Do you want to be a fighter!?
TUF returns March 2021 – exclusively on
#ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/zSvCHrP27a— UFC (@ufc)
November 1, 2020
“The Ultimate Fighter” will make its return in 2021.
The Las Vegas-based promotion announced during the UFC Fight Night
181 broadcast Saturday that Season 29 of the reality show will
premiere on ESPN+ in March. “TUF 29” will feature bantamweights and
middleweights, with tryouts for the show beginning in November.
Coaches for “TUF 29” will be announced at a later date. Initially,
the promotion floated a possibility of Khabib
Nurmagomedov and Conor
McGregor as opposing coaches, but Nurmagomedov
rejected that idea and then announced his retirement after UFC
254.
According to a release, the previous 28 seasons of “TUF” will be
available for fans to watch on ESPN+.
The most recent iteration of the series, “TUF 28,” premiered in
August 2018 and featured Robert
Whittaker and Kelvin
Gastelum as opposing coaches. The show included men’s
heavyweights and women’s featherweights, with Juan Espino
and Macy
Chiasson emerging victorious at the “TUF 28” finale.
The intial season of “TUF” launched the UFC into another level of
mainstream acceptance, thanks in large part to an entertaining
battle between Forrest
Griffin and Stephan
Bonnar at the finale on April 9, 2005.
Over the years, the show has featured a number of prominent
fighters, including Kamaru
Usman, Tony
Ferguson, T.J.
Dillashaw, Rose
Namajunas, Michael
Bisping, Nate Diaz,
Michael
Chiesa, Al Iaquinta,
Kelvin
Gastelum, Rashad
Evans, Uriah Hall,
Diego
Sanchez and John Dodson,
to name a few.