The TUF Coach Clash: Worth It? Or Big Waste of Time?
It has become ritual. A season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is announced, and with the fresh crop of prospects comes the naming of the coaches, coaches who will hopefully create drama on the show en route to their inevitable clash in the cage further down the line. But is that premise still viable? At UFC 100 on July 11th, TUF 9 coaches Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson will square off after 12 episodes on SpikeTV devoid of any real hostility or conflict – 12 episodes that took six weeks to film, weeks to produce and even more weeks to air, and which took Bisping and Henderson out of the middleweight rotation. Which begs the question: are these coach versus coach bouts worth it? Or are they just a big waste of time?
There’s no denying the system worked before. When the concept was fresh and new, MMA legends Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell were at the helm for TUF 1, and when they clashed on pay-per-view it was epic. Season Two lacked such a pairing with welterweight and middleweight champs Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin in the top slots, but TUF 3’s prefabricated hatefest between Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock was prime next-day discussion material for office water coolers and Internet message boards alike. In terms of TV, BJ Penn and Jens Pulver performed nicely in their TUF 5 roles, and delivered well enough to drive the live finale. However, the next arranged marriage, of TUF 6 coaches Hughes and Matt Serra, failed to bear fruit for a year and a half thanks to Serra falling prey to an injury. Their fight happened long after the sizzle had left the steak. And while TUF 7 coaches Quinton Jackson and Forrest Griffin and TUF 8 coaches Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had grand affairs in the Octagon, their chemistry on television made for a lot of respect and smiles yet little to no tension or sparks.
Then there’s Bisping and Henderson, whose collective efforts of representing the UK and the US while coaching a team of UFC hopefuls produced the kind of heat that wouldn’t cook a snowflake. The Brit obviously made a go of it, attempting to draw the Pride champ out with challenges and bets. But at his most venomous, a sedate Henderson matter-of-factly declared Bisping a “douchebag” before walking off camera – the most emotion he’d shown in a dozen episodes, and even then it was about as passionate as two icebergs mating. Fans hoping for Ortiz/Shamrock-esque scuffles or Hughes/Serra-esque trash talk got zilch. Clearly, it takes two to tango on television, and Henderson is the worst kind of dance partner. Poor Bisping was left dancing with himself.
How many will tune in on July 11th just to see Bisping and Henderson go at it? Of the thousands upon thousands of pay-per-view buys – and thanks to Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mir and Georges St. Pierre versus Thiago Alves there will be thousands upon thousands – how many of those will have been solely because of the match-up between the two TUF 9 coaches? Probably not very many. Bisping and Henderson’s patriarchal gigs put them out of competition for nine and six months respectively, and the payoff for fans will be the same as if they’d skipped coaching and faced each other earlier in the year. The Brit and the American’s time kept out of the middleweight mix, filming in a drama-less vacuum when they could’ve been picking off contenders for a shot at the belt, was time misspent.
The coach versus coach motif is no longer viable. Unless the powers that be are sure that there’s chemistry that will lead to a worthwhile payoff, subjecting the general public to two top-level mixed martial artists who fail to inspire even the slightest bit of emotion or interest does nothing. For fans, it’s just a big waste of time.
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