By Dwight Wakabayashi
The Ultimate Fighter Live finale is set for this Friday night from The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and will mark an end to the fifteenth installment of the reality show. Along with the fight for the six-figure UFC contract between Mike Chiesa and Al Iaquinta, this finale is headlined in usual UFC fashion by a feature bout between Jake Ellenberger and Martin Kampmann. Both men are fighting to secure a future welterweight title shot, so their battle will be fierce and very intriguing.
Looking at the pivotal matchup brings back memories of some very nice feature fights and past TUF finales. It is always the intense combination of the competitors fighting to change their lives and the very relevant feature fights that make the finale show a success.
Taking a look back at all the fights from the previous 14 TUF finale events, here is my list of the Top 5 TUF finales in the UFC’s history.
5. The Ultimate Fighter 4: “The Comeback”
In the season of fighter comebacks, Matt Serra defeated Chris Lytle for a shot at the welterweight title and Travis Lutter got a shot at Anderson Silva by defeating Patrick Cote. Those fights were pretty entertaining but the undercard bout between Scott Smith and Pete Sell stole the show on the night with one of the most memorable fight finishes of all time.
4. The Ultimate Fighter 14: Bisping vs. Miller
This card delivered a great lightweight battle between previous season TUF winner Tony Ferguson and veteran Yves Edwards. Then it had a beautiful submission win by Diego Brandao followed by mighty mite John Dodson knocking out T.J. Dillashaw to give both winners a TUF title. We then got to see a beatdown of the now retired Jason Miller at the hands of Michael Bisping. It was a shockingly disappointing performance for Miller fans to watch and a beautiful performance by the controversial Brit.
3. The Ultimate Fighter 12: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck
Even though the much-anticipated fight between the coaches didn’t take place on this card, it delivered six good battles with various popular names in the mix. Nam Phan delivered a great performance and beat Leonard Garcia in the eyes of many, only to be denied a decision. Rick Story burst on the scene by taking out now contender Johny Hendricks, and Damian Maia defeated TUF alum Kendall Grove. Stephan Bonner was also on the card with a win over Igor Prokrajac. The finale fight was a good one as well as Jonathan Brookins edged out Michael Johnson for the title.
2. The Ultimate Fighter 9: U.S. vs U.K.
The feature fight on this card completely shocked the show and puts this TUF card at No. 2 on this list. This was the night that Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida went to war and everything else took a back seat. Joe Stevenson also defeated current superman Nate Diaz in a tough fight and Ross Pearson and James Wilks gave the United Kingdom some bragging rights by taking both TUF titles.
1. The Ultimate Fighter 1
This one is the obvious choice with the best finale fight of all time and a battle between two future stars, as well as a real changing-of-the-guard fight between two true legends of the sport. Forrest Griffin edged out Stephan Bonnar in the UFC’s No. 1 fight of all time in significance and in performance, while Diego Sanchez dominated Kenny Florian to take the first TUF titles ever. Then, Rich Franklin put a quick beatdown on Ken Shamrock in a light-heavyweight bout that marked the true arrival of Franklin.
Honourable Mention
The Ultimate Fighter 2 (Joe Stevenson and Rashad Evans won the titles, while Diego Sanchez defeated Nick Diaz in the main event), The Ultimate Fighter 10: Heavyweights (Roy Nelson defeated Brendan Schaub in the main event, while Jon Jones lost to Matt Hamill as a result of a disqualification in the co-main event)
Dwight Wakabayashi is a featured columnist for BleacherReport.com and a writer/analyst for MMACanada.net. Follow him on Twitter @wakafightermma.
