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April 23, 2009Season 9 of “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV is in its 4th episode. It wasn’t until watching the third episode that I realized Northeast Ohio is represented. Jason”“Dynamite” Dent is fighting out of Mentor Ohio and he was born and raised in Madison. And now he has his second shot to gain some traction in the UFC.
Dent had his first run through the UFC starting at UFC 63 “Hughes vs. Penn” and UFC 68 “Uprising.” He wasn’t successful. He got cut after losing to Roger Huerta and Gleison Tibau. After getting cut by the UFC, Dent came back to Ohio and started his journey over again. He won five out of his next six fights in various promotions in Cleveland and Niles Ohio. Apparently that was good enough for Dent to get a shot in the UFC’s televised version of the minor leagues.
This year’s season of “The Ultimate Fighter” (TUF) pits up-and-coming fighters from the United States against up-and-coming fighters from the United Kingdom. Dan Henderson is coaching the Americans and Michael Bisping is coaching the Brits. Every week someone from the UK will fight someone from the US and at the end the UFC will award a multi-fight contract to the winner. More often than not, when it comes to the end of the show there are a couple of other fighters who also get contracts because they have made a big enough impression on UFC CEO Dana White. Hopefully the hometown Cleveland boy can hang in there and be one of those guys.
TUF is a really great springboard for those who are good enough to win it. Past participants on the show are all at the top of the UFC at this point. Guys like Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans, Michael Bisping, Kenny Florian, and many others found their way to the UFC via the TV show.
3 Comments
Shouldn’t the series be called the “Ninth-most Ultimate Fighter”? Or
“The Ultimate Fighter minus 8”? Or how about just calling it “I Can’t Believe we got Renewed Again”?
Aw come on. I love the UFC. I love watching these guys battle it out. And with results like Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping, you can’t really argue with the show being a method for finding the next generation of fighters.
That is, unless you just don’t like the UFC. 🙂
But really, how much of a success does the show need to be to earn its timeslot on Spike TV?
[…] few weeks ago, I posted that a Clevelander was on the UFC’s reality show on Spike TV, The Ultimate Fighter. Dent is […]