The Final Fighter has been round for therefore lengthy that it is simple to overlook how massive the present was.
There was a time when TUF was appointment tv for UFC followers. You watched fighters reside collectively, watched them prepare, watched them get into dumb arguments over meals or laundry or no matter else occurs whenever you lock a bunch of fighters in a home, after which watched them battle for a UFC contract.
And it labored. Rather well.
Now, although? TUF feels extra like one thing the UFC has as a result of it is at all times had it.
That is why Paddy Pimblett’s newest concept caught my consideration.
Pimblett needs to educate a season of The Final Fighter reverse Ilia Topuria, with the 2 ultimately combating on the finish of the season. And truthfully, this may be precisely what the present wants.
Not as a result of Paddy and Ilia want TUF. They completely do not. Each guys are already large stars.
TUF wants them.
As a result of for the primary time shortly, you might construct a whole season round two fighters who have already got a cause to dislike one another, two fan bases that may truly care about what occurs and a battle on the finish that individuals already wish to see.
That is the way you make TUF matter once more.
The present does not have to faux it is 2005. It simply wants to determine what TUF can do in 2026 that the UFC’s infinite stream of social media content material cannot.
And Paddy and Ilia may be the right experiment.
That is actually what made the unique seasons so good. You did not know Forrest Griffin earlier than TUF. You did not know Stephan Bonnar. You did not know Rashad Evans or Michael Bisping or Nate Diaz. Then you definitely watched them each week.
You noticed the personalities. You noticed the arguments. You noticed the coaches. You noticed the blokes get their asses kicked in coaching after which have to show round and battle for his or her UFC careers. By the point the finale got here round, these weren’t random fighters anymore.
You knew them.
That is more durable to do now as a result of the UFC has a lot content material coming at followers from each path. And that is not essentially a foul factor. It is truly one of many largest benefits the UFC has.
The issue is that TUF hasn’t actually discovered tips on how to use it.
Think about a TUF season the place Paddy and Ilia are literally the story.
Not some manufactured reality-show beef. Not two coaches pretending to hate one another as a result of the producers informed them to. Paddy genuinely needs to battle Ilia. Ilia genuinely does not like Paddy.
That is sufficient.
Paddy has already talked about getting beneath Ilia’s pores and skin in the course of the season. He mainly needs six weeks of free entry to the man he is attempting to battle.
And also you already know the UFC would have an absolute discipline day with it. Each argument turns into a clip. Each coaching session turns into a clip. Each little remark turns into a TikTok. The battle bulletins turn out to be content material. The coaches’ press conferences turn out to be content material. The fighters in the home turn out to be content material.
That is the half that feels completely different now.
TUF does not need to compete with the digital era. It may be constructed for it.
TUF should not attempt to recreate the precise system that labored 20 years in the past. The followers aren’t the identical anymore. In 2005, in case you wished to comply with a fighter, you mainly needed to watch the present or look ahead to the subsequent UFC occasion.
Now you may watch a fighter’s total profession in your telephone: so use that.
Give followers longer behind-the-scenes footage. Give them the humorous stuff. Give them the arguments. Give them the coaching footage that usually will get minimize down to twenty seconds. Let the fighters truly be individuals.
After which flip all of that into the short-form content material that the UFC is already pumping out each single day. The present turns into the supply materials.
TikTok will get the clips. Instagram will get the clips. YouTube will get the clips. X will get the quotes. Abruptly, TUF is not some outdated actuality present attempting to outlive within the trendy UFC: It is the content material manufacturing facility.
That is the opposite cause Paddy and Ilia makes a lot sense. There may be an precise battle on the finish of this. And it is a battle individuals already wish to see.
The UFC would not need to spend six weeks convincing followers that the coaches ought to battle one another. They’d already be invested earlier than episode one.
By the point the finale arrives, you’ve got spent weeks watching Paddy and Ilia speak trash, coach their groups and attempt to get beneath one another’s pores and skin. Now put them within the Octagon, that is the payoff.
TUF turns into what it was at all times speculated to be: a method to make individuals care extra concerning the battle. Perhaps that is what the present has been lacking. Not higher fighters. Not greater manufacturing. Not one other determined try to recreate the glory days. Only a cause to observe.
Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria might present precisely that.
The Final Fighter does not must be what it was. It simply must really feel prefer it belongs within the new era.
