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We’re now less than a week away from the long-awaited return of the UFC’s flagship show, The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). Its 29th season is set to premiere on June 1st.
The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) began back in 2005. Over the years, the show has produced not only a number of top UFC stars but also some truly tremendous fights.
With names like Diego Sanchez, Michael Bisping and Kamaru Usman fighting on TUF over the years, there has been no shortage of memorable fights on the reality show.
So with this in mind, here are the top five fights in the history of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).
#5 Jorge Gurgel vs. Jason Von Flue – TUF 2
The second series of TUF failed to live up to the heights of the first one. The fighters on offer lacked personality when compared to the likes of Chris Leben and Diego Sanchez. And the fights weren’t quite as good, either.
However, there was one exception – a wild throwdown between welterweights Jorge Gurgel and Jason Von Flue midway through the season.
Gurgel – a training partner of coach Rich Franklin – was amongst the favorites to win the welterweight bracket on TUF 2. Meanwhile, Von Flue was not only an unknown, but he’d also come in as a late replacement for the injured Josh Burkman.
Early on, it looked like Gurgel would live up to the hype. He smacked Von Flue around with some heavy strikes, took his back and appeared to be on the verge of a finish.
However, in his attempts to stop Von Flue, Gurgel re-injured his surgically repaired knee, giving the former a way back into the fight.
Von Flue turned things around in the second round and began to take over with his striking, landing the better shots as Gurgel continued to return fire in turn.
The two fighters continued to wildly exchange until the third round ended. Von Flue was handed a stunning decision victory in the best TUF fight to that point.
#4 Nate Diaz vs. Robert Emerson – TUF 5
When coaches Jens Pulver and BJ Penn selected Nate Diaz to lock horns with Rob Emerson in the third fight on TUF 5, it was clear that we were in for some fireworks.
The two men went head-to-head during the pre-fight staredown. With Diaz being, well, a Diaz brother and Emerson once being part of a genuinely dangerous street gang, violence was always going to ensue.
And so it came as no surprise to see the two lightweights exchange some wild strikes on the feet in the first round, greatly impressing the watching Dana White.
It looked like Emerson held a surprising advantage going into the second round, but Diaz decided to play things smart and took the fight to the ground. And once the fight hit the mat, Emerson was overmatched and succumbed to a rear-naked choke.
The fight turned Diaz into an immediate fan favorite before he’d even set foot in the octagon proper.
As for Emerson, White was so impressed by his performance that when Gabe Ruediger was forced out of the competition due to his infamous weight-cutting shenanigans, The Saint was immediately reinstated. However, Emerson lost his second fight to Corey Hill.
#3 Hayder Hassan vs. Vicente Luque – TUF 21
2015’s TUF 21, which pitted fighters from the American Top Team against their rivals from the Blackzilians camp, was not received that well at the time.
However, the season has aged well with time, most notably because it produced current UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman.
But it also gave us some of the better fights in TUF history. The best of the lot was definitely the clash between Hayder Hassan and Vicente Luque on the season’s final episode.
The two men had already impressed in their earlier outings, but nobody could’ve expected a clash of such high quality.
Luque dominated the first round, beating Hassan to the punch and taking him down on a couple of occasions too. But the second round saw Hassan begin to fire back with his trademark clubbing blows.
In the end, both men were exhausted. But they still swung their way through a wild third round that saw both fighters take some simply ludicrous punishment without going down.
And to make the fight even more memorable, the octagon was surrounded by fighters from both camps, producing the kind of raucous atmosphere usually missing from TUF.
In the end, Hassan was given the decision in one of the best fights in TUF history. However, he fell to an improved Luque when the two men rematched in the UFC later in the year.
#2 Amir Sadollah vs. Matt Brown – TUF 7
2008’s TUF 7 was arguably the toughest season of the Ultimate Fighter. The eventual winner, Amir Sadollah, was forced to fight an incredible five times before finally winning the tournament at the finale.
But his toughest test came in the form of future UFC welterweight title contender Matt Brown in one of the best fights in TUF history.
Brown had already gained an almost mythical status amongst the cast for his sheer toughness. His knockout of Jeremy May was arguably the pick of TUF 7’s first round.
So when he was matched with the fearless Sadollah, everyone from the TUF cast to UFC President Dana White seemed buzzing.
The fight lived up to the hype, with Brown and Sadollah going to war, particularly in the first round.
At one point, Brown landed a series of violent knees on Sadollah that literally had White leaping from his chair at cageside.
However, Sadollah had the last laugh, weathering the storm to eventually submit Brown in the second round with a triangle choke.
The fight was one of the highest quality and the best in a TUF season already chock-full of action.
#1 Michael Chiesa vs. Justin Lawrence – TUF 15
2012’s TUF 15 was the only season of TUF that saw the fights aired on live television. And while the season itself was somewhat of a damp squib, it did provide us with probably the best fight in the history of the reality show.
The fight in question was the quarter-final clash between Michael Chiesa and hot favorite Justin Lawrence. The latter had already scored two highlight-reel knockouts on his way to that point.
Lawrence – a flashy striker – was heavily favored to beat the grappler, Chiesa. But The Maverick, who lost his father during the tapings of the show, was clearly much more driven than anyone could’ve given him credit for.
And so he somehow weathered a massive storm of strikes from Lawrence in the opening two rounds before producing a comeback for the ages in the third.
Stuck in bottom position, Chiesa could easily have broken. But instead, The Maverick hit a sweep, mounted Lawrence and destroyed him with strikes for a dramatic victory.
The win sent Chiesa’s TUF castmates, who clearly adored him, into raptures and propelled him to two more wins en route to becoming a TUF champion.
A genuine contender for the UFC welterweight title today, Chiesa hasn’t looked back since.
