Here we go again, with another season of the seemingly endless Ultimate Fighter series. This one is featuring fourteen middleweights, and coached by the reigning UFC lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones and his next challenger Chael Sonnen. As has been the case in most recent seasons, the show starts out with 28 fighters facing off in the first episode, with the winners moving into the ‘TUF’ house and the losers going home.

Some notable facts, thus far:

• Sweden’s Tor ‘The Hammer’ Troeng is the only Top 50 ranked fighter on the season, head and shoulders above the remaining pool.
• Only fourteen fighters are in the house instead of the usual sixteen; two of the first-round losers will be brought back in ‘wildcard’ spots.
• Most of the preliminary matchups were won by the higher ranked fighter (11/14)
• There is a much more even distribution of ranked fighters among the two teams than in Season 16 (which was ultimately won by the unranked Colton Smith)

After the fights are over, coaches pick their teams, and here’s how they stack up:

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In Episode 10, Team Nelson took a win in the first quarter-final bout, as Colton Smith outgrappled and dominated Igor Araujo for a unanimous decision.

In the second quarter-final fight, two of Team Carwin fighters squared off, and Neil Magny came away the winner with another unanimous decision after two rounds.

This is another season of upsets, as the top 6 ranked fighters are already eliminated from the competition.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 4, Team Nelson 5 in head-to-head matchups.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 9, Mike Ricci defeated Dom Waters in a three-round unanimous decision, giving Team Carwin their fourth win and tying the tally at 4-4 in the first round bouts.

Quarter-Final matchups were announced, and two of them will be pitting teammates against each other:

[#72 MW] Bristol Marunde vs [#327 MW] Neil Magny
[#142 WW] Igor Araujo vs [NR] Colton Smith
[#441 WW] Joey Rivera vs [#496 WW] John Manley
[#164 WW] Mike Ricci vs [#489 WW] Mike Hill

The current win tally is Team Carwin 4, Team Nelson 4 in head-to-head matchups.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 8, Team Nelson keeps control of the matchups, and pulls ahead for the first time as John Manley forced a tapout from James Chaney with a guillotine choke in the first round. James ‘The Snake’ Chaney lived up to his nickname, biting Manley to try to escape the choke.

Dana White visited the fighters in the TUF house, giving his patented “do you want to be a fighter” speech, and threatening that all the fighters won’t get a slot at the finale if they don’t step up their performances. Judging by the fact that there are 12 bouts already lined-up for the December 15th live finale, the fighters didn’t take heed to his words and Dana lives up to his promise.

Next week, Dom Waters takes on Mike Ricci in the remaining first-round matchup.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 3, Team Nelson 4.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 7, Coach Nelson once again leaves the match-making to chance and his fighters. This time it works out better for the team, with some help from the judges, as Mike Hill scores a split decision win after going three rounds with Matt Secor. Another bizzare decision – this is the theme for the season. As usual, Dana White is exasperated and furious with the judges.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 3, Team Nelson 3.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 6, Team Nelson scores another upset as Colton Smith takes a majority decision over Eddy Ellis. Once again, Dana White is not happy with the judges’ scores, and feels the fight should have gone to the third round.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 3, Team Nelson 2. Looks like more wacky matchmaking is ahead for Team Nelson in the next episode, meaning they will likely not keep control of match-ups for long.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 4, Coach Nelson employed a bizzare approach to matchmaking, having his fighters draw straws to determine who gets to fight this week. Julian Lane drew the short straw and chose Bristol Marunde as his opponent. The results were disastrous, with tentative Lane losing an unanimous decision in an uneventful two-rounder. Team Carwin regains the lead as well the control of matchmaking.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 2, Team Nelson 1.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 3, Team Nelson tied the score with a huge upset win, as Nelson’s second-to-last pick Joey ‘Boom Boom’ Rivera outworked Sam Alvey, Carwin’s top pick and the overall top rank of the season. Rivera earned a majority decision after two rounds, with the scores of 20-18, 20-18, 19-19.

The current win tally is Team Carwin 1, Team Nelson 1.

All rankings are approximate as-of Episode 2 airing.

