When UFC President Dana White unleashed The Ultimate Fighter, he was
hoping to cultivate the best and brightest crop of talent in Mixed
Martial Arts. But as with reality TV culture, one can become a star
through fame or infamy. Some fighters will be remembered as the "bad guy" or "the
drunkest" or "the guy who laid bare butt naked on the ground because he
couldn't make weight".
Here, the top 10 villains from The Ultimate Fighter - see all their past antics when you watch full episodes free on UltimateFighter.com.
1. Josh Koscheck - Seasons: Couture vs. Liddell; St-Pierre vs. Koscheck
Koscheck's "charming" personality is most reminiscent of a villainous
jock from an 80's movie. They say "love him or hate him", but Josh Koscheck may just thrive on your hatred. ("He's not a bad guy, he's just a dick" said Dana at the UFC 124 press conference). He started his bad guy act on the first season of TUF, and since then he's amassed a 13-4 record in the UFC, earned himself a coaching position on the show this past season against Georges St-Pierre as well as a welterweight title shot. Getting under the skin of his opponents - especially Diego Sanchez and Georges St-Pierre - has worked for him so far.
2. Junie Browning - Season: Nogueira vs. Mir
His behavior in the house might make you think Junie Browning bleached his brain along with his hair. Browning's main target was eventual season winner Efrain Escudero, who Browning called boring even though Efrain won all 3 fights on the show with slick submissions. Junie Browning lowlight reel includes jumping the cage to attack Escudero after his fight with Shane Nelson, throwing glasses at Shane Primm and Kyle Kingsbury, picking a fight with Ryan Bader and spitting on Rolando Delgado's black belt.
3. Chris Leben - Season: Couture vs. Liddell
Chris Leben is a solid KO puncher with a granite chin and a crowd pleasing style. He's also a guy who regularly got maniacally drunk on the show, which triggered emotional confrontations and some tears. "The Crippler" used his famed left hook to knock out a window and he broke down Forrest Griffin's door. Thankfully, Leben has changed from all of this foolishness and is on a three-fight winning streak in the UFC heading into a bout with Brian Stann at UFC 125.
4. Gabe Ruediger - Season: Penn vs. Pulver
From the very first episode of TUF 5, the California native showed he had the biggest mouth for trash talk and eating. "Godzilla" entered the house 20 pounds over weight and continued to stuff himself . It seemed Ruediger's strategy for burning those extra calories was through incessant talking. In episode 3, "Godzilla" had a colonic in an attempt to lose weight; in episode 5, he hit a wall with 6 pounds left to cut and passed out naked by the pool. He left the season without a single fight.
5. Krzysztof Soszynski - Season: Nogueira vs. Mir
The eighth season of TUF was certainly marked by in-house shenanigans that spiraled out of control. There is no way that "The Polish Experiment" could have predicted such craziness, but Soszynski was the first mover in pulling pranks. Krzysztof Soszynski seems like a good guy, and his mischief was more annoying than harmless, like moving all silverware and dining room furniture outside onto the basketball court. But make no mistake, any person who procures "itching powder" and then sprinkles it on your bed and clothes is a villain.
6. Jamie Yager - Season: Liddell vs. Ortiz
It did not take long for Jamie Yager to establish himself as season 11's resident antagonist. It started with blowhorns at 3:00 am, escalated to calling teammates "a female dog", continued with near constant verbal sparring with several in the house, throwing flour and beans at a couple housemates, and concluded with challenging another fighter on the show to fight and not going through with it. As annoying as Team Ortiz's Yager must have been to live with, you simply had to admire his massive afro.
7. Jesse Taylor - Season: Rampage vs. Forrest
Jesse Taylor was a phenomenal villain to one person in the TUF house: Jesse Taylor. "JT Money" won his way onto the show and then won his three fights in
the house to put him into the finals against Amir Sadollah. In the series' biggest case of self-sabotage, Taylor was removed post-taping from the finals for an incident involving him running drunkenly through a Las Vegas casino, screaming he was in the UFC and kicking out a window of a rented limousine. Perhaps episode 11 - Taylor's inebriated alter-ego "Coco the Monkey" peed himself and nearly drowned in the hot tub - was foreshadowing of the chaos to come.
8. Jason Pierce - Season: US vs. UK
When TUF decided to separate the two rival teams by country, no one expected Team US's greatest adversary would be themselves. While Team UK immediately bonded like blood brothers, the "States" were wearing on each others' nerves. The focal point of this team turmoil was Team US's own Benedict Arnold in the form of Jason Pierce. An all-time classic betrayal, Pierce makes friends with the opposing team from across the pond, tells them the secrets of his own team's training sessions (treason?) and then lies to his coach about it. Coupled with a questionable work ethic and a bad attitude (plus a staph infection), it leaves Pierce as the 9th season's villain.
9. Matt Mitrione - Season: Heavyweights
While on the show, sleeper pick Mitrione was dubbed "Meathead" by his coaches and fellow fighters. He complained ad nauseum to his trainers about everything from his shoulder to possible swelling in his brain, and confessed that he spoke to himself and heard voices. He nearly attacked his teammate Jon Madsen during practice, and in his first fight he injured Scott Junk's eye, which led to a an emotional Marcus Jones trying to
fight Mitrione on behalf of Junk. It didn't help that his housemates created a betting pool on when the big guy would snap. Though he lost to James McSweeney in the series, "Meathead" lives in the UFC with a perfect 3-0 record, a "Fight of the Night" to his name and a match scheduled for 2011.
10. Inanimate Objects - Season: all
If there was one presiding enemy to all that enter the TUF house it would be "breakable items". In every single season of this reality show, cast members destroy just about every type of household furnishing that they can get their hands on or heads through. Think glasses, plates and chairs, plus large surfaces like walls and doors -- especially doors. This desire to "Hulk smash" inanimate objects affects both coach and contestant alike -- Quinton Jackson went "Rampage" on several doors during his two stints as a head coach.
Free Prelims on UFC.com/Live
For the first time ever, two preliminary bouts will be aired live and free online at http://www.ufc.com/live.
The Dustin Hazelett vs Mark Bocek and Dan Miller vs Joe Doerksen fights
will be available to everyone worldwide at no charge starting at 9pm
ET/ 6pm PT/ 2am GMT.