The UFC announced that The Ultimate Fighter Brasil: Team Wanderlei vs. Team Sonnen will be exclusively shown on the UFC Fight Pass. The announcement via UFC press release came on the heels of fisticuffs between the two coaches during the taping of the show.
Via UFC press release:
The first episode of TUF Brasil will be available, on demand, on UFC Fight Pass from 7pm PT/10pm ET on Sunday, March 9, just hours after airing on Brazilian television. Each new episode will then be available every Sunday at the same time.
Filming has already begun in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the bad blood between coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva has already resulted in incidents which UFC president Dana White could only describe as “crazy”, “nuts” and “absolute insanity.”
Bad blood has been on the boil between three-time UFC title challenger Sonnen and the legendary “Axe Murderer” for years and now that they are in close proximity to each other day-in, day-out, the pair is struggling to keep their mutual dislike in check.
Via MMA Fighting:
“Wanderlei and Chael fought,” White said. “Just today. They literally fought.”
While details aren’t entirely clear as to how the altercation started, White says the fight went on for awhile before it was broken up, and that one of Silva’s people jumped into the fray.
Payout Perspective:
If we are to connect the dots here, a press release comes out announcing that the season of TUF Brasil featuring the bitter rivals can only be seen on the UFC’s new digital subscription service on the same day that it is revealed that a fight broke out between the two coaches. Public relations at its best? It had been rumored for a while that Wandy-Chael would only be seen on The Fight Pass. This makes sense from the UFC perspective as the free trial ends the end of February and fans continuing to pay to subscribe will get the TUF Brasil season almost immediately. Whether the fight was a staged publicity stunt and/or a fight that could have been prevented but let go to promote the season, it gets those fans excited about these two fighting wanting to season this season of TUF.
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