The UFC's new partnership with Fox promises to not only bring new opportunities for the fighters but also to breath new life into a stagnant Ultimate Fighter Product. While at the press conference this past Thursday some details were released on the updated format, FX and the UFC have released the above video which provides some more details about Season 15 of the Ultimate Fighter. The video also shows some of the highlights of this upcoming season. I wasn't able to put any names to the faces but from what they show, the fights look to be exciting.
Field of 32 Fight to get onto the show: We've seen this before but due to time constraints on Spike, most of the opening fights came in the form of highlight packages. Season 15 will start with a live two hour long episode where fans will be treated to 16 fights. How they will fit 16 fights in 2 hours is anyone's guess but that's awesome news.
Fans vote on match ups: Yes, this is kind of shtick-y since who really knows how much input fans will actually have. If fans do have the opportunity to vote on the weekly fights, that's a great way to prevent the squash matches we've sometimes seen. I'm most interest in this aspect of the new show since we know that the Spike producers often had final say in all fights.
Episodes will feature highlights of the week: While the fights will be live, there will be a portion of the episode that will be a taped package of the week in the TUF house. Fans will see what's happened in and outside of training but the packages appear to be more training focused.
Live Fights: Awesome. Since they are live, my understanding is that they are counted towards an overall record. No more exhibition fights, these will matter for a fighter's career.
Post Fight: We've seen the random outbursts if they've been good for TV in the past. Future seasons promise to show what kind of emotion these guys deal with coming off of wins and losses. It's something that we've rarely seen in combat sports and will be a refreshing way to humanize the athletes.
HT: Chris Groves