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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Since its debut nearly a decade ago, the format for the Ultimate Fighter has remained relatively unchanged. After 20 seasons in the U.S., and several iterations elsewhere, that could possibly be changing into the new year.
UFC President Dana White said on Monday during the organization's press conference in Las Vegas that they've got something different planned for the next season in 2015, though he declined to go into specifics.
"We're working on something completely different and new in the United States this year," White said (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "So yeah, 'The Ultimate Fighter' is going to keep rolling on. It's been very successful here in a lot of other countries."
Penick's Analysis: I doubt we're going to get anything substantially different next year, though I'll be pleasantly surprised if that's the case. Part of the issue is there isn't much they can do to really recover the viability of the series at this stage, and it might just be time to attack it from a different angle. Filming for six weeks and having these exhibition fights aren't giving a great look into who is better than whom outside of the vacuum of the circumstances, and that's been clear once fighters have had more time to prepare for finales and in their subsequent UFC runs. Instead of doing that, setting up tournaments that take place over six months to a year on UFC events while following the fighters involved in feature programming between events could be a way to put forth a similar series, but have the fights be of a better quality, and more meaningful, without taking them from their homes for that six week period. Just a thought, and one I don't expect to see come to fruition, but I'm really not sure what we'll see from them that could be considered "completely different."
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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