For only the second time in it’s short history, the UFC will be taking it’s reality show into International waters. The Ultimate Fighter: Smashes will pit 8 Australian fighters against a rival 8 British fighters. Representing the Aussie team will be Lightweight submission specialist George Sotiropoulos. G-Sot is on a 2-fight skid after his last performance against Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 132. His adversary and UK representative will be Ross Pearson. “The Real Deal” is coming off a 1-1 run in the UFC Featherweight division. His last fight at 155 lbs. was a very close-fought decision against Edson Barboza. Now, check out who they’ll be coaching:
Team Australia:
Lightweight:
Grant “Bull Ant” Blackler (8-0)
Patrick “Ironfist” Iodice (5-0)
Richie “Vas” Vaculik (9-1)
Ben “Manimal” Wall (6-0)
Welterweight:
Ben “Benny Blando” Alloway (12-3)
Xavier “The X-Man” Lucas (8-3)
Manuel “Chalate” Rodriguez (9-3)
Robert Whittaker (9-2)
Team UK:
Lightweight:
Colin “Freakshow” Fletcher (8-1)
Norman “Stormin” Parke (16-2)
Michael Pastou (9-2)
Mike Wilkinson (7-0)
Welterweight:
Luke Newman (5-0)
Bola Omoyele (6-1)
Valentino “Battista” Petrescu (12-2)
Bradley Scott (8-1)
The series will premier on FX in Australia on September 19. The show will feature the standard TUF tournament style competition over 13 episodes. Although the date is not official the 3 hour finale event is expected to be held in December.
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