The Ultimate Fighter 9: Team US vs. Team UK?

[Y 2 Jake]

POSTED: September 20, 2008 - 2:58 pm

CATEGORIES: MMA, International


A new published report coming out of the UK is stating that Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson are the early-favorites to land coaching spots for the upcoming ninth installment of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which will feature teams comprised of welterweights and middleweights representing both the U.S. and the UK in a head-to-head format.

The Sun, a British tabloid, is claiming that Bisping has not yet been offered the UK coaching slot because he is slated to fight Chris Leben in the main event of UFC 89 in Birmingham, England. But according to The Sun, “(UFC President) Dana White will immediately hand the British star a contract to appear on the show if he overcomes Leben next month.”

While The Sun does not have a stellar journalistic reputation, FiveOuncesOfPain.com contacted a source earlier today inquiring about the validity of the report and we were told that Bisping has not been offered a spot on the show but is considered a logical candidate. In addition to being a UK citizen and a star in the country, he also has deep ties to TUF having won the show’s light heavyweight tournament during its third season.

The Sun adds that is believed that Henderson, the former PRIDE middleweight and welterweight champion, will coach the U.S. team and that the two coaches would face each other in a fight that would take place in December of 2009 to determine a number one contender for the middleweight title.

It should be noted that we were unable to verify whether Henderson is indeed under consideration for a TUF 9 coaching position. On some levels, he appears to be a logical choice in that he’s a top middleweight contender. He’d serve as a strong test for Bisping and a Henderson vs. Bisping matchup certainly has box office potential if marketed properly. Furthermore, he would add to the U.S. vs. UK theme having represented America in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in Greco-Roman wrestling.

While he appears to be a strong candidate in many regards, he is not the perfect choice considering he’s already fought the promotion’s current middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, and lost to him at UFC 82 this past March. If Henderson were to beat Bisping and Silva were to remain the middleweight champion, it would remain to be seen just how much marketing potential Silva vs. Henderson II would have considering Silva won the first fight via submission in the second round.

It also remains to be seen whether the 38-year old Henderson would want to leave his family and his training center, Team Quest, for up to six weeks.

Huge fan of Henderson, so I'd be happy to see him get the exposure. With the fighters he's faced so far I doubt most people know how good he can be. The fights have been entertaining, but they haven't made him look really impressive.

Bisping is really scraping the barrel. Maybe in a year or so. But not in a couple of months.

 

[jmt225]

I like Dan Henderson as well. He's a nice guy and a great fighter. He'd definitely make a good coach.

I'm also a fan of Bisping, and I think he'd make a good coach, too. He's an all-around fighter and very demanding person. Also, I thought he was hilarious on Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter. Dude has a one of a kind personality, that's for sure. So that'll be good for the show.

The only problem I see with this is what you said Jake in the other thread about the show lacking star power. While I like these two guys, neither of them will draw good ratings. In fact, I think Bisping vs. Evans was the lowest pay-per-view buy rate so far this year, and Dan Henderson's value obviously went down after his losses against Rampage and Silva. So I'm not sure 'business' wise that this is the right choice, but for personal preference, I wouldn't mind these two as coaches one bit.

 

[Frank the Frowner]

I definitely think this is the direction they should take as far as The Ultimate Fighter coaches go. Rampage vs. Griffin took forever to happen because they had to wait until all of the episodes played out. The title was on hold for nearly a year as a result. The Heavyweight Championship would have been on hold for a fight that's definitely not a mainstream match (Nog vs. Mir) if the monkey wrench and interesting twist with a mini-tournament being set up never took place.

Having two guys, one a seasoned veteran and former Olympic wrestler, and the other, possibly a former Ultimate Fighter winner, not only makes things more interesting, but also doesn't tie up a title match.

One has to wonder what has to be going through Leben's head as well. If anything, I would peg him right now as someone who is going to upset Bisping next month. He's already going to be in the main event as a massive underdog in Bisping's home country. Now with Dana all but signing Bisping to be the other coach on TUF, it's just going to be more motivation for Leben to pull off something huge.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Looks like it's going to be Team US vs. Team UK now. Could very intresting. It's good to spice things up occasionally. Although I'm sure it depends soley on Bisping winning against Leben. If he doesn't win then I'm sure they'll find something different to do. Possibly US vs. Canada. Or the regular format. I doubt it wold work with Bisping coming off a loss. Unless they get really desperate and bring back Ross Pointon.

 

[imdamiz]

Dan Henderson will not be coachin in the upcoming season of TUF due to his fight against Rich Franklin at 93 in dublin ireland. Hendo has said he doesn't wanna spend that much time away from training for this bout against Franklin. The next season is slated to being in early april or march not sure exactly when but count hendo out as a coach. Not really sure who else they could/would go with right now to be a Team USA Coach whose in contention