The UFC announced the next season of The Ultimate Fighter franchise on Sunday with UFC strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejcyk coaching opposite Claudia Gadelha. The season will coach light heavyweight and strawweights with the season starting April 20th on FS1.
The series will culminate on July 8th in Las Vegas as part of International Fight Week with a fight between the coaches for Jedrzejcyk’s strawweight championship.
Via UFC press release:
The Ultimate Fighter®: Team Joanna vs. Team Claudia will kick-off on FS1 on Wednesday, April 20 with a two-hour season premiere airing at 10 p.m. ET as 32 competitors fight for one of 16 slots – eight in each weight class – available to be coached by two of the sport’s best. The season will continue with 11 one-hour shows Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET. The series is the highest rated and most watched original program since the network’s inception in August 2013.
Payout Perspective:
The series is a staple of FS1 programming and if the press release is correct, is very popular on the network. Of course, it is not comparing it to TUF when it was on Spike TV. Then again, that was a long time ago when MMA was not on television as much as it is now. The series should help with the profile of Joanna Jedrzejcyk as she is a great fighter and personality which will hopefully show throughout the series. With Ronda Rousey working on outside-MMA projects, Jedrzejcyk and Holly Holm will be pushed to help with the women’s demo. The Polish fighter should help with international fans as well.
The other news here is that we have some news on the events on International Fight Week which culminates with UFC 200. There will be at least one other show the same weekend as UFC 200. We will see if the UFC attempts to hold 3 shows as it did this past December.
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