The Ultimate Fighter 20.01: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

By Nathan McCarter

The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 is finally here, and it opened with a shock. Randa Markos upset Tecia Torres in the first fight of the season. More on that in a bit.

The highly anticipated season has its tagline – A Champion Will Be Crowned. That is because the winner of this season will be the UFC’s strawweight world champion. The UFC signed 11 of Invicta FC’s 115-pound athletes, but only eight will be featured on the show. The other eight members of this season’s cast were hand-picked after tryouts.

Unlike in recent seasons, there were no fights to get into the house. Instead there was a slight twist to the tournament with seedings. This season’s coaches are UFC Lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and top contender Gilbert Melendez.

There is a lot to cover from the first episode, so let’s dive right into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the premiere episode:

The Good:

The first good that has to be mentioned is the cast itself. Finally, we once again have a cast of top-tier fighters. This is a very welcome change.

It was great to see the UFC mention Invicta FC, promote their product, and use the footage to hype its recently signed athletes.
Some of the best TUF production in recent seasons was shown tonight in the fighter profiles. We got a good look at several of the women in their home environments and their training camps. It helped the fans who are just learning about them get to know them on a personal level. It made a connection. Fantastic work by the UFC and Fox.

The seeded format is fantastic. It was the perfect way to do this season. It would have been disappointing for the coaches to pick two top ranked fighters to battle right away. Seeding them is the only thing that made sense.

Watching Melendez and Pettis evaluate their teams differently was great. We typically see differences in styles, but this was a stark contrast between the two. It will also be interesting to see which coach’s style is more effective with his team as the season draws on.

Heather Jo Clark and Felice Herrig are old rivals. And they are pitted against one another right away. I am sure that was done on purpose, but it makes a lot of sense. Their rivalry and fight will draw some interest, and this is a way to ensure we get to see that fight. That should be one of the more anticipated bouts of the opening round.

“You are in the UFC.” Dana White told the fighters they weren’t fighting for a contract because they are all signed. Nice to hear that considering the caliber of the cast.

The fight between Markos and Torres was great. Torres took the first round, and Markos battled back. Each fighter got to shine, and Torres got some perspective on what she needs to work on. She catapulted up the strawweight rankings very quickly without being too challenged on the mat. Markos highlighted the issues. This fight served as a learning experience for Torres, and put Markos on the map as a legitimate threat in this tournament in spite of her #14 seed.

The Bad:

I don’t know what it is with reality show producers that make them think foreshadowing is a good idea. Yet, they continue to do it. And I am not talking about a slight tease, I am talking about what could be considered a spoiler. They often show fight clips for TUF, and this time they alluded to both a fighter being kicked off with Dana saying, “You’re gone,” and a switch in teams from Melendez to Pettis. Why is this bad? The only logical thing that could cause a switch in teams is two fighters going up against one another. So when one of Melendez’s team wins, we may already deduce the other matchup before it airs. Dumb.

The team colors are very similar. Too similar.

Pettis struggled with the names for his fighters. He called Joanne Calderwood “Joanna”, and Randa Markos “Ronda”. I’m sure he’ll get it figured out, but it was cringeworthy.

Calderwood had her Twitter profile shown, as they do with all fighters, when she talked about her upcoming fight, but why is that bad? Calderwood recently just changed her Twitter name after coming out of the house to @DrKneevil. So, any fans who type in her old account will be disappointed.

The Ugly:

Alex Chambers, we need to have a talk about safety. The Australian fighter was filming a vlog while driving. Do not text and drive, and do not vlog and drive. Eyes on the road, people.

I have talked about this is past seasons, but the UFC needs to stop giving out Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Yes, they are a sponsor, but that is just not necessary. Find something different to do with the partnership.

The Ultimate Fighter 20