What’s the difference between TUF and Dana White’s Contender Series?

[The_Renaissance]

The latter is much, much, much better. Better quality of prospect, better fights in general and none of the puerile in-house 'drama' that got old a long time ago. I used to love TUF until around season......dunno.....maybe like 22 or something? Maybe a bit before. I've officially become one of those guys who "doesn't watch TUF" but it's just run a bit dry for me. The last few seasons have featured too much tripe I don't care about (WMMA, washouts from previous seasons for 'Redemption'). I will try to catch the HW season next, but have found the current one hard to follow due to work etc. I made sure to download DWCS earlier though, was decent.

 

[BjPenn2017]

Dana contender series kind of reminds me of those old strikeforce challengers cards. Should just get rid of TUF and have one of these contender cards once every week or two to replace the tuf season.

 

[FrankieNYC]

I haven’t seen The Contender yet.

TUF is more expensive to produce & is on TV
Tuf has become harder & harder to get fighters of caliber to agree to do because of being away 6 weeks & the exposure going down

It was good to great while it lasted

 

[Crimson Glory]

Cuts out most of the reality garbage, gets straight to the point:

Fighters fighting eachother.

Much better imo.

 

[Headkicktoleg]

This is the best part of it, its not 1 fight a week or whatever they are doing with TUF now (to be fair, I haven’t watched much of TUF in a while), they just have fight after fight. None of that real world reality tv bs going on. Just a couple min promo of each guy and boom, fights on.

I kinda hope they get rid of TUF and just have this as the main show for the UFC outside of the actual events.

last episode of TUF I watched didn't even have a fight lol. Dude got craps and they filmed him having craps for like 15 minutes.

 

[FrankieNYC]

I kinda hope they get rid of TUF and just have this as the main show for the UFC outside of the actual events.

Its not part of the ESPN deal, so odds are its gone

 

[dim_]

These are real fights, the ultimate fighter are not official bouts.

thats really just a technicality though. the tuf fights are as real as the contender show bouts.

the only reason they are "exhibition bouts" is because that way they dont have to declare the results ahead of broadcast

If they made them real bouts the results would all have to be declared by the commissions, purses declared etc. its basically so they can keep the results secret till the shows are aired.

they are just as "real" as any other fight (except if one fighter is two rounds up after two then they dont have a third round)

 

[chrisdiaz]

thats really just a technicality though. the tuf fights are as real as the contender show bouts.

the only reason they are "exhibition bouts" is because that way they dont have to declare the results ahead of broadcast

If they made them real bouts the results would all have to be declared by the commissions, purses declared etc. its basically so they can keep the results secret till the shows are aired.

they are just as "real" as any other fight (except if one fighter is two rounds up after two then they dont have a third round)

Not true, those fights dont go on your record or count for anything other than respect in the ufc. I understand the reason they do it but to say TUF fights are official professional bouts would be wrong.

Just like all these guys on this season are still undefeated in MMA even if they lose. It may be a technicality but its a very important one. Imagine if you went 6-0 into TUF and won every fight except the finale. Your record would be 6-1 and you wouldnt look any better on paper.

 

[dim_]

Not true, those fights dont go on your record or count for anything other than respect in the ufc. I understand the reason they do it but to say TUF fights are official professional bouts would be wrong.

i didnt say tuf fights are professional fights, but i did explain why they are done as exhibitions. Im not sure what you are saying not true about. im guessing you didnt actaully read my post.

there is absolutely zero difference between joe bloggs beating gus smith on TUF, and Joe bloggs beating gus smith on Contender series apart from thet technicality which is purely to keep results secret till broadcast

they dont have different rules (apart from the 2 rounds up., no third round), they dont have different sized gloves, they dont have different regulations, they dont have a different cage size, they dont have different judging criteria.

a win is a win.. people like to discredit tuf wins, when there is no fundemental difference between them.

 

[chrisdiaz]

i didnt say tuf fights are professional fights, but i did explain why they are done as exhibitions. Im not sure what you are saying not true about. im guessing you didnt actaully read my post.

there is absolutely zero difference between joe bloggs beating gus smith on TUF, and Joe bloggs beating gus smith on Contender series apart from thet technicality which is purely to keep results secret till broadcast

they dont have different rules (apart from the 2 rounds up., no third round), they dont have different sized gloves, they dont have different regulations, they dont have a different cage size, they dont have different judging criteria.

a win is a win.. people like to discredit tuf wins, when there is no fundemental difference between them.

Dude I clearly explained what the difference is and you said it yourself, one is an exibition and one is a real fight. One fight counts on your record the other doesnt. People like you just choose to read what you want..

There is a clear difference but it hurts your point so you dont want to agree.

 

[dim_]

Dude I clearly explained what the difference is and you said it yourself, one is an exibition and one is a real fight. One fight counts on your record the other doesnt. People like you just choose to read what you want..

There is a clear difference but it hurts your point so you dont want to agree.

argh... jesus christ. ive fucking explained why its called an exhibition, its purely a technicality.

is there any difference in skill, strategy, fight iq, strength, endurance, ruleset, judging criteria between fighter a fighting fighter b on tuf and fighter a fighting fighter b on contender series?

 

[chrisdiaz]

argh... jesus christ. ive fucking explained why its called an exhibition, its purely a technicality.

is there any difference in skill, strategy, fight iq, strength, endurance, ruleset, judging criteria between fighter a fighting fighter b on tuf and fighter a fighting fighter b on contender series?

I acknowledged they are exbition fights in my first post and that I knew why. It still doesnt effect a fighters record, how can you not see how thats a big deal?

You would fight differently because you only have two rounds to win. Your also going to be fighting again shortly so you may either cruise to decision or go for a quick ko. Theres actually a few differences in strategy. I dont think you can elbow on tuf either.

So yes i just gave you multiple reasons why they are different but you will probably ignore them.

EDIT: also the fact that you can have your real trainers corner you is one of the biggest and most important things.