It’s been rumored for a while, and Saturday the UFC made it official: “The Ultimate Fighter” will return in 2021.
The longstanding UFC reality competition series has started remote casting calls due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will be seeking fighters for the 29th season of the series through Nov. 13. The promotion is casting men’s bantamweights and middleweights.
The coaches for Season 29 will be announced later, but the season will debut in March 2021 as a streaming series on ESPN+. In addition, the past 28 seasons of the show will be available on the streaming platform.
Season 28 of “The Ultimate Fighter” took place in 2018, but after the UFC’s current broadcast deal with ESPN started, the show was put on hiatus. In the meantime, the UFC has put plenty of stock into Dana White’s Contender Series as a means of finding new talent to usher into the promotion the same way “TUF” has been over the years.
But now the iconic show that is credited with helping usher in the UFC’s rise to prominence after Season 1 will return. Among the fighters who were on the show who went on to become UFC champions are the likes of Kamaru Usman, Tony Ferguson, T.J. Dillashaw, Rose Namajunas, Michael Bisping, Nate Diaz, Michael Chiesa, Al Iaquinta, Kelvin Gastelum, Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans.