The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 Finale: Suga and Stevenson

Joe Stevenson (Photo: alchtetron.com)

The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 Finale – Las Vegas, Nev. – Hard Rock Hotel & Casino - Nov. 5, 2005

Rashad "Suga" Evans and Joe Stevenson won UFC jobs by triumphing in The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 finale.

Evans won the heavyweight tournament by scoring a split decision over Brad Imes, who deserves credit for almost winning after being the last coaches’ pick.

Stevenson captured the welterweight tournament with a unanimous decision over Luke Cummo, who was also the last pick in his division.

Evans overcame an eight-inch height disadvantage to beat the 6-foot-7 Imes. Stevenson won his bout despite the fact that he tore his clavicle from his sternum during training.

Evans had the most success from the TUF 2 crop, as he won the light heavyweight title three years later at UFC 92 over TUF 1 winner Forrest Griffin.

The coaches for TUF 2 were welterweight champion Matt Hughes and middleweight champion Rich Franklin. 

However, we didn’t get this mouth-watering battle of the champs because they were friends and refused to fight each other.

UFC scored an all-time high rating of 2.0 for the finale. TUF 1 winner Diego Sanchez headlined the show with a unanimous decision win over Nick Diaz.

In the opener on Spike TV, Kenny Florian defeated Kit Cope by rear naked choke in Round 2.

Josh Burkman knocked out Sammy Morgan in 21 seconds in a preliminary bout. Burkman did not gel with Team Hughes and was eventually moved to Team Franklin.

In other prelim fights, Keith Jardine defeated Kerry "The Meat Truck" Schall by TKO in Round 2; and Melvin Guillard beat Marcus Davis on a second-round TKO.