The Ultimate Fighter: Season Premiere Recap

 By: Dakota Cleland

The new season of The Ultimate Fighter premiered Tuesday night, and with it are two polarizing coaches in Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen, and 14 middleweight fighters looking to make it into the big leagues.

This 17th season will chronicle the road to the two coaches' title fight on April 27 at UFC 159 in Newark, N.J., as well as the middleweight tournament for a UFC contract, which will be given to the tournament winner two weeks prior.

This title fight has become more emotionally charged after Jones refused to fight Sonnen when Sonnen attempted to step in to replace the injured Dan Henderson at UFC 151 back in August, which then caused the entire card to be cancelled.

As announced by UFC president Dana White, the grand prizes of the show include a custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle for both the winning coach and the fighter, and of course a six-figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

There will also be bonuses aplenty in this show, with a $5,000 bonus for every time someone gets a knockout or submission finish and a $25,000 bonus for best knockout, best submission and fight of the season.

The first episode was all about setting the stage for the season. 28 men were set to fight each other in order to gain entry into the middleweight tournament and TUF house. It is hard to comment on what happened specifically in the fights, as there were 14 fights broadcasted between documentary-style footage and commercials over the course of two hours. As such, all of the fights were heavily clipped.

But the UFC certainly didn't fail to give us some noteworthy highlights:

•       One of the fastest finishes in TUF history occurred when Zak Cummings hit Nik Fekete with a right hand and got a TKO in seven seconds in the very first round.

•       The youngest fighter in TUF history gained entry into the house in 21-year-old Kelvin Gastelum from Yuma, Ariz.

•       Jimmy Quinlan defeated Mike Persons via first round TKO. Jones described Quinlan as having, “the best wrestling he's seen on the show thus far.”

•       Uriah Hall looked impressive in defeating Andy Enz and, according to Dana White, is the guy to beat this season.

•       We have a giant in the ranks in Englishman Luke Barnatt, who is 6 feet 6 inches tall. He will certainly be a challenge for fighters to defeat this season.

•       Gilbert Smith showed dominance when he kept Eric Wahlin on the ground for most of the fight.

In addition to the 14 fighters who advanced into the tournament, there will be two wild card entries who will appear next week.

After Jones and Sonnen picked teams, the first fight was booked for next week, which will be Luke Barnatt (S) vs. Gilbert Smith (J). This will be an interesting fight, seeing as Barnatt has a nine-inch height advantage over Smith.

This season also marks a new time slot for The Ultimate Fighter, a move planned to help save the show from getting abysmal Nielsen ratings like the past two seasons garnered on FX. So far, this strategy has worked, with the name value of the two coaches and the new time slot helping the season premiere get one and a half million viewers.

Team Jones

Clint Hester

Josh Samman

Bubba McDaniel

Gilbert Smith

Collin Hart

Adam Cella

Dylan Andrews

Team Sonnen

Luke Barnatt

Uriah Hall

Zak Cummings

Tor Troéng

Jimmy Quinlan

Kevin Casey

Kelvin Gastelum

Results from all of the fights:

Adam Cella vs. Jake Heun - Cella wins via first round submission (armbar).

Nik Fekete vs. Zak Cummings  - Cummings wins via first round TKO.

Kevin Casey vs. Eldon Sproat - Casey wins via submission (rear naked choke).

Tor Troéng vs Scott Rosa - Troéng wins via submission (rear naked choke).

Clint Hester vs Fraser Opie - Hester wins via decision.

Bubba McDaniel vs. Ryan Bigler - McDaniel wins via second round TKO.

Josh Samman vs. Lou Bercier - Samman wins by second round TKO.

Kelvin Gastelum vs. Kito Andrews - Gastelum wins via decision.

Jimmy Quinlan vs. Mike Persons - Quinlan wins via first round TKO.

Uriah Hall vs. Andy Enz - Hall wins by decision.

Eric Wahlin vs. Gilbert Smith - Smith wins via first round submission (arm triangle choke).

Luke Barnatt vs. Nicholas Kohring - Barnatt wins via decision.

Tim Williams vs. Dylan Andrews - Andrews wins via decision.

Collin Hart vs. Mike Jasper - Hart wins via first round submission (rear naked choke).