“The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs. U.K.,” Featuring 16 Middleweights and 16 Welterweights In A Battle For International Supremacy In The Octagon®

New York, NY, October 6, 2008 – Further proof of the UFC’s global expansion, season nine of Spike TV’s wildly popular series, “The Ultimate Fighter,” will feature 16 American and 16 British fighters competing in the middleweight (185 lbs) and welterweight divisions (170 lbs). The fighters will once again have to fight and win a preliminary bout to advance into The Ultimate Fighter house.

An open casting call for the new season will be held for British hopefuls on October 20 in London and a casting call for American fighters will be held October 27 in Chicago.

For the Chicago casting call:

DATE: Monday, October 27, 2008
VENUE: Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel
LOCATION: 5440 North River Road , Rosemont, IL 60018
TELEPHONE: 847-671-6350
REPORT TIME: Fighter registration begins at 9 AM CT; Tryouts at 10 AM CT.

In London, the information is as follows:

DATE: Monday, October 20, 2008
VENUE: Earls Court Exhibition Centre
LOCATION: Warwick Road, London, SW5 9TA
TELEPHONE: +44 (0)207 370 8539
REPORT TIME: Fighter registration begins at 9 AM GMT; Tryouts at 10 AM GMT.

Contestants must be over 21 and able to compete at either 170 or 185 lbs.

Production for “The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs. U.K” begins in Las Vegas in January and the new season will premiere on Spike TV in April. The 32 up-and-coming mixed martial arts fighters will compete to win a six-figure contract with the world’s preeminent mixed martial arts organization, The Ultimate Fighting Championship.®

UFC President Dana White will once again serve as host for “The Ultimate Fighter.” Coaches will be announced at a later date.

Gina will be promoting her upcoming EliteXC fight this Saturday, October 4th on CBS. Other fights on that card include Andrei Arlovski vs Roy Nelson and the much-anticipated Kimbo Slice vs Ken Shamrock.

I’ve been to four UFC fights, an EliteXC fight, and five or six IFL fights. I’ve seen some of these smaller promotions air fight cards on HDNet, but I have never had the opportunity to actually attend one. That being said, the Asylum Fight League put on one hell of a local production Saturday Night, and I will be attending any and all of their future shows that I can make it to.

My trip to the fight was a bit two fold. I was there to see some amateur mixed martial arts action, but the school that I train with, Tiger Schulmann’s mixed martial arts, had five fighters on the card; one of those fighters, Louis Gaudinot, is a trainer at my school and I was eager to see him in action.

(Louis Gaudinot | Photo by Larry Vollmer)

The Asylum Fight League is putting on some fights at Club Abyss in Sayreville, New Jersey. It’s about an hour and 20 minutes from here, but if you are into MMA and have no other plans, it’s definitely worth checking out.

There are 20 bouts on the card, and the card features a Tiger Schulmann’s fighter training out of Yonkers, NY, Louis “Glow in the Dark” Gaudinot.

More information can be found here.

“We have eight guys now who have earned their spots. Now we are moving on with the other fights, lets see what happens with the next eight”, says Dana White.

Wasting no time, we get right into the bouts. All of the bouts are exciting, and most of them come to a decisive finish. We get a little insight into the personalities of some of the winners, but most of the episode was reserved for the qualification fights.

Frank Mir brings up an interesting point during the show, a testament to the talent competing this season:

“There are some guys that are losing that I would pick before guys that are winning”

It’s interesting that a lot of the fighters on the show have such great grappling skills, considering that both coaches are some of the best submission fighters in the game.

I am looking forward to this season of The Ultimate Fighter; the level of competition has really seemed to surpass some previous seasons.

First, however, Kimbo, will appear on a new, two-hour primetime special, David Blaine: Dive of Death tonight and will be a special guest on the nationally televised late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” the following night, tomorrow/Thursday, Sept. 25.

Both shows air on the ABC Television Network. David Blaine: Dive of Death will be televised from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs at 12:05 a.m. ET/PT and 11:05 p.m. CT.

Kimbo will be featured in a unique segment with Blaine in which the magician attempts to replicate the “trick” that took the life of Harry Houdini. Blaine says he chose Kimbo to participate because the exciting, hard-hitting fighter is one of the few people he fears.

Premiere Of “The Ultimate Fighter 8” Ranks #1 With Men 18-49 In Timeslot

New York, NY, September 19, 2008 – The UFC proved once again to be the king of young men on cable television on Wednesday, September 17 with a live “UFC Fight Night” (8:00-10pm) and the premiere of season 8 of “The Ultimate Fighter” (10:00-11:00pm).

Spike TV’s “UFC Fight Night,” headlined by Nate Diaz and Josh “The Dentist” Neer’s, placed #1 with Men 18-34, 18-49, 18-24, and 25-34. In fact, the UFC fight drew more young men than ESPN’s telecast of Major League baseball game in the heat of a pennant race and ESPN2’s college football telecast combined as the Spike telecast drew 913,000 Men 18-49 and 465,000 Men 18-34. By comparison, ESPN’s telecast of the Red Sox vs. Rays and ESPN’s Louisville vs. Kansas St. college football game drew a combined 858,000 Men 18-49 and 373,000 Men 18-34.

Overall, the UFC fight card, emanating from the sold-out Omaha Civic Auditorium in Omaha, Nebraska, earned a 1.6 in M18-49, a 1.6 in M18-34, and an average audience of 1.8 million viewers. The viewership peaked for Diaz’s thrilling split-decision victory over Neer in the main event with 2.3 million tuning in.

Following the live fight, the premiere of “The Ultimate Fighter 8” ranked #1 in cable in M18-49 (846,000) with a 1.5 rating. Overall, the premiere earned a 1.2 household rating, a 1.5 in M18-34, and an average audience of 1.6 million viewers. Frank Mir and Antonio Nogueira, two of the world’s top heavyweight mixed martial arts fighters, serve as coaches for season eight of the popular Spike TV series.

Here are some of my post Fight Night thoughts.

Houston Alexander:
I really, really like Houston Alexander. The guy is tough as nails and comes in to each match ready for a war. The problem is that Thiago Silva exposed Houston Alexander way back at UFC 78 and his opponents have been exploiting his ground game ever since.

In my opinion, the UFC is dropping the ball with Alexander. It’s obvious the guy will never be a UFC champion. He is too one-dimensional and does not learn from his mistakes. He does, however, come into the cage ready to put on an exciting fight. If the UFC really wanted to start off a card with a bang, they would put Alexander against other tough strikers and just let them maul each other to a finish. It’s purely cosmetic, but it’s also entertaining and would set the right mood for the rest of the card.

Never the less, I am sure EliteXC is willing to scoop Alexander up if the UFC releases him. EliteXC seems to favor the stand up brand of mixed martial artist.

Calling all 18-34 year old males. There is a lot of mixed martial arts action on tonight, televised for free courtesy of the UFC and SpikeTV.

“Ultimate Fight Night: Diaz Vs. Neer” will air at 8PM. For a free card, the televised lineup is pretty intriguing. I am really looking forward to all of these fights.

Televised bouts:
-Josh Neer vs. Nate Diaz
-Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida
-Ed Herman vs. Alan Belcher
-Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schafer

Nate Diaz Submits Kurt Pellegrino with a triangle choke in his last appearance on “Ultimate Fight Night”. (Photo Courtesy of UFC.com)