Forrest Griffin (Photo: heavy.com)
The Ultimate Fighter
Season 1 Finale – Las Vegas, Nev. – Cox Arena – April 9, 2005
An electric battle of newcomers
launched UFC into the mainstream of the sports world at The Ultimate Fighter
Season 1 finale.
Forrest Griffin defeated Stephan
Bonnar by unanimous decision in the best fight of the year, drawing millions of
fans to the first live MMA show on cable TV.
Everything UFC achieved later – fights
on Fox TV, coverage on ESPN, million-selling pay-per-views – can be traced
directly to this fight.
The Ultimate Fighter was a reality show that
ran on Spike TV for 14 seasons before moving to the Fox family of networks.
Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture were the coaches during Season 1, and they fought one week later on the UFC 52 pay-per-view.
Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture were the coaches during Season 1, and they fought one week later on the UFC 52 pay-per-view.
TUF drew big numbers on Spike TV,
retaining more than half of the viewers from WWE Monday Night Raw.
Bonnar was so impressive in defeat
that he also earned a UFC contract from company president Dana White.
Three
years after his big win, Griffin defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson to win the
UFC light heavyweight title.
At the TUF
1 reunion three years later, White said,"It's amazing to think how
close we came to not being here today. If it weren't for what these guys did, I
don't know if there would even be a UFC. I'll never forget these guys. Ever.”
In the
main event of the telecast, Rich Franklin defeated Ken Shamrock by TKO at the
2:42 mark.
Diego
Sanchez won TUF 1’s middleweight tournament by defeating Kenny Florian by TKO
in 2:46.
Sanchez
went on to challenge B.J. Penn for the UFC lightweight title at UFC 107. He
also invented the
“YES!” chant, which was popularized by Daniel Bryan in WWE.
Florian
got three title shots (against Sean Sherk, B.J. Penn and Jose Aldo), but he was
unsuccessful each time. Florian eventually moved on to become a UFC broadcaster.
The
preliminary bouts also featured several fighters who went on to successful MMA careers.
Bobby
Southworth lost by unanimous decision to Sam Hoger, but Southworth went on to
become the first Strikeforce light heavyweight champion in 2006.
Josh
Koscheck knocked out Chris Sanford at the 4:21 mark. Koscheck went on to
challenge
Georges St. Pierre for the UFC welterweight title in 2010.
Nate
Quarry beat Lodune Sincaid by TKO in 3:17. Quarry was fast-tracked to a
middleweight title match later in the year. Sincaid won the WEC light
heavyweight title in 2006.
In
other bouts, Chris Leben defeated Jason Thacker by TKO in 1:35; Alex Karalexis
by Josh Rafferty by TKO at the 1:40 mark; and Mike Swick knocked out Alex
Schoenauer in 20 seconds.
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