India appears to be up next for Ultimate Fighter treatment

Brazil, Japan, Canada, the United States, England, Holland…the list goes on and on in terms of countries often associated with being hotbeds of MMA. However, it looks like the UFC has designs on another international destination when it comes to implementing a season of the Ultimate Fighter – India.

The Asian nation, which houses more than 1.2 billion people, was tapped for TUF by UFC President Dana White who brought the topic up at the post-event press conference attached to last weekend’s UFC 143 event. White also maintained his interest in eventually doing a “world cup” pitting TUF winners from different countries against each other.

Currently the UFC is taping TUF Brasil, the promotion’s first version of the popular reality show being held outside of Las Vegas. Coaches Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort are set to lead teams of Brazilian featherweights/middleweights with the finals from each division being held in June at Brazil. Silva-Belfort will also face off against each other at the end of the season.

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MMATraining Take: I’m surprised as anyone to hear India as being up next, especially when considering the distinct lack of high-level Mixed Martial Artists. However, I trust the UFC brass to know what they’re doing in terms of investing that amount of time/money into the region so it should be interesting to see how things unfold.