UFC Hall of Famer Randy (The Natural) Couture is getting into the reality TV game in full force.
Couture will be one of four coaches on a new MMA reality show produced by Spike TV, titled "Fight Master: Bellator MMA," which will also feature former UFC and Strikeforce champion Frank Shamrock, renowned trainer Greg Jackson, and current Bellator featherweight — and former title-holder — Joe Warren.
The four coaches will run separate fight camps for 32 up-and-coming welterweights, who will vie for a spot in a Bellator tournament and a US$100,000 cash prize.
The series, which will debut this summer, will include 10 one-hour episodes and will be filmed in New Orleans. The premiere will feature eight qualifying fights with each subsequent episode showcasing at least one bout.
Fights on the show will consist of two rounds instead of three, except for the final, which will take place on a live Bellator card.
While the concept is similar to the rival UFC’s long-running reality show “The Ultimate Fighter,” which aired on Spike for 14 seasons before the UFC signed a multi-year deal with FOX, there will be a few significant and intriguing differences.
For example, the fighters will choose their coach, not vice versa, and it will be done in the style of the NBC show “The Voice.”
Fighters will also have the opportunity to choose their opponents. There will be a seeding of the fighters and the one in the first position will get first pick, and so on.
“As the fighters’ control their own destiny, they will need to utilize strategy in and out of the cage if they want to succeed and advance each week,” Spike TV executive vice president of original series Sharon Levy said in a release. “The stakes are high and the wrong decision, whether it is picking an opponent you don’t match up well against or a coach and fight camp that you don’t work well with, can mean all the difference.”
The fight series is just one of two reality shows announced Tuesday that will involve Couture. The man nicknamed “The Natural” also hopes to find the same success with failing gyms that chefs Gordon Ramsay and Robert Irvine have done with failing restaurants.
Spike and Couture are collaborating on a series called "MMA Rescue" that will see the former UFC light-heavyweight and heavyweight title-holder use his smarts "to help take a failing gym on the ropes and turn it into a champion," according to the network.
Spike plans three one-hour episodes, with the opportunity to extend the series.
Couture, who owns his own Xtreme Couture chain of gyms, will also serve as executive producer.
The two shows are part of a "multi-year creative partnership" between Couture and Spike.
"We are thrilled to partner with such an emerging star in entertainment and an absolute icon in the sport of mixed martial arts," Levy said.
NOTES: Jackson said his role on the show won’t interfere with his duties as a trainer or cornerman to his large stable of UFC fighters. “I have responsibilities to those fighters as well; we’ve been able to work out the two,” Jackson said on a conference call … Couture’s son Ryan, who was under contract with Strikeforce, is expected to join the UFC, despite his father being so heavily involved with “the enemy” Bellator/Spike (and reportedly on very bad terms with UFC president Dana White). “Ryan’s his own man,” Couture said.
— With files from THE CANADIAN PRESS