The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra

The Ultimate Fighter 6: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra is the sixth season of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, and premiered on September 19, 2007 on Spike TV, after UFC Fight Night 11. This season features only welterweight fighters (156-170 lb). The teams are coached by former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and former welterweight champion Matt Hughes. The coaches were to fight for the Welterweight title after the completion of the show, on December 29 at UFC 79:Nemesis from the Mandalay Bay Events Center.^[1] however due to an injury sustained by Serra, Hughes faced top contender Georges St. Pierre on the 29th, with St. Pierre defeating Hughes by submission in the second round and going on to challenge Serra for the undisputed welterweight title at a later date.

Both coaches are participating in a series of TUF for the second time. Hughes was a coach on series 2 and Serra won the welterweight division on series 4, thus earning the opportunity to face Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69.

Unlike in previous seasons, the winner of a match does not determine which team picks the next match. The teams alternate picking matches in the first round, regardless of results, and the team that has the most wins picks the fights for the quarterfinals.

Cast

Coaches and trainers

• Team Serra
  • Matt Serra, head coach
  • Ray Longo, kickboxing coach
  • Pete Sell, BJJ Coach

• Team Hughes
  • Matt Hughes, head coach
  • Robbie Lawler, Boxing coach
  • Matt Pena
  • Marc Fiore

Fighters

Team Hughes

• Dan Barrera, Blake Bowman, Mac Danzig, Paul Georgieff, Billy Miles, Dorian Price, Jared Rollins and Tommy Speer^[2]

Team Serra

• Matt Arroyo, Richie Hightower, John Kolosci, Troy Mandaloniz, Roman Mitichyan (replaced by Jon Koppenhaver after an injury), Ben Saunders, Joe Scarola, and George Sotiropoulos^[2]

Others

• Host: Dana White
• Narrator: Mike Rowe

Tournament format

• The fights in the first round of the tournament will be decided by the two coaches alternating picks. For instance, if Team Serra picks the first fight and wins, Team Hughes will still pick the second fight. This will go throughout the first round of the tournament, with picks alternating with the outcome of the fights having nothing to do with the next fight.
• In round two, the team with more wins in round one will pick all of the round two fights.

Episodes

Episode 1 - Don't You Tap

• Roman Mitichyan fractures his elbow during the evaluation session and was replaced by Jon Koppenhaver.
• Team Hughes picks the first fight.
• Mac Danzig submits Joe Scarola by triangle choke at 4:54 of the first round.

Episode 2 - I Need You, Bro

• Team Serra chooses the second fight.
• Joe Scarola considers leaving the house.
• Matt Arroyo submits Dorian Price by rear naked choke at 1:48 of the first round.

Episode 3 - It's About Character

• Team Hughes chooses Billy Miles to fight John Kolosci.
• Both teams watch UFC 72.
• Matt Serra and Joe Scarola have a talk about Joe still wanting to leave the house.
• Upon returning from UFC 72, Dana White has a talk with Joe Scarola.
• Joe Scarola decides to leave the house. He also loses his job back at home teaching at Matt Serra's academy due to his departure.
• John Kolosci submits Billy Miles in the first round by guillotine choke at 2:56 of the first round.

Episode 4 - Get Out Of My Face

• Frustrated by Billy's lack of effort in his fight, Matt Hughes puts his team through a strenuous workout.
• Team Serra chooses Richie Hightower to fight Blake Bowman
• Dorian Price has a confrontation with members of the filming crew. Dana allows him to stay, but warns if it happens again, he will be sent home.
• After workouts, a cake is delivered to the house for Blake Bowman's birthday, and Jon Koppenhaver takes the initiative to decorate it for Bowman. Then all the fighters celebrate his birthday together at the house.
• Mac Danzig expresses how much he dislikes Richie Hightower, saying that he is not even sure what Hightower is doing here.
• Richie Hightower defeats Blake Bowman at 0:49 of the first round by TKO (strikes).

