Is TUF Still Looked Down Upon Due to "Lack of Good Fighters?"

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Purple Belt
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I've always read on here that TUF hasn't had any great fighters for years and should be stopped because the talent isn't even there. Looking back on the last 8 seasons or so you would see that isn't the case

TUF 10-
Roy Nelson, Top 10 HW
Brendan Schaub, Top 15 HW
Matt Mitrione, Top 20 HW

TUF 11-
Brad Tavares, Top 15 MW
Chris Camozzi, Not the best but definitely UFC caliber
Kyle Noke, Not the best but definitely UFC caliber
Court McGee, Has great potential and is definitely UFC caliber
Costa Phillipou, Lost his fight to get into the house but is now top 10 MW

TUF 12-
Michael Johnson, Top 10 LW
Alex Caceres, Top 15 BW

TUF 13
Tony Ferguson, 5-1 in UFC & Highly touted prospect
Ramsey Nijem, took a while but is now turning it on in the UFC

TUF 14
Jon Dodson, Top 5 FLW, Former Title challenger
TJ Dillashaw, Best BW in the world, UFC Title Holder
Dennis Bermudez, Top 10 FW
Diego Brandao, Top 15 FW
Brian Caraway, Top 15 BW
Louis Gaudinot, Top 15 FLW
Steven Siler, Quality FW
Roland Delorme, Quality BW

TUF 15
Myles Jury, Undefeated in UFC, Top 10 LW
Daron Cruickshank, Quality prospect at LW
Michael Chiesea, Quality prospect at LW, 4-1 in UFC
Al Iaquinta, Prospect will get a lot better over time

TUF 16 (really the only crap season lately)
Neil Magny, Proving himself to be UFC caliber.

TUF 17
Kelvin Gastelum, one of the best prospects at 170 lbs, Top 15 almost Top 10 WW
Luke Barnatt, 2-0 in the UFC and really making a name for himself
Uriah Hall, Has had some hiccups but seems to be becoming the fighter we all thought he could be
Clint Hester, Undefeated in the UFC, Quality MW prospect

TUF 18
Hard to tell due to lack of time but...
Chris Holdsworth seems to be a quality prospect
Chris Beal returned with a helluva knockout

My point is that pretty much every season has had at least one but likely more legit prospects to come out of it. You can't expect entire casts full of future title winners and title challengers. It's clear as day that TUF is undeserving of it's bad wrap.
 
Well the vast majority of guys you named are top 15 which is low level status.
 
Bigj383 said:
Lol at top 15 being low level.
Click to expand...

Lol well obviously anyone in the UFC is high level. However you do not need to have a show that winds up putting holds on divisions to get top 15 lvl guys.
 
There is a HUGE gap between top-5 and top-15 status. In fact I would say top 15 means nothing. All it means is that you have a UFC contract and are able to win against nobodies on the pre-prelims.

Guys like Dillashaw/Dodson are inevitable to rise to the top because the divisions were new to the UFC. The talent-level in those divisions weren't established, so TUF had first-pick of the best guys in the world to include. But, when is the last time we saw a real contender come through in one of the established divisions?

Looking at your list... Roy Nelson? Arguably he should have went straight to UFC based on his resume as IFL champ, but Dana White gave him the Kimbo treatment because he is fat.
 
johnyboy said:
Well the vast majority of guys you named are top 15 which is low level status.
Click to expand...

Right? If you aren't top 10 just quit fighting.

Since this is sherdog I have to emphasize I'm being sarcastic because we have full blown retards.
 
Tuf 14 is kind of a wash since those weightclasses were fairly new at the time and Flyweight wasn't even a thing yet. Could have just outright signed a lot of those guys to the UFC.
 
Most of those guys are destined to be journeymen/gatekeepers
 
They have fighting on TUF? I thought it was all fake drama like Big Brother.
 
By the overall population of MMA fans it is, but I disagree. If they can get even a few mainstays in each division then the season was a success. You can't have 16 guys on one season and expect them all to be superstars. They're all prospects (mostly) and they're not going to immediately jump into the top. Gastelum may be an exception though, he's climbing fast. TUF 17 was pretty good. TUF 14 is clearly the best season in a long time, and I've felt that way before Dillashaw beat Barao.
 
TUF in general (stateside) went 5-1 last night. Hard to complain about that rate of success.
 
thedevious said:
By the overall population of MMA fans it is, but I disagree. If they can get even a few mainstays in each division then the season was a success. You can't have 16 guys on one season and expect them all to be superstars. They're all prospects (mostly) and they're not going to immediately jump into the top. Gastelum may be an exception though, he's climbing fast. TUF 17 was pretty good. TUF 14 is clearly the best season in a long time, and I've felt that way before Dillashaw beat Barao.
Click to expand...


If you can turn 4 fighters out of 16 into average UFC guys, the season has to be determined a success.
 
Those are not the last 8 seasons, why u counted out the international seasons and the top 15 WBWs?
 
I don't think to many people look down on TUF fighters as necessarily lower caliber.
 
Getting a UFC contract and winning against fighters who also failed on TUF will automatically get you in the top 15. It doesn't mean anything.

You also gain that rank by having name value. If Claude Patrick and Kelvin Gastelum have a similar resume, Gastelum will be ranked much higher because people know him from the show.

TUF is just a way for Zuffa to make big stars out of fighters you wouldn't otherwise care about. No one would care about Gastelum at all if he wasn't featured on a reality show. It's sad.
 
Seems a bit like TUF nuthugging. Top 15 isn't that good, and most of the legit top 10 guys are in the lower weight classes and it makes sense as these divisions are new to the UFC. But yes, there's definitely some talent coming from TUF but it's been a couple of years for someone truly great.
 
TUF is still producing legit talent, some fans may not care, may think the format is stale and boring but its clearly still getting talent.
 
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