“Do you want to be a fighter?”

Photo: BJPenn

The Ultimate Fighter is back! Many wondered if the long-standing reality show was canceled in the wake of the success of Dana White’s Contender Series. A recent announcement revealed that the Ultimate Fighter will be returning with two separate weight classes; middleweights and bantamweights. The coaches will be featherweight champion Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski and title challenger Brian “T-City” Ortega with them expected to compete, after their initial bout was canceled due to Covid affecting champion Volkanovski, towards the end of the summer once the show is completed.

Both fighters were recently seen on UFC Vegas 24 to promote their scheduled appearances on TUF 29 with each featherweight expressing excitement for participating in TUF. They each expect the other to be respectful however they both realize it will most likely become chippy because of how competitive they are. We’ll have to wait and see how competitive coaching turns out between future opponents with not just competition at stake but a mental edge as well.

Taping is expected to begin soon with the 16 fighters making their way to Las Vegas for their scheduled medical checkup. Once taping begins, the first episode is expected to be released on June 1st exclusively on ESPN+.

Fighters include:

Middleweights:

Aaron Phillips (5-2)

Andre Petroski (5-1)

Bryan Battle (5-1)

Ryder Neman (3-1)

Tresean Gore (3-0)

Miles Hunsinger (7-0)

Kemran Lachinov (10-3)

Gilbert Urbina (6-1)

Bantamweights:

Daniel Argueta (5-0)

Brady Hiestand (4-1)

Dustin Lampros (5-0)

Vince Murdock (12-4)

Mitch Raposo (5-0)

Joshua Rettinghouse (16-5)

Liudvik Sholinian (9-1-1)

Ricky Turcios (10-2)