Episode 5 - Not A Real Fighter

• The Fighters get to watch the Finale of TUF 5.
• Mac Danzig goes off on Blake Bowman after they watch the replay of Bowman's friend, Cole Miller defeat Danzig's friend, Andy Wang, by TKO in the TUF 5 Finale. He tells Bowman, "you aren't a real fighter, just a hick from Alabama, or wherever the f*** you're from."
• Paul Georgieff receives news from his mother, after Matt Hughes arrives at the house and allows him a phone call, that his 19-year-old cousin has died.
• Dana allows Georgieff to fly home for the funeral, only if Paul fights before he leaves.
• Because of the circumstances, Team Hughes chooses Paul Georgieff to fight Troy Mandaloniz.
• Bowman tells all the fighters what Danzig said to him earlier, and all the other fighters agree with Bowman and think it was completely uncalled for Danzig to say that about him for no reason. Ben Saunders says he considers Bowman a fighter just like everyone else who is here.
• Matt Hughes gets wind of what happened at the house, and he has a talk with his team the next day during practice, calling out Mac Danzig and saying that he should apologize.
• Ben Saunders, Troy Mandaloniz, and Jon Koppenhaver draw Mac Danzig's face on a milk carton while Team Hughes is away at practice, and they repeatedly beat it all throughout the house.
• Troy Mandaloniz defeats Paul Georgieff by KO (punch) at 2:39 of the first round.
• Team Hughes must win the next three fights to get the power of choosing the quarterfinal fights.

Episode 6 - It's All A Test

• Team Serra chooses Ben Saunders to fight Dan Barrera.
• The fighters on Team Hughes continuously say that Barerra goes harder than he should in practice.
• Paul Georgieff arrives back from his cousin's funeral.
• On the van ride back to the house, Dan Barrera and all the other fighters on Team Hughes discover that Barerra's hand is very swollen, and none of them know how, and when during training, it happened. He goes to the doctor to get it checked out, and the doctor clears him for the fight—he only has some soft tissue damage and swelling.
• Dana White allows Barrera to call his wife because of a family emergency. Barrera's wife says she had some sort of panic attack, which he thinks was a seizure. He later tells Dana, "it's all a test" and God is testing him and his family
• Ben Saunders defeats Dan Barrera by Majority Decision after two rounds.
• Matt Hughes complained to Nevada Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer about what Hughes perceived to be poor judging after the bout, and both Matt Serra and Dana White stated they felt the fight should have gone into the third round.
• On a recommendation from Matt Arroyo, Dana White gives both fighters a $5,000 bonus for the fight stating that he hates it when fighters "lose an opportunity".
• With Saunders' win, Team Serra gains the ability to decide the quarterfinal match-ups.

Episode 7 - The Game Plan

• Matt Hughes, frustrated after five straight losses, goes off on his team and Dan Barrera and nearly walks off the show.
• Team Hughes chooses Jared Rollins to fight George Sotiropoulos leaving Tommy Speer to fight Jon Koppenhaver.
• Team Serra turns on George Sotiropoulos for not waking them up. Ben Saunders says Sotiropoulos is only here for himself.
• Jared Rollins injures his ribs at practice before the fight, and becomes very emotional because he doesn't want to not be able to fight. After going to the doctor, Rollins tells his teammates he only has bruised ribs, and the doctor cleared him to fight.
• Ben Saunders and George Sotiropoulos get into a verbal disagreement over Sotiropoulos not waking his team up for the second consecutive day.
• George Sotiropoulos defeats Jared Rollins by TKO (strikes) at 3:48 of the first round.
• Jared Rollins takes the loss very hard and is very emotional. Dana White consoles him and tells him that he has nothing to be upset about, and that he "fought his ass off".

Episode 8 - War Machine

• Matt Hughes smacks Tommy Speer across the face and repeatedly tries to get him to show more fire. Hughes wants him to show more emotion not only in his training, but also in his upcoming fight.
• Jon Koppenhaver becomes upset when Matt Serra continuously coaches George Sotiropoulos and not him, and believes that he is being treated unfairly. Serra then sits Koppenhaver down and tries to help him with the mental aspect of fighting.
• During Team Serra's training session, Serra mocks Matt Hughes by imitating him, saying he looks like a chipmunk, and makes fun of his fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 65.
• Jon Koppenhaver reveals to the rest of his team that he witnessed his father die from a heart attack when he was only 13 years old.
• Tommy Speer defeats Jon Koppenhaver by decision after 2 rounds, despite an early fury from Koppenhaver, in which he opened a cut and nearly submitted Speer with a Rear Naked Choke.
• If not for the cut being so bad, with a massive amount of blood which made the bodies more slippery, Team Serra believes that Koppenhaver would have submitted Speer.

