5 TUF washouts who did surprisingly well in the UFC

#4. Drew Dober – UFC lightweight

Drew Dober has done remarkably well in the octagon after improving massively following his TUF stint

Arguably the craziest TUF season of them all was 2012’s TUF 15, which aired live. That meant that the fighters were trapped in the ‘Ultimate Fighter House’ for the best part of 12 weeks solid.

However, while finalists Al Iaquinta and Michael Chiesa have gone onto plenty of success with the UFC, the next-best fighter from the season was one who didn’t even make it into the house in the first place.

Current lightweight contender Drew Dober, a striker who has become renowned for being one of the most exciting fighters to watch, was eliminated in the pre-house fights by Daron Cruickshank, who outpointed him to win a unanimous decision.

So when the promotion brought Dober in over a year later after he reeled off five straight wins on the regional circuit, nobody really expected him to make any kind of impact.

Sure enough, when he lost his first two bouts with the promotion, it looked like his stay there would be a short one. However, Dober kept plugging away and kept improving. Eventually, he put together a strong run of five wins with just one loss between 2016 and 2019, establishing himself as a fighter to watch in the process.

While he’s never quite reached title contention since, the fact that he’s a regular on UFC main cards now shows that he’s definitely got some value to the promotion. That's something that would never have been expected when he washed out of TUF.

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#3. Paulo Costa – UFC middleweight contender

Despite failing to make a mark on TUF, Paulo Costa has become one of the most feared fighters on the planet

When Paulo Costa debuted in the UFC in early 2017 and destroyed Garreth McLellan to pick up his first octagon win, he was treated like any other unbeaten prospect would be – as a talented, but largely unproven fighter.

However, while the promotion didn’t ever really mention it, hardcore fans quickly realized that they’d seen ‘The Eraser’ somewhere before.

That ‘somewhere’ was the third season of TUF: Brazil, which aired in 2014, some three years prior to Costa’s official octagon debut. Coached by bitter rivals Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva, the season was largely viewed as one of the reality show’s better efforts, particularly in the modern era.

So why had Costa’s run there gone almost entirely unnoticed? Well, probably because it wasn’t very good.

‘The Eraser’, then seen as more of a grappler than the bullying striker he would become, defeated the unknown Jose Roberto to make it to the TUF house, but then lost in his next bout to Marcio Alexandre Jr.

Costa was such a low-key character during his time on the reality show that the most notable thing about him was his apparent vanity, which was played up by his castmates far more than his fighting skills were.

When the season was over, then, it was hardly a surprise that the UFC didn’t bring him in as they did with some of his castmates. Instead, he had to wait until he’d won another five fights to make it there.

Since then, though, Costa has been by far the most successful product of his season, climbing to the top of the 185-pound division and even receiving a title shot against champion Israel Adesanya in 2020.