UFC announced the coaches for the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter” Tuesday, revealing a blockbuster scenario that should yield big ratings for the Spike TV reality series.<\/p>\n
UFC’s Dana White said that former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar will coach against Junior dos Santos on the upcoming thirteenth season of the show. Dos Santos, originally slated for a title shot, became available for a high-profile fight once UFC Champion Cain Velasquez went down to injury.<\/p>\n
Confirming Lesnar as one of the coaches is a big score for UFC, which certainly wants to show off its promotional muscle ahead of negotiations for a new TV deal with Spike. Lesnar, notoriously private and opposed to excessive camera time, was initially viewed as a long shot for a “TUF” gig, but recent reports suggested he was warming to the idea.<\/p>\n
Those reports, however, suggested that Lesnar would coach against rival Frank Mir as they built to a rubber match that would undoubtedly due more than a million pay-per-view buys. Dos Santos does not bring the same marquee value to the table, although his striking makes him a more dangerous threat to Lesnar, and an impressive win in their post-TUF fight this summer would elevate him into a true superstar.<\/p>\n
As of press time, it was not believed that Lesnar’s agreement to coach “TUF” was in exchange for the right to appear at this year’s WWE WrestleMania.<\/p>\n
The next season of “TUF” premieres in late March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"yoast_head":"\n