UFC Release details of TUF Auditions

The UFC have released details of the selection process for fighters from the UK who want to take part in the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship organisation will hold auditions at the world famous Earls Court in London on October 20 in a search to find the toughest, bravest, most skilful mixed martial artists in the United Kingdom.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team USA v Team UK – which hits television screens worldwide in the New Year - will pit the best unsigned welterweights and middleweights on either side of the Atlantic against each other for six-figure contracts with the UFC. Only, in this season, they will step into the Octagon to battle not only for the right to join the world’s premier MMA organisation, but also for national pride.

For the first time, the two teams of UFC hopefuls will be divided not solely on skill but on nationality, with the British taking on a team of Americans in single combat. As ever, the teams will be coached by two UFC veterans.

Mixed martial artists who are citizens of the United Kingdom are invited to fill in the application form at UK.UFC.COM and, that done, arrive early morning at Earl’s Court, London prepared to show UFC President Dana White just why they are ‘TUF enough’ to be selected for Team UK.

The successful applicants will be selected to represent his country in the world’s rawest reality television show.

UFC President Dana White said: “When we did the auditions for season three of the Ultimate Fighter in the UK in 2005, I was amazed how much better the standard of MMA had gotten since we were in London for UFC 38: Brawl at the Hall in 2002. In those three years, the skill levels and quality of training had really shot up and it was in that audition we found Michael Bisping, who has gone on to become one of the UFC’s top stars.

“Now it is another three years later and we are back looking for the next Michael Bisping or even the British Forrest Griffin or Rashad Evans. I’m excited to see what the Brits have to show me this time.”

UFC UK Division President Marshall Zelaznik said: “The next series of the Ultimate Fighter is the single biggest opportunity for British mixed martial artists ever. The winners get the chance to join an elite class of TUF champions which includes reigning UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin, former Welterweight Champion Matt Serra and Britain’s own Michael Bisping.”

Zelaznik believes Bisping, who stormed to the season three TUF championship in 2006, is an inspiration to British MMA fighters.

He said: “Michael Bisping was the best kept secret in British sport when he stormed into our London TUF auditions in December 2005. Six months later he walked out of the Octagon at The Ultimate Fighter Season 3 Finale in Las Vegas an international sports star with a life-changing six-figure UFC contract in his hand.

“Bisping has gone on to be one of the most internationally recognisable athletes in the UFC, with his image everywhere from magazines to television to billboards in Times Square and a video game. He has fought on huge cards in Vegas, Montreal and has become the first Briton to headline UFC events in Newark and, in two week, Birmingham.

“There hasn’t been a British TUF champion since Michael, but we are looking for the best middleweight and welterweight in the country to step up and take on the Americans.”