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Official TUF 8 Cast!
Well, it’s official. UFC and Spike TV, in conjunction with Sports Illustrated have revealed the cast for the 8th installment of the hit TV series ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ dubbed “Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir”. The new season will kick off on September 17th on Spike TV following the broadcast of UFC Fight Night 15 and will air each subsequent Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET/PT.

This season will feature both Light Heavyweights (205#s) and Lightweights (155#s), preliminary bouts will be held during the first two episodes to pair down the field from 32 to 16. The two finalists in each weight class will meet in “The Ultimate Fighter 8” Live Finale on Dec. 13 in Las Vegas live on Spike TV.

UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir will be the 2 opposing coaches and will fight at the UFC’s end-of-the-year show in December. Assisting Nog will be Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. Helping out Frank Mir will be Abu Dhabi 2007 Absolute Winner Robert Drysdale (by beating Marcelo Garcia) and Rafael Alejarra.

The cast this year has an international flavor with contestants from not only the expected nations like Brazil and the US, but Israel, Russia and Nova Scotia. In addition, after each episode Spike.com users will get exclusive extended footage from each episode and an exclusive video leak of the upcoming episode.

OK guys! WHO IS GONNA WIN?!?!? Give us the scoop on a fighter you think will win! So far the buzz is that these guys are the monsters: Junie Browning, Efrain Escudero, Ryan Jimmo, Vinicius Magalhaes, & Shane Primm.

Lightweight Cast! (155#s)

Jose Aguilar
Grapplers Edge
Las Cruces, NM

Fernando Bernstein
San Clemente, CA

Junie Allen Browning
Four Seasons Martial Arts
Lexington, KY

Rolando Delgado
Westside Fight Team
North Little Rock, AR

Joseph Duarte
Unleashed Training Facility / Alliance MMA
San Diego, CA

Efrain Escudero
Southwest Martial Arts
Tempe, AZ

Brandon Garner
Team ROC
Raleigh, NC

David Kaplan
Lloyd Irvin Team
Camp Springs, MD

Eric Magee
South Shore Sport
Rockland, MA

Brian McLaughlin
Team Gracie Tampa
Tampa, FL

Wesley Murch
Trojan Gym
Bristol, UK

Shane Nelson
B.J. Penn’s MMA
Hilo, HI

Phillipe Nover
Team Renzo Gracie (Pictures)
Brooklyn, NY

Ido Pariente
Tel Aviv, Israel

John Polakowski
The Pit
San Luis Obispo, CA

George Roop
Ultima MMA
Tucson, AZ

Light Heavyweight Cast! (205#s)

Ryan Bader
Arizona Combat Sports
Chandler, AZ

Antwain Britt
Bombsquad MMA
Virginia Beach, VA

Jules Bruchez
Ronan Dojo
Lafayette, LA

Charles Diaz
SD Fight Club
San Diego, CA

Lance Evans
TKO MMA
Niagara Falls, NY

Karen Grigoryan
RusFighters Sport Club
Russia

Jason Guida
Hellhouse Gym
Chicago, IL

Ryan Jimmo
Titans MMA
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Kyle Kingsbury
American Kickboxing Academy
Sunnyvale, CA

Tom Lawlor
American Top Team
Oviedo, FL

Ryan Lopez
Oklahoma City, OK

Vinicius Magalhaes
Team Quest
Temecula, CA

Eliot Marshall
Eastern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Boulder, CO

Sean O’Connell
Salt Lake City, UT

Shane Primm
Team Gracie Tampa
Tampa, FL

Krzysztof Soszynski
Team Quest
Temecula, CA

Discuss the TUF 8 series, MMA, Boxing, Training and much more on our free forum!

Coaches and Assistants
A lot of rumors ate flying around about the cast for TUF 8. The next season will feature as coaches Frank Mir and Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Noguiera. Season 8 will usher in a return to the double weight class theme, featuring the Light Heavyweight (205#s) and Lightweight (155#s) classes.

Assisting Nog will be Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. Helping out Frank Mir will be Abu Dhabi 2007 Absolute Winner Robert Drysdale (by beating Marcelo Garcia) and Rafael Alejarra. I think I am more excited about the assistant coaches than the head coaches! To watch footage of Anderson Silva and Robert Drysdale in the gym will a dream come true.

Rumored Cast
This is all I have for now. Keep coming back to the thread, as I will continually update it, adding and removing fighters as rumors get confirmed.

If anyone knows of any other rumors, PLEASE comment. You don’t have to sign up to comment. Please share. Thanks!

Light Heavyweight [205#s]:

Ryan Jimmo (6-1)
Shane Primm (Ammy: 3-0, Pro 1-0)
Ryan Bader (7-0)
Krzysztof Soszynski (15-8-1)
Lance Evans (2-2)
Vinicius ‘Pezao’ Magalhaes (2-2)
Andre Gusmao (5-0)
Jesse Veium (13-3)
Glover Teixeira (6-2)

Lightweight [155#s]

Junie Allen Browning (1-0)
Mark Hughes (6-2)
Jason MacKay (8-0)
Shane Nelson (9-3)

Light Heavyweight Summary:
Canadian Ryan Jimmo fights as a Heavyweight and his Bio has him listed at 225#s. So he is a big man coming down a weight class, with whatever plus and minuses that brings. Shane Primm is undefeated with 3 TKOs and 1 Submission (RNC). Word on the street is that Ryan Bader is a monster and one of the picks to win it all. He’s a wrestler from Arizona and has 3 TKOs and 3 Submissions to his credit.

Yet another Canadian in Krzysztof Soszynski is a veteran of the sport, with 24 fights since 2003. He is also listed as a Heavyweight (225#s) and is a BIG man. Not sure what kind of weight he will be losing. He has losses against Ben Rothwell and Mike Whitehead, but a win against Dan Christison. In what has been a theme so far with having Heavyweights fighting as LHW’s, Rashad Evan’s brother Lance Evans walks around at 235#s!?!?! His 2 losses come by KO.

Vinicius ‘Pezao’ Magalhaes is a 220# Brazilian, with 2 submission wins to his credit. Brazilian Andre Gusmao has 3 TKOs and a RNC. He has 2 wins over Mike Ciesnolevicz. Mike, if you are reading this Wassup!!! Get back on the winning track! Jesse Veium has won 10 of his 13 fights by submission.

Finally, there is Glover Teixeira who has a TKO win over Thierry Sokoudjou @ WEC 24. A true 205#er, he considers himself a BJJer, but his 5 TKOs and no submission are contradictory.

Lightweight Summary:
Mark Hughes IS the twin brother of Matt Hughes for those that are wondering. Though he has a win over Alex Stiebling, he hasn’t had a fight since 2003. He also walks around and fights at 185#s. Is he going UP or down?Jason MacKay is ANOTHER Canadian (good to see out brothers to the north are getting some recognition!), who is also picked to win the whole deal. He is undefeated and has 4 submission wins and 2 TKOs.

Shane Nelson is one of BJ’s guys, and has pretty much had all his fights in Hawaii. His last 6 fights have gone to decision, he has 1 TKO and 1 Submission to his credit. Finally, there is Junie Brown to which next to nothing can be found about.