"TUF" Enough?

By Dan Shaffer

So the big news coming out of the UFC on Tuesday was the announcement of the coaches for the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. Dana White announced that the two coaches of this years welterweight contestants would be Heavyweight contenders Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar. This decision surprised many because of the circumstances surronding JDS recently. He was supposed to fight Cain Velazques for the Heavyweight Title but with Cain's recent injury he is now left in limbo. Some expected him to just go on a long hiatus and wait Velazquez out and keep his comfy position as number one contender. Others expected him to have a filler fight just to keep him busy. But what no one expected was for Brock to come from nowhere to take this opportunity. Lesnar had been pretty quiet since his detruction at the hands of the new champ with rumors even suggesting he was done with MMA.

Now we are faced with another exciting Heavyweight matchup. It will follow the same look as Lesnar's last two fights: Can Brock avoid being punched in the face by someone who does it very well? And can JDS avoid being taken down long enough to hit Lesnar in the face? I'm glad this is the route UFC is taking with the absence of their HW champ. Sure JDS is putting his spot on the line unnessicarily but you would have to think these two would meet sometime down the road anyways so why not do it now. And yes Brock is coming off a straight beatdown but is there anyone else that is more deserving than him right now? I think it will be a fun fight no matter what and we will get a better idea of where each fighter stands in the Heavyweight picture.

As far as TUF goes, it doesn't really do much to get me excited about this season. JDS may not even speak English and if he does it won't be very well. And sure Brock can talk some trash when he wants to but these guys have no history, no feud that will spark them to get in each others face. My prediction is that Dana will try and get them to yell at each other which will just end up with Brock spitting and trying to sound fierce while JDS just looks at him trying to understand what he is saying. That scenario doesn't help anyone hype a fight that really doesn't need hyping. It's unfortunate that these two are stuck wasting their time as "coaches" when their fight is a huge main event seller just on paper. I'd much rather have had them go with two guys like Urijah Faber and Miguel Torres. Two guys who have made a bit of a name for themselves, are exciting and personable and would shine a light on the new weight classes in the UFC.