Season 9 off TUF had around 700 try outs. Now, as the UFC is hosting try outs for the upcoming season 11 of TUF, they are seeing numbers between 200 and 300. Despite Dana White’s perplexity over the issue, perhaps TUF is finally starting to go the way of the buffalo.
Season 10 has seen dramatic ratings spikes from other recent seasons. This can almost entirely be attributed to the fact that Kimbo Slice is a current cast member. Despite this recent flare up, TUF is still a tired design that show cases less than spectacular talent in a format that is essentially MTV’s Real World with fighters gassing out and showing terrible performances against each other at the end of each episode.
I admit I still keep up with the show, but purely from the stand point of sick fascination. If the fighters themselves are becoming disinterested in showing for TUF it can only mean a few things:
– There are plenty of opportunities elsewhere. Major organizations like Strikeforce, DREAM, Sengoku, Bellator, MFC and DEEP are offering the UFC negligible challenges when it comes to viewership ratings, however, their main opposition comes in the form of stealing away potential fighters.
– The fighters themselves are wary of being portrayed in the way that TUF is known for portraying people. TUF is particularly negative in its portrayal of fighters and coaches alike. Unless you have something to give the UFC in terms of personality or amazing fighting skills, it’s likely you will be shown for your faults rather than your positive attributes. Unless it a pre-fight hype interview with Dana White, in which case every fighter is suddenly the best thing to come down the street since Anderson Silva.
– MMA as a sport may be reaching saturation point. With audiences world wide, the sport continues to grow, but there may be a finite cap at which people are willing to become fighters. MMA is very different from Football or Baseball or nearly any other sport in the sense that it requires a certain mental and physical type for people to consider being a fighter. While there will always be a new generation of martial arts purists, psychos, tough guys and aspiring fighters, there may be a point where an area has been expunged of its talent to show on TUF.
MMATH 