During his UFC 143 post-event “scrum” with various media members, UFC President Dana White gave some information about The Ultimate Fighter’s debut in Brazil, the next country in which he expects TUF to debut and a decision he almost made that would have changed the course of UFC history forever.
On TUF Brazil
White is in Brazil this week to start filming the first season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil with Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort as coaches. Filming began in Rio Monday with two days in Sao Paulo to follow.
The shows will be aired on UFC.com and another outlet, so fans will get the opportunity to see them. They will be shot in the “old format” of filming an entire season and then re-airing them like Spike did throughout their 14 seasons of TUF.
On Future International TUFs
White said that several international TUFs are in the works and he expects India to be the next up. He still has a dream of doing a TUF World Cup and said between 4-to-6 winners would be needed to pull it off.
The Near Exile Of Stephan Bonnar
White told a story about how Bonnar was almost kicked off the first season of TUF after getting antsy during the longest filming schedule in show history:
“Bonnar turned the shower on, climbed out the window and went to find a liquor store. Remember we took all the liquor out after that big fight? These idiots…we had been driving these guys around for six or seven weeks and the house is in the middle of nowhere. There was no liquor store near there. The guy was walking around for an hour and thirty minutes. So much crazy (expletive) happened that first season. Imagine if I had kicked off him off the show for going to a liquor store? Forrest (Griffin) and Stephan would have never happened.”
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