The Ultimate Fighter 7 Preview

This post is courtesy of James "Kensei Neiko" moderator of the Yahoo group Extreme Fighting Fan. Check out his group for for more great MMA discussions.

With the start of the NEW TUF series and every MMA fans secret indulgence getting ready I thought I would introduce you all to the rumored cast of hopefuls. First off the judges are Forrest Griffin and Quinton Jackson, so you know that the coaches will show some entertaining character during the show. That I would tune into see any day...here are the fighters in no particular order....

Paul Bradley: 5/0 2 subs and 2 TKO/Kos. Great wrestler and NCAA stand out in wrestling. Bradley spent some time with MFS but opted to join an Iowa based team called C-4 MMA.

Matt Brown: 5/6 2 TKO/KO and 3 subs from Team Jorge Gurgel. Brown recently battled to a loss against Chris Lytle and is stepping up from Welterweight to take on the TUF fighters. Brown also fights out of IMB part time as well as training with team Gurgel.

Steve Byrnes: 6/1 From Hawaii with 1 UFC fight which was his loss. Team MMAD. With Anthoney Torres. Byrnes was actually going to be on Season 6 but a knee injury kept him on the side line. His one UFC fight was a loss on a UFN and the decision loss was a close one. His BJJ is very good and his stand up is not bad at all.

Timothy Credeur: 9/2, 7 subs and 2TKO/KO, fights with Chael Sonnen, This Louisiana Gladiator academy athlete, He is one of the more experienced guys on the show and comes in with a BJJ black belt and worked with Alan Belcher and Rich Clamenti as well as training other athletes to compete.

CB Dollaway: 6/0 1 sub 4 TKO/KO. With drew Ficketts Arizona Combat sports in Tempe. CB was an all American wrestler who has battled on HDNet and a few other smaller organizations. One of his victory KOs was by Slamming the guys head threw the mat with only 17 seconds off the clock.

Mike Marrello: 5/1/1 4 subs, with Team Curran with Jeff Curran "Big Frog". Marrello trained in TKD and Karate before going into the army. When he came out he started training with Curran, a BJJ black belt with a good record in MMA. Marrello was also an accomplished Wrestler in High school.

Prince Mclean: 4/5 4 TKO, While Prince may not seem like much with a 4/5 record it is important to note that 2 of those losses were due to a shoulder injury that stopped the fights. McLean is a Team Gurgel fighter as well and while all of his wins were by KO he is very comfortable on the ground having been an outstanding wrestler in High school and also training with Gurgels BJJ team.

Aaron Meisner: 2/0 2 TKO/Kos

Jeremiah Riggs: 1/0 TKO, Riggs is an ex-sheriff Deputy out of Mississippi that has a good armature record and recently made the jump to the pros. His one fight ended when he beat the other guy into the mat and caused a tap out when the other fighter was over come with "PAIN". He was slated to move into the IFL and join Frank Shamrocks team but the "crazy country boy" did not get a chance as the IFL disbanded the team prior to his joining when they did not win a single team match up that season.

Dante Rivera: 10/2 5 subs, 3 TKO from Renzo Gracie fight team

David Roberts: 5/7 Roberts is the guy that brought Jackson into the world of MMA and now he might be coached by the very guy he introduced to the sport. Nine years ago Roberts fought in the UFC and lost his only fight in that organization.

4 of his 5 wins were by submission and he views this as his last shot at stardom. Jackson was introduced to the world of MMA when Roberts asked him to get ready for a fight nine years ago. Obviously Jackson has had more success than Roberts.

Amir Sadollah: 0/0 as a pro Amir qualified to be in the draft pool of the IFL but choose to go to the TUF show. His armature record is 4/0 with 1 ko, 2 subs and a D to his record. Sadollah seems to have won his spot on the show by being in the face of an ESPN.COM reporter that was filming the try outs and was painted as the clown of the group. This made him fodder for the drama-cons that run some of the TUF selections.

Brandon Sene: 2/0 1 TKO and 1 sub is a Florida based fighter. Sene trains out of the Gracie Tampa, the same club that Matt Arroyo trains out of. He was a marine sniper in Iraq before coming back and getting into MMA. Both his fights were first round stops and he has big hands as well as great Jitsu.

Dan Simmler: 0/0 Pro. Simmler has two Armature MMA fights and won both. He is a student of Matt Serra and runs his own club in Massachusetts. In BJJ he holds many titles including Pan am Titles, North American and many regional titles. Simmler almost made it onto season Three but just fell short. Let’s hope that Serra has better luck with this student.

Luke Zachrich: 7/1 3TKO 4 subs with Ohio’s Team Xtreme, team that Rich Franklin is on. Zachrich is the XFO middle weight champion and won this honor with a first round KO of the then champion. Zachrich made the move to Team Xtreme after having trained with UFC legend Dan Severn for several years.

Some rumored changes include a tournament of 32 right off the bat with the winners from the tournament staying on the show and the rest going home. This means that the first few shows will house pure fights to see who can stay on the show for the "house" time and TV time. Could be interesting… The list above is supposed to be the final cast, but I will keep you all posted.

Extreme Fighting Fan