UFC
Dana White provides a few more details for new live season of The Ultimate Fighter
Mar 8, 2012 - 10:25:28 PM Dana White provides a few more details for new live season of The Ultimate Fighter

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The Ultimate Fighter goes live for the first time tomorrow night, with 16 fights airing live on FX to kick off the 15th season of the reality series. The series will be a mixture of the familiar along with the new, as 32 lightweights enter the UFC training center in Las Vegas for their opening round fights in a planned two and a half-hour broadcast.

There's a definite potential for the event to run over time with so many fights to squeeze in, but it's not a concern for the UFC. According to UFC President Dana White, the relationship with Fox allows them some leeway on that front.

"The thing I love about being with FOX, I'm with a real network now," White said in an interview with MMAjunkie.com. "No digs at my old network, but these guys are sports. These guys do sports. My old network didn't do sports. They're not a sports network.

"It's so different being with these guys. The other day, when we were doing [UFC on FX 2] in Australia, we were 30 minutes fat. We were 30 minutes heavy in that show, and (Joseph) Benavidez saved our ass. He went in there and finished that fight quick, and then the last fight we went 10 minutes over. But we were 30 minutes heavy in that fight. But that's the great thing about being a sport network and guys who understand sports. They don't give a [expletive] if you go over. I mean, they don't want us 30 minutes over, but if you go 10 or 12 or 15 minutes over, it's no problem."

White also laid out a bit more how this season will play out in its new format, as fans can expect some of the following this season:

--The seasons are getting a fresh start with a new name, instead of following along with the numbers of past seasons. Meaning, this season is "The Ultimate Fighter: Live", next season will be "TUF: Live 2" and so on.

-- Fighters have their matchups for Friday's event, though it won't be revealed until tomorrow to the public. However, each week, the fight (or fights) for the following week will be announced in order to be publicized.

-- There will be no broadcasters for the fights, and as is normal for The Ultimate Fighter the only fight audio will be the corners and action in the cage. Jon Anik will act as the host from week to week, but once the fights start the action will speak for itself.

-- White will be a part of each show, so even when there are UFC events elsewhere throughout the season, he'll be traveling to and from Las Vegas to be a part of each episode.

-- Fighters that make it into the house will continue to be cut off from the outside world, as in past seasons. However, they'll now be without phones, computers, personal calls, etc. for 13 weeks instead of six. Additionally, they'll have no access to social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

Penick's Analysis: I thought for sure they'd allow the fighters some outside contact with the move to 13 weeks in the house; that's going to be a really long time for them to be cut off from family and friends, and is going to increase the stir-crazy feeling the fighters have gotten in past seasons. It might make for some crazy late-season hijinks from the in-house portions of the show, but that's really going to be rough. I like that we're only going to have audio for what the corners are saying and what's happening in the fight. I think that's definitely one of the more interesting things to pay attention to on The Ultimate Fighter in general, and it will be interesting to see how Faber and Cruz work as cornerman. This is going to be in some ways the same show, but having the fights live each week is going to be very interesting, and I can't wait to see how things unfold on FX.