Reality TV comes to Mixed Martial Arts, the Ultimate Fighter
Reality television is an interesting phenomenon that started becoming popular in America and then spread to the rest of the world. This format of having real people in strange situations really caught on and was loved by some and hated by others. But not a lot of people would have imagined it would come to the world of sports.
What happened was that the UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championship decided to hold a contest and film it to find a new prize fighter for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). It went along the same format as other reality shows with a bunch of people living in a house together. The difference in this show was that the housemates would be fighting each other instead of simply arguing with one another. This show has become very popular and looks all set to continue for a long time.
The UFC is one of the most profitable companies in the sport of mixed martial arts, but it was not always like that. Early on in its life the company started to falter and lose serious money. Then there was a serious turnaround, the company bosses put their heads together and changed a lot of things around. This started to increase viewership of their sport and got the company into the black again.
Then they had a brainstorm that would change the world of MMA forever. With the craze of reality television at its height, the owners of UFC decided to host their own reality television show featuring would be MMA professional fighters. In 2005 The Ultimate Fighter was born, it was show that followed the usual reality TV format, a lot of dysfunctional people trying to live in the same house together and brilliant television ensued. In the Ultimate Fighter, would be fighters got a chance to fight other would be stars and they all lived in a house together outside of Las Vegas.
The format of the show, which was dreamed up by UFC president, Dana White, and others consisted of 16 fighters living in a house together and two fighters made up a team of different weight divisions and they were coached by a current UFC fighter. They would fight each other in an elimination style contest and the winner at the end of the series would be offered a six figure contract and a place on the starting line up of the company’s roster of fighters.
This show has been going on for the last five years and did a lot of good for the sport of MMA and for the UFC as well. Firstly, it brought a lot of new viewers to the show, people who would not necessarily watch MMA. They were lured in by the reality style format of the show and became hooked and then slowly became fans of the sport as well. The ratings boost it gave the UFC helped the company become more profitable and the biggest contender in MMA. The show has just become more and more popular as time has gone by.
With the mix of craziness, male hormones and fighting all thrown in, the show was always destined to be a hit. It seems people like to watch grown men doing stupid things and then pounding the life out of each other in order to make a career for themselves. The show had the fun element to it, it had the fact that people were competitively fighting one another and it had the hope that one fighter’s dreams would be fulfilled in the process.
There were some really bad moments on the show as well, from one fighter urinating on the bed of another, to people getting into fist fights over stupid things, to a prank being played where one fighter ejaculated onto some sushi which another one ate, to finally Jesse Taylor going on a joy ride and smashing up limos and terrorising women in a hotel. It looks like the same old story, put a bunch of immature men with a knack for violence in a house together with alcohol and some craziness will take place.
Whatever the case may be this show turned the sport of MMA around and made it very popular to watch and a lot of people started to become huge fans of the sport. With its continued success, the show will just become more and more popular in the years to come.
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