[#71 MW] Sam Alvey [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [#149 WW] Leo Kuntz by TKO
Episode 3: lost to [#441 WW] Joey Rivera by majority decision

[#72 MW] Bristol Marunde [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [#174 MW] George Lockhart by submission

[#129 WW] Eddy Ellis [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] David Michaud by submission

[#142 WW] Igor Araujo [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [#300 MW] Cortez Coleman by submission

[#147 WW] Nick Herron-Webb [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [#133 MW] Tim Ruberg by submission

[#215 WW] James Chaney [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] Jerel Clark by submission

[#164 LW] Mike Ricci [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [#83 MW] Jason South by TKO

[#292 WW] Cameron Diffley [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] Zane Kamaka by submission
Episode 2: lost to [#327 MW] Neil Magny by unanimous decision

[#327 MW] Neil Magny [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] Frank Camacho by unanimous decision
Episode 2: defeated [#292 WW] Cameron Diffley by unanimous decision

[#441 WW] Joey Rivera [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [#386 LW] Saad Awad by majority decision
Episode 3: defeated [#71 MW] Sam Alvey by majority decision

[#489 WW] Mike Hill [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] Lev Magen by TKO

[#496 WW] John Manley [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [#186 WW] Ricky Legere Jr by unanimous decision

[#460 LW] Julian Lane [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [NR] Diego Bautista by unanimous decision

[NR] Dom Waters [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [#132 WW] Kevin Nowaczyk by TKO

[NR] Colton Smith [Team Nelson]
Episode 1: defeated [#325 MW] Jesse Barrett by unanimous decision

[NR] Matt Secor [Team Carwin]
Episode 1: defeated [#304 WW] Max Griffin by submission

I will be honest: I was not planning on doing the usual episode recaps for Season 16 of The Ultimate Fighter. Even after some kind reminders from our readers, I was at best lukewarm to the idea. The reason for this is that I believe the Ultimate Fighter series has ran its course; the format has become quite stale, and after fifteen seasons it went from ‘must watch TV’ for me to being just another show buried on the DVR that I might get to later in the week, if time allows. And if the sagging ratings are any indication, I am not the only UFC viewer who feels this way. After attempting a switch to the ‘TUF Live’ format in Season 15, UFC and FX didn’t find the live production to be cost effective and went back to the same tired format this season. As a result, the viewership is at its lowest point in the existence of the series, failing to break 1 million viewers in the first two episodes. Let’s face it, it’s very difficult for any show to keep its audience for that many seasons. Very few television series remain on air for this long, and I guess ‘TUF’ just doesn’t have the timeless appeal of shows like The Simpsons.

Nevertheless, I decided to take a look at the rankings of the Season 16 cast, and the results surprised me in two ways: first, the overall rankings of fighters who made it into the house were higher than I expected based on other recent seasons, and also there was a large discrepancy in the average ranking of the fighters picked for the two teams. And so, I am now actually curious to see how this tournament will break down. So here we are, a little late with our recap of Epsidose 1 & 2 of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Carwin vs Team Nelson – or ‘TUF 16’, for short. Though some of the contestants are ranked in different weight divisions, they are all competing as welterweights on the show.

Keep reading to see how they stack up, with Team Carwin up 1-0 after the first team-vs-team matchup.  Better late than never!

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In the last episode, Team Faber took home both of the semi-final bouts: Al Iaquinta earning a unanimous decision against Vinc Pichel, and Mike Chiesa stopping James Vick with ground-and-pound.

The final win tally is Team Faber 9, Team Cruz 5 in team-vs-team matchups.

Here’s the final ranking breakdown. This has been the season of upsets, with a middle-of-the pack fighter going to the finals against one of the lowest “seeds” in the tournament:

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In Episode 11,  Team Cruz’s Vinc Pichel defeated Chris Saunders by majority decision.  The remaining two Team Faber fighters were left to face each other, with Al Iaquinta stopping Andy Ogle with a TKO in the first round.

The semi-finals will be taking place in the next week’s episode:

Team Faber’s Al Iaquinta vs Team Cruz’s Vinc Pichel

Team Faber’s Mike Chiesa vs Team Cruz’s James Vick

Current win tally is Team Cruz 5, Team Faber 7 in team-vs-team matchups.

Here’s who remains:

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In Episode 10, the teams split the first two quarterfinal bouts.  Team Cruz’s James Vick pulled out a decision against Joe Proctor, while Team Faber’s Mike Chiesa forced a stoppage against Justin Lawrence with ground-and-pound in the overtime round.

Current win tally is Team Cruz 4, Team Faber 6.

Here’s who remains:
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