The Ultimate Fighter has been a tremendous success story for the UFC throughout the years. At least a portion of the popularity they’re currently enjoying can be attributed directly back to the early seasons that featured current stars like Forrest Griffin, Diego Sanchez and Kenny Florian.
The show is still wildly entertaining at times, but for all the wrong reasons. It’s been many seasons since the show has produced an actual contender in the cage, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time soon. Watching season ten cast members Matt Mitrione, Marcus Jones and Kimbo Slice flounder around the cage with little knowledge as to what an effective transition is, you’re struck with the knowledge that time is probably running short on this reality experiment.
They’re scraping the bottom of the talent pool. Part of that can be attributed to the heavyweight division, a weight class that is severely lacking in true talent at all levels. But other weight classes will continue to be a problem as well, especially when Spike TV has such a huge hand in picking the cast of each season. Spike will always opt for entertainment value over fight skill. So even if there are some amazing talents to be found on the independent MMA scene, we probably won’t see them on the show because they’re not good enough as television characters.
It’s time to pull the plug, before the fans do it for you. There are better things the UFC can do with the time slot.