The Ultimate Fighter: Team Carwin vs. Team Nelson hade premiär i helgen i de Förenta Staterna. Seriens koncept har knappt förändrats sedan den startades, och har återgått till förinspelat format. TUF har alltid haft gott om intressanta karaktärer, som utmärkt sig och marknadsförts på olika sätt. Chris Leben framstod efter den första säsongen som något ostabil, medan Josh Koscheck redan då framställdes och uppträdde som antagonist. På grund av sitt odrägliga uppträdande efter den sjunde säsongen blev Jesse Taylor av med chansen att tävla i finalen, och andra deltagare har varnats för sitt beteende på serien.
Trots detta kunde vi i trailern till TUF 16 se hur mycket fokus som låg på drama och bråk mellan deltagare. Seriens marknadsföring ger intrycket av att det beteendet säljer och önskas. Är denna bild av MMA-fighters som The Ultimate Fighter ibland skapar dålig för sporten?
Det är något som UFC-welterviktare Dan Hardy hävdar. Inför sin match mot Amir Sadollah på UFC on Fuel TV: Struve vs Miocic den 29:e september berättade i en intervju med Bloody Elbow vad han tycker om serien.
”You know, there is one thing that I would like to do. I was watching the previews for the new Ultimate Fighter, and after watching that preview, I would like to go on that show and be a coach, just to try and save the sport from that show. I love the UFC and I love mixed martial arts, and martial arts in general, but that show is killing us. They fill a house with a bunch of guys that act like jackasses, and expect them to come out as mixed martial artists on the other end.
This is your six weeks to create a filter that everyone will look through for when they meet you in the future. If you’re smashing things into the kitchen wall and yelling at people and throwing beds into the pool, every time somebody meets you, regardless of how much time has passed, they’re going to look at you through that filter of that douchebag that they saw on that TV show. The problem is that people are watching this and thinking that’s the UFC, and that’s not the UFC. That’s not me. I’m not like that. That is as far away from me as could possibly be, and I hate that I am connected to that by default through the sport.
It’s not an accurate representation of the sport. I know hundreds of fighters all around the world that are sensible and disciplined and professional. They conduct themselves well, and converse well. Then, you’ve got these kids on the show, acting like lunatics, and making us all look bad, because that is a lot of people’s first contact with the sport. Even if I were to get on that show and spend six weeks trying to convert these kids, and it not work, at least people will be able to tune in and watch the show and know what a professional mixed martial artist is like, and that he’s trying to educate these kids and turn them into pros, as well. I would love to coach TUF, just to make a last stand for the reputation of MMA.”
Är dramat som uppstår på TUF harmlöst eller är det skadligt för sporten?
