UFC president Dana White upset a lot of MMA purists back in October when he announced that The Ultimate fighter 17 coaches Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones would cap off the season with a title fight. Dana brushed off the complaints of the hardcore fanbase with his typical bravado and filming began on October 29.
As the UFC obviously likes to keep a tight lid on what happens in the TUF house before the show airs, we haven’t heard much in the meantime. That was until December when White revealed that one fighter in the house “scared the s— out of everyone.” With little information on who is in the TUF house to go on, fans were left to speculate on who this intimidating prospect could be.
One option is Tor Troeng. The Swedish Middleweight has been a professional fighter since 2005 and boasts an impressive record of 15-4-1. Additionally, he’s been confirmed by MMAnytt.se to appear in one of the promotional videos for the upcoming season. And finally, as you can see from the video above and the 8 finishes in his last ten wins, he’s an impressively violent fighter.
Kimura.se got a chance to talk to Troeng shortly after filming finished. Although, he couldn’t divulge any details, Troeng did relate the impression he got of the upcoming season (translation from BE member wonderfulspam):
I’ve mostly heard what people have said about the show, that the level (of talent, presumably) varies with more focus on entertainment and less focus on the sport.
Troeng also said he wasn’t upset about missing the opportunity to fight at the UFC’s first ever event in Sweden – UFC On FUEL TV 3:
A lot of people think you need a certain kind of record [to get into/do well in the UFC] instead of thinking about which type of opponent you need to fight to be prepared. Every fight in the UFC is tough and it’s about having the right level of skill as well as being prepared for every kind of fight. If you just go by results [ie. getting wins on your record] it’s easy to slip out [of the UFC].
TUF 17 will make it’s season premier on January 22 at 9 pm EST with a special 2 hour episode. The UFC will hope Jones and Sonnen continue the rivalry they started on Twitter back in August.