UFC puts reality television in a choke hold
By JJ Ossola
IV Leader Staff
“The Ultimate Fighter,” the Ultimate Fighting
Championship’s reality series, is one third of the way through the third season
with eight episodes remaining with the finale on June 24.
Eight light heavyweights and eight middleweights split into
two teams to square off for a chance to win a six figure contract in the UFC.
This season’s contestants hail from Canada and England as
well as a variety of homegrown talents. The one of the more refreshing facets of
this show is its no apology factor. It’s a fight show; plain and simple.
The show is steeped in trash talking, pranks and training
footage. The testosterone factor is what drives the shows ratings.
The Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock rivalry is palpable from the
opening segment. The hate that Shamrock feels for Ortiz is almost as great as
the lack of respect that Ortiz continues to flaunt in Shamrock’s face.
Dana White, president of the UFC, plays between being
apprehensive of the coaches actions and near giddy at forcing them to work on
the same set.
This is fine for the show, because no matter how often you
see them together, there is a lingering doubt about how long the peace will
last.
The series starts out like sand in a birthday cake; it looks
pretty but it is damn hard to enjoy. In episode one the fighters bond with the
ritual drinking and the schoolyard pissing contests that typifies male bonding.
The only bright spot for the viewer is that it is not the
typical bar-room tough guy talk where it is just that; talk.
No, in this series you are guaranteed that they will settle their disputes “in
the octagon.”
The entertainment for the viewers is the speculations of the
fighters on who they will fight, who they want to fight and the glimpses of back
door deals.
The first four episodes have been slow and painful at times
in their build up to the fights that cap the show, but the unabashed enthusiasm
of the fighters make them memorable none the less.
The episode shows off the coaches, the contestants and the
training and their respective differences. The viewer is allowed to see all the
aspects behind the scenes that go into a fight. Reality television has never
been as blunt.
You see both contestants prefight predictions, but are also
allowed to see the loser sign off of the series at the end (usually well bruised
and sometimes bloody.)
All the fights, regardless of length, are riveting. The first
fight of Kalib Starnes vs. Mike Stine is a good example of the show’s essence.
In the beginning of the show, Shamrock tests the contestant’s
heart with a grueling sand bag exercise. Unknown to viewers, Kalib Starnes, a
middleweight picked later by Shamrock, fractures his fibula doing this (which
leads to his on going confrontations with Shamrock over his training.)
Starnes did not let his leg pain affect his bout with Stine
in the season opener though, as we watched him beat the snot out of Stine in a
two minute win.
From the rampant television success of the first two seasons
to the recent legalization of the fights in California, business has been good
to the UFC in general.
This opens the doors to better pay per views (or more
lucrative ones) and even more exposure in the large urban markets of southern
California.
Season four is already in the works for a probable fall
showing, with a probable infinite series continuing on. Like Survivor it will
only be a matter of time before previous season’s contestants come back to do a
best of the rest Ultimate Fighter season, but even that will be more enjoyable
than what currently passes as reality television.