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#4: Put me back in (Season 5)
Over the years, one of the classic TUF tropes has always been the story of the fighter either struggling to make weight, or missing weight altogether. It seems to happen on every season – the perils of multiple fights in quick succession – and Season 18’s Anthony Gutierrez even missed out on a free hit in the semi-finals by botching his weight cut.
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When you’re talking about weight cutting gone wrong on TUF though, only one man comes to mind – Season 5’s Gabe Ruediger. The craziest part? Gabe was a very skilled fighter. A former WEC champion and already a UFC veteran when he entered the TUF house, ‘Godzilla’ was actually – along with Joe Lauzon and Nate Diaz – one of the favourites to win the Lightweight tournament.
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But it quickly became apparent that he was massively overweight for a man planning to compete at 155lbs. Despite weighing well over the Lightweight limit, Ruediger was even seen eating ice cream and cake in the house. But when he was matched with rookie Corey Hill, Gabe promised his coach BJ Penn that he’d make the weight.
On a whole episode dedicated to his struggles though, Ruediger failed in the most dramatic – and hilarious – way possible. He had to be dragged into a sauna by his teammates, he pedalled on a resistance bike at the speed of a glacier, and finally, he stripped his sauna suit off and collapsed outside, all the while begging Penn to “put me back in”.
Unsurprisingly, Ruediger was booted from the house by Dana White and quickly became a punchline; animated gifs of him being knocked out by slices of cake quickly appeared on the internet. Later on, he admitted he made an error with his behaviour on the show as he was attempting to use it purely as a "marketing tool".
And when his career recovered enough to make it back to the UFC in 2010, even he seemed to be in on the joke - presenting opponent Joe Lauzon with a cake after successfully making weight.
