The Ultimate Fighter: Brasil - Time Vitor x Time Wanderlei - Em Busca de Campeões

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The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil (Searching for Champions)
aka The Ultimate Fighter: Brasil, Time Vitor x Time Wanderlei, Em Busca de Campeões

Debuts: 26 March 2012, 12am ET, FX
Airs: Mondays at 12am ET, FX (tape delay)
Also available at UFC.com
Finale: UFC 147, 23 June 2012, Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
Coaches: Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva


TEAM VITOR

Coach: Vitor Belfort
Staff: Rodrigo Artilheiro, Gilbert Burns, Luiz Carlos Dorea, Francisco Filho
Featherweights: Rodrigo Damm, Anistavio "Gasparzinho" Medeiros de Figueiredo, Godofredo "Pepey" de Oliveira, Hugo "Wolverine" Viana
Middleweights: Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira, Sergio "Serginho" Moraes, Thiago "Bodao" de Oliveira Perpetuo, Daniel Sarafian


TEAM WANDERLEI

Coach: Wanderlei Silva
Staff: Andre Amade, Rafael Cordeiro, Renato Sobral, Fabricio Werdum
Featherweights: Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra, Wagner "Galeto" Campos, Marcos Vinicius "Vina" Borges Pancini, John "Macapa" Teixeira
Middleweights: Francisco "Massaranduba" Drinaldo, Renee Forte, Delson "Pe De Chumbo" Heleno, Leonardo "Macarrao" Mafra Teixeira

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Episode 1: http://www.ufc.com/tuf-brasil-episode-1

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Episode 1 was excellent, check it out. The qualifying fights were great. Looks like there is a lot of untapped talent in Brazil, kind of like when the stateside versions of TUF were in their early years. Already it seems likely there will be multiple guys coming from the show to the UFC.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that none of the guys looked the least bit interested in wrestling? lol

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Fighters:

FEATHERWEIGHT
Rony Mariano Bezerra, Wagner Campos, Rodrigo Damm, Anistavio Medeiros de Figueiredo, Borges Pancini, Godofredo Pepey, John Teixeira, Hugo Viana, Marcos Vinicius

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Francisco Drinaldo, Cezar Ferreira, Renee Forte, Delson Heleno, Sergio Moraes, Thiago de Oliveira Perpetuo, Daniel Sarafian, Leonardo Mafra Teixeira

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Looks like there is a lot of untapped talent in Brazil

In the episode it says the show had 5,000 applicants, 500 of whom were selected to be interviewed and participate in tryouts, out of which 32 were chosen.


Some familiar names, though. I've seen Rodrigo Damm fight a few times as he's been involved with bodog, Strikeforce, and WVR. He actually has a win over Gamebred (Jorge Masvidal) but is 1-4 in his last five fights.

Sergio Moraes fought in Bellator a while back. As it said on the show, he is a multiple time BJJ black belt world champion but his MMA experience for a 29-year old is a bit lacking.

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Globo, the channel that TUF Brazil airs on there, is reporting that they pulled 8,000,000 viewers for the premiere.

Supposedly a rival television network has leaked the finalists in response.

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DFW is now saying that 12,000,000 people in Brazil tuned-in to watch.

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http://www.ufc.com/tuf-brasil-episodes

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The show is pretty much the same as the stateside version but for whatever reason it is just more interesting. Fresher, I guess.

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http://www.ufc.com/tuf-brasil-episodes

Again, the latest episode is available to watch at this link.


This week's episode features some familiar ground: the goofball who won't let anyone sleep, Wanderlei Silva complaining about the boring, preaching Vitor Belfort, a tight three-round fight, and complaining from the losers afterwards.

Worth watching for the fight. Not a stellar display of technique but hard fought.

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Team Wand drops to 0-4 but their best fighters are yet to compete.