The UFC revealed the cast for The Ultimate Fighter Nations: Canada vs. Australia and it features some of the top MMA talent in the country.
The series—which debuts Wednesday, Jan. 15 on Sportsnet 360—features both welterweight and middleweight fighters, as Canada and Australia go head-to-head in the fifth international edition of the show.
Team Canada is comprised of: Tristar Gym’s Nordine Taleb, unbeaten Bellator veterans Elias Theodorou and Chad Laprise, former Maximum Fighting Championship stars Luke Harris, Kajan Johnson and Sheldon Westcott, plus rising prospects Matt DesRoches and Olivier Aubin-Mercier.
Team Australia features: Chris Indich, Jake Matthews, Brendan O’Reilly, Daniel Kelly, Vik Grujic, Richard Walsh, Tyler Manawaroa and Zein Saliba.
Each episode’s winner will advance in the single-elimination tournament, which culminates in a three-hour finale. The series was filmed just north of Montreal, where all 16 competitors lived and trained for six weeks.
“If guys thought fighting in the toughest tournament on television was hard, imagine how they feel doing it with a whole country on their shoulders,” UFC President Dana White said in an official press release. “These country vs. country seasons of The Ultimate Fighter are awesome because not only do these guys deal with living in a house with other fighters, training twice a day and putting everything on the line for their dream opportunity, but now it’s even more personal—it’s patriotic. Next season, we lined up one of the deepest talent pools with some of the toughest up and coming fighters and put national bragging rights on the line along with the UFC contract, as Canada and Australia go head-to-head to kick off 2014.”
UFC veteran Patrick Cote, of Rimouski, Que., will serve as coach of Team Canada, while Kyle Noke, of Dubbo, New South Wales, is in charge of Team Australia.
Cote (19-8) is a TUF alumnus that had been vying for a coaching role if and when a Canadian edition of the show was created. Cote advanced to the finals of TUF 4: The Comeback back in 2006, losing to Travis Lutter in the finals. Cote is riding a two-fight win streak in the UFC with victories over Bobby Voelker and Alessio Sakara at Montreal’s UFC 158 and UFC 154, respectively.
Noke (20-6-1) broke into the UFC after a strong performance on the show’s 11th season. The 33-year-old hasn’t competed since a KO win in his welterweight debut over Charlie Brenneman at UFC 152 in Toronto in September 2012.
The two coaches will meet in a welterweight bout after the series concludes.
In the eight-year history of the popular mixed martial arts reality show, there has never been a Canadian winner of the show.
On the most recent season, TUF 18, there were four Canadians that competed, but came up short. Josh Hill and Louis Fisette were eliminated in the men’s quarterfinals, while Sarah Moras lost in the women’s semifinals and Jessica Rakoczy fell short in the final against Julianna Pena.
TUF has been around since 2005 — primarily filmed in the United States and airing worldwide — and has helped start the careers of nearly 200 UFC fighters.
There have been previous international editions of the series including several TUF Brazils and one TUF: The Smashes, which pitted Team United Kingdom against Team Australia. TUF: The Smashes was filmed in Australia in 2012.
