Tonight on the UFC Vegas 12 broadcast, it was officially announced that The Ultimate Fighter would be returning in March of 2021. The Ultimate Fighter will feature fighters in the men’s bantamweight division and the middleweight division.
The UFC‘s reality show will air exclusively on ESPN+. On the broadcast, it was announced that the UFC is currently conducting virtual auditions for the show. The announcement was made tonight for the show, but there was one thing missing.
The UFC did not announce who would be the coaches for the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter. There has been plenty of speculation about who could be the coaches. However, we were left in the dark on that one.
The show has produced some of the best fighters the promotion has ever seen. Guys like Kamaru Usman and Tony Ferguson are two that come to mind. UFC champions have been bred from The Ultimate Fighter, and it’s very exciting that the UFC is officially bringing it back to ESPN+.
Who will be the UFC’s coaches?
While there were no official announcements from the UFC, we can certainly start to speculate on who will coach the next season of TUF. One option that sticks out in my mind would be to have Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns coach the next season.
The two were originally supposed to fight at UFC 256, however the fight was scrapped due to some lingering injuries for Burns. We don’t know when exactly the fight will take place. However, if it can’t take place until April, that would be an option for the promotion.
A sexier option could be to have Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington coach the next season. Masvidal has blossomed into one of the biggest stars in the sport. Colby Covington who’s his former friend has turned into his biggest rival.
The UFC is currently working to book those two in a fight against each other, but nothing is finalized. Perhaps they could coach the next season of TUF to build that fight up even more. However, I’m not sure the UFC will want to push the fight that far out.
Another possibility would be Israel Adesanya and Jan Blachowicz. Tonight, the promotion announced that Adesanya would be moving up to light heavyweight to challenge Blachowicz next year. Could be another avenue for the promotion to build up one of their biggest stars.