(PRESS RELEASE) -- Las Vegas, Nevada –The Ultimate Fighting Championship® organization can reveal the English-language version of The Ultimate Fighter® Latin America will screen exclusively on UFC FIGHT PASS® for US subscribers.
“I’ve been waiting 15 years for this,” said UFC President Dana White. “Passion for fighting is unrivaled in Latin America. It’s part of their history and their culture. There’s a lot of potential in this season’s cast and I know they’re going to bring it every fight. Adding a little extra rivalry – pitting Mexico versus the rest of Latin America - doesn’t hurt either.”
Fans from the following countries will be able to catch the season on their respective free to air networks: Argentina: CN5, Bolivia: Red Uno, Mexico: Channel.5, Nicaragua: Channel 13, Panama: NexTV, Paraguay: Telefuturo and Uruguay: Channel 10. The season will premiere on these Networks the week of August 18, though dates and weekly episodes will vary per country. Viewers should check their local listings for further information.
More networks will be confirmed prior to the series premiere and, additionally, subscribers to the UFC Network in Latin America will also get the chance to catch replays and watch exclusive content.
In the first Latin American edition of the series, the 27th edition overall, the eight bantamweight (135 lbs) and eight featherweight (155 lbs) fighters have been divided into two teams – Team Mexico, coached by Velasquez – and Team Latin America, coached by Werdum. Over the course of 12 weeks, they will face off in the most challenging sports tournament on television and compete for a six-figure contract with the UFC®.
The coaches will then face off in the famed UFC Octagon® for the heavyweight championship of the world on Saturday, November 15 at UFC® 180: VELASQUEZ vs. WERDUM at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico in Mexico City.
The list of finalists was trimmed from more than 600 applicants, with the final fighters hailing from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. The competitors are listed by weightclass and alphabetical order (Name, professional MMA record, age, hometown):
TEAM Cain Velasquez
Bantamweight
Marco Beltran (5-2), 27, Morelia, Mexico
Henry Briones (13-4), 33, Tijuana, Mexico
Alejandro Dominguez (22-6), Tlatenango, Mexico
Jose Quinonez (10-1), 23, Tlatenango, Mexico
Featherweight
Gabriel Benitez (16-4), 25, Tijuana, Mexico
Marlon Vera (5-1), 22, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Yair Rodriguez (2-1), 22, Parral, Mexico
Rodolfo Rubio (12-6), 27, DF, Mexico
TEAM Fabricio Werdum’
Bantamweight
Guido Cannetti (5-1), 34, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fredy Serrano (1-0), 34, Bogota, Colombia
Bentley Syler (5-0), 31, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Featherweight
Humberto Brown (4-4), 29, Panama City, Panama
Masio Fullen (6-4), 27, Guadalajara, Mexico
Leonardo Morales (4-0), 21, Managua, Nicaragua
Diego Rivas (5-0), 22, Temuco, Chile
Alex Torres (1-1), 25, Bogota, Colombia
The Ultimate Fighter® has launched the careers of more than 100 UFC fighters and produced UFC champions such as Forrest Griffin, Rashad Evans and Matt Serra and season winners including Michael Bisping, Ryan Bader and Nate Diaz. Mexico-born Efrain Escudero captured the season eight lightweight title, while Mexican-American Diego Sanchez was the first ever winner of the franchise, defeating Kenny Florian, a fighter of Peruvian descent, at The Ultimate Fighter 1 Finale in 2005. Other Mexican Americans to follow in his stead include, Tony Ferguson, season 13 winner, Kelvin Gastelum, winner of season 17 and the first ever female winner of the series, Juliana Pena, winner of season 18.
For more show information, bios, videos and photos, visit UFCFIGHTPASS.com and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @UFC_FightPass or on Facebook.com/TUF.
About the Ultimate Fighting Championship® Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC®) is the premier mixed martial arts (MMA) organization and largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Headquartered in Las Vegas with offices in London, Toronto, Beijing, Singapore and Sao Paulo, UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe. UFC programming is broadcast in over 145 countries to 800+ million TV households worldwide in 28 different languages. The UFC has a multi-year broadcast agreement with FOX in the U.S., which annually includes four live events broadcast on the FOX network, as well as The Ultimate Fighter® reality television show and thousands of hours of programming on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2. In 2014, UFC launched UFC FIGHT PASS™, a digital subscription service with exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content. The UFC organization also licenses over 100 UFC GYM® locations, and owns UFC.TV® (offering live event broadcasts and video on-demand around the world), UFC FIT® (an in-home fitness and nutrition program), UFC Magazine, and has a videogame franchise with EA SPORTS, UFC Fight Club®, UFC Fan Expo®, Octagon™ branded apparel, best-selling DVDs and Blu-rays and Topps Trading Cards. For more information, visit www.UFC.com and follow UFC at www.Facebook.com/UFC and on Twitter and Instagram: @UFC.