the way the contender series works and the ultimate fighter works is the ultimate fighter is a tournament.
You win all the fights through it.
You end up as the ultimate fighter in the end and you get the contract.
The contender series is a little more amorphous.
They’re trying to impress you and the matchmakers.
I wonder how you balance.
Hey, we wanna get exciting guys.
They know we’re expecting certain kinds of fights but then I would assume you don’t want to put your thumb on the scale too much to where you only get certain types of fighters or guys fighting away from their strengths trying to impress you guys.
Well, here’s, here’s the two different types of guys.
So 22 tipping um things that you results that you get from both different shows.
So I’m the ultimate fighter.
It is a pressure cooker for these guys.
They’re living in the house away from their families and their teams in their camps, cameras in their faces 24 7.
Um You get different results by the end of tough, it’s almost like uh hardcore media training, you know, with these guys.
Plus for you, the fans, you get to see their personalities, their ups and downs, you learn more about them than on the contender series.
There’s a brief little, I don’t even, I have no idea who’s on the show tonight.
I don’t, I don’t wanna know anything about these guys what they’ve done before, who they train with.
I don’t know until we get there.
There’s a little book in front of me and I get to see and I write my notes.
Um And these guys have to come in.
I I don’t care what you did before.
Show me right here right now who you are right?
So we, we end up getting unbelievable fights.
Um So you get two different types of results from the fighters that go through these two different experiences and both are good.
