Occasions have modified in Final Preventing Championship (UFC).
Dana White’s Contender Sequence has modified the sport for combined martial arts (MMA) and extra particularly the power to enter the game’s premiere promotion. With seven seasons now within the can, annually has seen UFC signal extra fighters than the season earlier than.
The Final Fighter (TUF) continues to be an ongoing platform for UFC and can launch its thirty second iteration in June 2024. Many notable names, legends, and eventual champions have come from the present, together with veteran knockout artist, Matt Brown, who recollects the difficulties — or rarity — it took to achieve the Octagon within the late 2000s and early 2010s.
“It’s not like I essentially don’t have that respect for the fellows at present, however the barrier of entry is a lot decrease now,” Brown advised MMA Preventing. “After I was arising, the UFC was a dream. It was the Tremendous Bowl. You get to the UFC, you’re the f—king man.
“Now, it’s not that it’s small, it’s not a small feat, however for those who’re an athlete and also you get into MMA and also you prepare exhausting, you’re going to have an opportunity on the UFC,” he continued. “After I was arising, the possibility to get to the UFC was a giant factor. Now it’s like everyone will get the possibility.”
Brown, 43, entered UFC as a part of TUF 7 when he scored a second spherical technical knockout over Matt Arroyo on the season’s finale occasion in June 2008. Since then, Brown (24-19) has entered the report books with 13 knockouts at Welterweight, essentially the most in divisional historical past, and the second most general in UFC historical past behind Heavyweight, Derrick Lewis. “The Immortal” final fought when he knocked out a fellow TUF alum, the season 11 winner, Court docket McGee, in spherical one at UFC Charlotte in Might 2023 (watch highlights).
“These days, I don’t even know what to inform up-and-coming fighters,” Brown stated. “They’re like ‘I wish to get 4 or 5 fights after which get to the UFC.’ A pair years in the past, I’d be like don’t be a f—king fool! Now I’m form of like yeah, you may have the ability to do this.”
