Brief Synopsis:
The Ultimate Fighter 6: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra was the sixth season of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) produced reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, and premiered on September 19, 2007 on Spike TV, after UFC Fight Night 11. This season features only Welterweight fighters (156-170 lbs). The teams are coached by former UFC Welterweight champion Matt Serra and former Welterweight champion Matt Hughes. The coaches were to fight for the Welterweight title after the completion of the show, on December 29th at UFC 79: Nemesis from the Mandalay Bay Events Center. However, due to an injury sustained by Serra, Hughes faced top contender Georges St. Pierre on the 29th, with St. Pierre defeating Hughes by submission in the second round and going on to challenge Serra for the undisputed Welterweight title at a later date.
Both coaches are participating in a series of TUF for the second time. Hughes was a coach on series 2 and Serra won the Welterweight division on series 4, thus earning the opportunity to face Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69.
Unlike in previous seasons, the winner of a match does not determine which team picks the next match. The teams alternate picking matches in the first round, regardless of results, and the team that has the most wins picks the fights for the quarterfinals.
Coaches and Trainers:
-> Team Hughes
Matt Hughes, head coach
Robbie Lawler, boxing coach
Matt Pena, boxing coach
Marc Fiore, wrestling coach
-> Team Serra
Matt Serra, head coach
Ray Longo, kickboxing coach
Pete Sell, BJJ Coach
Fighters:
-> Team Hughes
Dan Barrera, Blake Bowman, Mac Danzig, Paul Georgieff, Billy Miles, Dorian Price, Jared Rollins and Tommy Speer
-> Team Serra
Matt Arroyo, Richie Hightower, John Kolosci, Jon Koppenhaver (replaced an injured Mitichyan), Troy Mandaloniz, Roman Mitichyan (replaced by Koppenhaver after an injury), Ben Saunders, Joe Scarola, and George Sotiropoulos
Others:
Dana White (Host)
Mike Rowe (Narrator)
Tournament Format:
- The fights in the first round of the tournament will be decided by the two coaches alternating picks. For instance, if Team Serra picks the first fight and wins, Team Hughes will still pick the second fight. This will go throughout the first round of the tournament, with picks alternating with the outcome of the fights having nothing to do with the next fight.
- In round two, the team with more wins in round one will pick all of the round two fights.
Episodes:
Episode 1: Don’t You Tap
- Roman Mitichyan fractures his elbow during the evaluation session and was replaced by Jon Koppenhaver.
- Team Hughes picks the first fight.
- Mac Danzig submits Joe Scarola by triangle choke at 4:54 of the first round.
Episode 2: I Need You, Bro
- Team Serra chooses the second fight.
- Joe Scarola considers leaving the house.
- Matt Arroyo submits Dorian Price by rear naked choke at 1:48 of the first round.
Episode 3: It’s About Character
- Team Hughes chooses Billy Miles to fight John Kolosci.
- Both teams watch UFC 72.
- Matt Serra and Joe Scarola have a talk about Joe still wanting to leave the house.
- Upon returning from UFC 72, Dana White has a talk with Joe Scarola.
- Joe Scarola decides to leave the house. He also loses his job back at home teaching at Matt Serra’s academy due to his departure.
- John Kolosci submits Billy Miles in the first round by guillotine choke at 2:56 of the first round.
Episode 4: Get Out Of My Face
- Frustrated by Billy’s lack of effort in his fight, Matt Hughes puts his team through a strenuous workout.
- Team Serra chooses Richie Hightower to fight Blake Bowman
- Dorian Price has a confrontation with members of the filming crew. Dana allows him to stay, but warns if it happens again, he will be sent home.
- Richie Hightower defeats Blake Bowman at 0:49 of the first round by TKO due to strikes.
Episode 5: Not a Real Fighter
- The Fighters get to watch the Finale of TUF 5.
- Mac argues with Blake and tells Blake he is not a real fighter.
- Paul Receives news from home that a relative has died.
- Dana allows Paul to fly home for the funeral, if Paul fights before he leaves.
- Because of the circumstances, Team Hughes chooses Paul Georgieff to fight Troy Mandaloniz.
- Troy Mandaloniz defeats Paul Georgieff by KO at 2:39 of the first round.
- Team Hughes must win the next three fights to get the power of choosing the quarter final fights.
Episode 6: It’s All a Test
- Team Serra chooses Ben Saunders to fight Dan Barrera.
- Ben Saunders defeats Dan Barrera by Majority Decision in the second round.
