Dana White: As Long As I’m Here, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ Will Probably Never Go Away

The long-running “Ultimate Fighter” reality show returned for the first time in three years, and on Saturday two winners were crowned from the latest iteration of the series at UFC on ESPN 30.

Bryan Battle submitted Gilbert Urbina to win the “TUF 29” crown at middleweight, while Ricky Turcios earned a spirited split decision over Brady Hiestand to earn a UFC contract at bantamweight. According to UFC president Dana White, “TUF 29” was a success on ESPN+ throughout the course of the season.

“It did really well for us,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 30 post-fight press conference. “It killed it as far as viewership goes. (ESPN is) really happy. We’re really happy. Yeah, I love the show. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The show will probably never go away – while I’m here anyway. It works.”

Due to the show’s three-year hiatus along with the introduction of Dana White’s Contender Series, it seemed like a possibility that “TUF” had finally run its course. Instead, it appears that the reality series will remain an annual supplier of talent to the UFC roster.

“We’re doing one a year,” White said. “Now that this one is over, we’ll start figuring out what’s next. We never really figure out the coaches until literally two weeks before the show is getting ready to get started. We’ll see what the landscape looks like at the time we starting doing it again and what the weight classes are and we’ll start figuring it out.”