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The current season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), starring coaches Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega, has been received relatively well by UFC fans. However, this week has seen an unfortunate announcement regarding the finale.
Tresean Gore has been ruled out of the TUF finals with a knee injury, but this is not the first TUF finale to be changed on late notice.
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With over 30 past seasons of TUF (including international seasons), numerous prior TUF finales have been altered at the last second, and not just due to injuries, too.
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So with that in mind, here are five times that the TUF finale was changed at the last minute.
#5. TUF 7: Jesse Taylor removed from competition by Dana White
Easily the most controversial change to a TUF finale came during 2008’s TUF 7. Arguably the toughest version of TUF in the history of the series, fighters on this season had to compete four times – including an entry fight – in order to make it to the final.
In the end, Jesse Taylor and Amir Sadollah, both fighting under coach Forrest Griffin, made it to the final round, and were set to face off at the finale show.
However, in what was described as the craziest twist in TUF history, the final episode of the season revealed a major change to the final bout.
Taylor, who’d already shown some worrying drinking habits during his time on the reality show, was caught on CCTV going on what was described as a “drunken rampage” in Las Vegas, apparently vandalizing a limousine and harassing women.
The UFC were understandably horrified by his conduct, and subsequently decided to remove ‘JT Money’ from the final bout altogether. Beaten semi-finalists CB Dollaway and Tim Credeur then faced off for the right to face Sadollah, with Dollaway winning the decision.
In the end, Sadollah defeated Dollaway in the finale with an armbar. Taylor did make his UFC debut a month later, but in a bit of poetic justice, fell to a submission loss at the hands of none other than Dollaway.
‘JT Money’ had to wait nearly a decade for another chance with the UFC – when incredibly, he triumphed in the finals of TUF 25.
#4. TUF Brazil: Daniel Sarafian withdraws due to injury
As the US format of TUF began to get tired after around ten seasons, the UFC decided to branch the reality show out internationally. The first of these international seasons was TUF Brazil in early 2012, and surprisingly, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
Hardcore UFC fans were captivated by the more emotional personalities of the Brazilian fighters, and while some TUF tropes such as product placement and feuding coaches remained, overall, the season lacked reality show hijinks and was better for it.
However, UFC fans were disappointed when the promotion was forced to change the season’s middleweight finale on late notice.
Cezar Ferreira and Daniel Sarafian, who’d basically ran through their castmates to make the finale, looked set for an entertaining clash, but with just days to go before the finale show, UFC 147, it was announced that Sarafian had been forced out with an injury.
Instead, Sergio Moraes, who’d been knocked out by Sarafian in the TUF semi-finals, stepped in to fight Ferreira, and ended up losing a unanimous decision in what was actually a decent fight.
Sarafian did eventually debut in the UFC six months later, and went onto lose to Ferreira in their long-delayed fight in 2013, over two years after the TUF final.
#3. TUF 22: Saul Rogers fails to secure a visa
2015’s TUF 22 was built on the star power of Conor McGregor, who coached a team of European prospects against a team of American fighters led by Urijah Faber.
The season had a number of oddities, most notably a ruling that meant UFC President Dana White could remove one of the winners in the round of 16 for fighting in a dull manner, but the biggest twist was saved for the final show.
The UK’s Saul Rogers was comfortably the season’s most impressive fighter as he ran through Billy Quarantillo, Ryan Hall and Marcin Wrzosek to cement his spot in the final round.
However, despite ‘The Hangman’ looking like a ready-made UFC star, it turned out that some legal issues from his past – that Rogers had failed to disclose when he applied for a spot on TUF – meant that he was unable to secure a visa for the finale.
The British fighter was unceremoniously cut from the UFC, and hasn’t been back since. Meanwhile, his opponent Artem Lobov was instead faced with Hall, who’d only made it as far as the quarter-finals.
And when it came to the fight, ‘The Wizard’ upset McGregor’s training partner, becoming arguably the most unlikely TUF champion in the show’s history. Rogers, meanwhile, would go onto a career with Bellator MMA.
#2. TUF Brazil 2: Santiago Ponzinibbio breaks his hand
While it didn’t feel quite as fresh as the inaugural season, the second season of TUF Brazil, which aired in 2013, was a wildly exciting one that was filled with high-end prospects.
The likes of Thiago Santos and Viscardi Andrade both went onto have fruitful careers with the UFC, but the season’s most outstanding fighters were clearly William Macario and Santiago Ponzinibbio.
Both men largely ran through their opponents en route to the final, and with both fighters having won four bouts in order to get that far, a clash between the two sounded like a genuinely fantastic battle of prospects.
However, disaster struck when it was announced during the final episode of the season that Ponzinibbio had broken his hand during his semi-final clash with Leonardo Santos – and the injury was enough to rule him out of the finale.
Macario instead fought replacement Santos and ended up falling to an arm triangle choke in the second round.
And while Ponzinibbio has since gone onto plenty of UFC success, establishing himself as one of the world’s best welterweights, he never did end up fighting Macario. Instead, ‘Patolino’ flamed out of the UFC in 2015 after losing two fights in a row via TKO.
#1. TUF 26: Sijara Eubanks misses her opportunity to become a UFC champion
While Jesse Taylor’s withdrawal from the TUF 7 finale was easily the most controversial last-minute change in TUF history, easily the most costly withdrawal came during the 26th season of the show.
The season centered on the newly-introduced UFC women’s flyweight title, and the fact that the final would be a fight to decide the inaugural champion meant that the stakes on TUF had arguably never been higher.
In the end, Nicco Montano and Sijara Eubanks made their way to the final in relatively impressive fashion, setting up what looked like a tremendous title fight on paper.
And unlike the previous seasons of TUF that’d seen changes to the final bout, it looked like this one would go ahead – right until the day of the weigh-ins, when Eubanks reportedly fell ill following a bad weight cut.
‘SarJ’ was forced out of the bout, and instead, Roxanne Modafferi, who had been set to face Barb Honchak, stepped into what was an unlikely opportunity to become a UFC champion.
‘The Happy Warrior’ came up short, though, as Montano won a unanimous decision to claim the title. Unfortunately – seemingly affirming the curse on the season – Montano failed to make a single defense of the title after weight-cutting issues of her own, and was stripped in September 2018, rendering the entire TUF season somewhat pointless.