- Matt Hughes complained to Nevada Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer about what Hughes perceived to be poor judging after the bout, and both Matt Serra and Dana White stated they felt the fight should have gone into the third round.
- On a recommendation from Matt Arroyo, Dana White gives both fighters a $5,000 bonus for the fight stating that he hates it when fighters “lose an opportunity”.
- With Saunders’ win, Team Serra gains the ability to decide the quarter final match-ups.
Episode 7: The Game Plan
- Matt Hughes, frustrated after five straight losses, goes off on his team and Dan Barrera and nearly walks off the show.
- Team Hughes chooses Jared Rollins to fight George Sotiropoulos leaving Tommy Speer to fight Jon Koppenhaver.
- Team Serra turns on George Sotiropoulos for not waking them up and being there for himself.
- George Sotiropoulos defeats Jared Rollins by Knockout at 3:48 of the first round.
- Jared Rollins takes the loss very hard and is very emotional. Dana White consoles him and tells him that he has nothing to be upset about, and that he “fought his ass off”.
Episode 8: War Machine
- Hughes tries to get Tommy Speer to show more fire. Meanwhile, Serra tries to help Jon Koppenhaver with the mental aspect of fighting.
- During team Serra’s training session, Serra mocks Hughes by imitating him, saying he looks like a chipmunk, and makes fun of his fight with Georges St. Pierre at UFC 65.
- Despite an early fury from Jon Koppenhaver, in which he opened a cut and nearly submitted Speer with a Rear Naked Choke, Tommy Speer defeats him by a decision after 2 rounds.
- If not for the cut being so bad, with a massive amount of blood making bodies more slippery, Team Serra believes that Koppenhaver would have submitted Speer.
Episode 9: Karma
- During selections for the quarter finals, Matt Serra wants the two Team Hughes advancees (Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer) to fight each other, but his fighters want otherwise.
- Dana White tells Team Serra that since four members of Team Serra are fighting each other, two of them will be cornered by Matt Hughes for their fights. Matt Serra decides not to pick who they are.
- It is determined by coin toss that Richie Hightower and Matt Arroyo will be cornered by Matt Hughes.
- Richie Hightower and Matt Arroyo approach the coaches for Team Hughes and tell them that they plan to continue training with Team Serra.
- Mac Danzig defeats John Kolosci by Rear Naked Choke at 3:55 of the first round.
Episode 10: Nothing to Lose
- Dana White says the coaches will be bowling for the box of money. Each fighter on the winning team will get $1,500. Matt Hughes asks Dana to double that amount to $3,000 for each fighter. After watching Hughes bowl, Dana says he will do it if Hughes throws a strike with his next ball, which he does. Matt Serra wins the bowling competition in the last frame with help from his corner (Matt Arroyo). Matt Hughes immediately leaves the bowling alley.
- Matt Serra tells Troy Mandaloniz and George Sotiropoulos that he will not be cornering them in their fights against their fellow Team Serra members.
- Matt Arroyo defeats Troy Mandaloniz by armbar in the first round.
- George Sotiropoulos defeats Richie Hightower by Kimura in the first round.
Episode 11: Upper Decker
- During the time Team Hughes was at their training session, Richie Hightower, Troy Mandaloniz and Jon Koppenhaver decided to play a prank after they’ve been drinking, in which a person puts their feces in the toilet’s tank, so when someone flushes the toilet, the feces wash up into the bowl (known as an “Upper Decker”).
- When Team Hughes returns to the house, Mac gets annoyed with Richie Hightower and says he laughs like Fran Drescher.
- Tommy Speer defeats Ben Saunders by unanimous decision after the second round.
- Semi-final matches will be Mac Danzig vs. Matt Arroyo and George Sotiropoulos vs. Tommy Speer.
Episode 12: Do You Want This Fight?
- Matt Arroyo injures a rib in training and decides to pull out of his fight against Mac Danzig.
- John Kolosci is the only Team Serra fighter who expressed excitement at the prospect of replacing Arroyo, so he is picked to face Danzig for the second time.
- In the first fight, Mac Danzig defeats John Kolosci by rear naked choke in round one (again).
- In the second fight, Tommy Speer defeats George Sotiropoulos by KO in the first round.
- Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer, both from Team Hughes, are the final fighters standing.
Finale:
- Welterweight fight: Mac Danzig vs. Tommy Speer. Danzig wins via submission (rear naked choke) at 2:01 of round 1 and becomes the Season 6 TUF Welterweight Champion.
Disclaimer: All season recaps of The Ultimate Fighter are re-formatted copies of content from Wikipedia.