Episode 9 - Karma

• During selections for the quarterfinals, Matt Serra wants the two Team Hughes advancees (Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer) to fight each other, but his fighters want otherwise.
• The fights that Team Serra choose are: Mac Danzig vs. John Kolosci, Matt Arroyo vs. Troy Mandaloniz, George Sotiropoulos vs. Richie Hightower, and Ben Saunders vs. Tommy Speer.
• Dana White tells Team Serra that since four members of Team Serra are fighting each other, two of them will be cornered and trained by Matt Hughes for their fights. Matt Serra decides not to pick which guys he wants to send to Hughes.
• Many of the fighters express that they are becoming sick of Mac Danzig and his bipolar mood swings. Danzig orders a hummingbird feeder and hangs it outside on a lightpole, and other fighters, such as Jon Koppenhaver, move it around various places in the backyard to intentionally make Danzig angry. Later that night, Danzig has a heart-to-heart with Blake Bowman, and decides to take a more positive approach to his experience on the show. He then promises to be nice to Bowman for the rest of the time they are on the show.
• The next day, after the weigh-ins, it is determined by coin toss that Richie Hightower and Matt Arroyo will be cornered and trained by Matt Hughes for their quarterfinal fights.
• Hightower and Arroyo approach the Team Hughes coaches and tell them that they both plan to continue training with Team Serra.
• In the first quarterfinal match, Mac Danzig defeats John Kolosci by Rear Naked Choke at 3:55 of the first round.

Episode 10 - Nothing To Lose

• John Kolosci gets drunk and takes the house apart after his loss. With the recommendation of Jon Koppenhaver, Kolosci and he throw the foosball table into the pool. Kolosci then proceeds to throw anything and everything he can find into to pool—finally, he headbutts a tree.
• Serra tells Troy Mandaloniz and George Sotiropoulos that he will not be cornering them in their fights against their fellow Team Serra members.
• Hughes calls Serra unprofessional for choosing not to corner Mandaloniz and Sotiropoulous.
• Dana White takes both teams to the Red Rock Bowling Lanes for the Coaches Challenge this season. He then says Matt Serra and Matt Hughes will bowl for a box containing $10,000. Plus, each fighter on the winning team will get $1,500. Hughes asks Dana to double that amount to $3,000 for each fighter. After watching Hughes bowl, Dana says he will do it if Hughes throws a strike with his next ball, which he does. However, Serra ends up winning the bowling competition in the last frame with help from his corner (Matt Arroyo). Hughes immediately leaves the bowling alley after he loses.
• Matt Arroyo submits Troy Mandaloniz by armbar at 1:06 in the first round.
• George Sotiropoulos submits Richie Hightower by Kimura at 4:07 in the first round.

Episode 11 - Upper Decker

• Tommy Speer is worried that he may not be cleared to fight due to how badly his face is bruised and cut up from his last fight against Jon Koppenhaver.
• During the time Team Hughes was at their training session, Richie Hightower, Troy Mandaloniz and Jon Koppenhaver decided to play a prank after they've been drinking, in which a person puts their feces in the toilet's tank, so when someone flushes the toilet, the feces washes up into the bowl (known as an "Upper Decker").
• When Team Hughes returns to the house, Mac Danzig gets annoyed with Richie Hightower and says he laughs like Fran Drescher.
• When Jared Rollins finds out about the "Upper Decker," he kicks in Jon Koppenhaver's door and confronts the three about it. Rollins slaps Koppenhaver across the head and rips his hat off, so Koppenhaver tackles him down onto the bed. They eventually resolve the conflict and Koppenhaver and Mandaloniz clean up the "Upper Decker".
• Tommy Speer defeats Ben Saunders by unanimous decision after the second round.
• Semifinal matches will be Mac Danzig vs. Matt Arroyo and George Sotiropoulos vs. Tommy Speer .

Episode 12 - Do You Want This Fight?

• Matt Arroyo injures a rib in training and decides to pull out of his fight against Mac Danzig.
• John Kolosci is the only Team Serra fighter who expressed excitement at the prospect of replacing Arroyo, so he is picked to face Danzig for the second time.
• In the first semifinal fight, Mac Danzig submits John Kolosci by Rear Naked Choke at 4:28 in round one (for the second time, with exactly the same type of submission).
• In the second fight, Tommy Speer defeats George Sotiropoulos by KO (strikes) at 2:57 in the first round.
• Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer, both from Team Hughes, are the final fighters standing and will face off in the final.

Finale

• Welterweight bout: Mac Danzig vs. Tommy Speer

Danzig wins via submission (rear naked choke) at 2:01 of round 1 and becomes the Season 6 TUF Welterweight Champion.

Welterweight Bracket

^ 1: John Kolosci replaced Matt Arroyo who injured his ribs in practice.

References

External links

• The Ultimate Fighter website
• Official UFC website