On Monday May 12th, Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced that current UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir would be the coaches for the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter. Then, as with most of the coaches, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir will fight at seasons end, most likely in December.
After UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture resigned from the UFC, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeated Tim Sylvia for the UFC Interim Heavyweight Title at UFC 81. Prior to that victory, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeated Heath Herring at UFC 73. Despite being undefeated in UFC competition, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira has also had a ton of success in international competition as well, mainly in the PRIDE organization.
Frank Mir is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, who never actually lost the title, but relinquished it after suffering career threatening injuries after a motorcycle accident. Frank Mir would return to the UFC at UFC 57 and lose to Marcio Cruz, then defeating Dan Christison at UFC 61, before dropping a fight to Brandon Vera at UFC 65. Frank Mir would rebound to become a top heavyweight contender again by defeating Antoni Hardonk at UFC 74 and Brock Lesnar at UFC 81.
The eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter will feature fighters from the heavyweight and welterweight weight classes. This will be the first time that the heavyweight weight class has been featured on The Ultimate Fighter since season two and the welterweight weight class was last featured on the sixth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
I want to focus on the choice of Frank Mir as the second coach of season eight of The Ultimate Fighter, because I personally feel that there are three other heavyweight fighters who deserve not only the opportunity to be the coach on TUF8, but deserve the title opportunity against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at the seasons conclusion. The three I believe deserve the opportunity more are Andrei Arlovski, Heath Herring and Fabricio Werdum.
Andrei Arlovski is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion who has put a string of victories together after losing the UFC Heavyweight Title, defeating Fabricio Werdum and Jake O’Brien. I truly believe that if it wasn’t for the current contract situation between Andrei Arlovski and the UFC, then the coaches slot would have been filled by Andrei Arlovski.
Up next is Heath Herring, who despite some early woes by losing to Jake O’Brien and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, then rebounded to defeat TUF2 heavyweight finalist Brad Imes and Cheick Kongo is recent fights. However, two things kept Heath Herring from being a coach and that is his two wins in the UFC weren’t concurrent and he has already fought UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira three times (once in the UFC, twice in PRIDE).
Finally, Fabricio Werdum is my third choice for a coach because the UFC silently named him to top contender for the UFC Heavyweight Title held by the estranged Randy Couture. It seems to me that the top contender should always be up for a title fight with whoever the champion is at the time, which now is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, at least until the Randy Couture situation is cleared up. Since Fabricio Werdum is not that well established a name yet to the UFC and American MMA audience, it won’t be his time to participate yet.
What you did get with the aforementioned Frank Mir though is a Rocky-esque comeback story as the fighter who never actually lost his UFC Heavyweight Title and getting one more opportunity the put the gold around his waist. When you come to think about it, from an interest building standpoint, it could actually be the best move for the UFC to make as far as getting the show ratings to continue to be strong when season eight actually progresses.
As for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, the current UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion, this will be his biggest exposure thus far to the North American audience, outside of his two previous UFC fights. The best thing the UFC can continue to do to get their fans memories of estranged UFC Heavyweight Champion Randy Couture to fade away is keep pushing the current UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira as the face of the heavyweight division.
Obviously, it is way to early to tell what will happen on the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter, but the addition of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir as the coaches will guarantee that some of the best in the UFC Heavyweight Division will be showcased for the national audience to see.
