''The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom'' is the ninth installment of the

Ultimate Fighting Championship The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...

(UFC) produced

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series ''

The Ultimate Fighter ''The Ultimate Fighter'' is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pilgrim Media Group currently airing on ESPN+. It previously aired for fourteen s ...

''. It began production in January 2009, and began airing on

Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...

on April 1, 2009. The season featured

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

fighters (146–155 lb) and

Welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

fighters (156–170 lb). In order to be considered for the show, a fighter had to have competed in at least three professional bouts prior to the tryouts in October 2008. UFC Middleweight fighter and winner of

The Ultimate Fighter 3 ''The Ultimate Fighter 3'' was the third season of the mixed martial arts reality television series ''The Ultimate Fighter''. It premiered on April 6, 2006, immediately after the conclusion of '' Ultimate Fight Night 4''. The season featured sixte ...

Michael Bisping Michael Gavin Joseph Bisping (; born 28 February 1979) is an English actor, sports analyst, commentator and retired mixed martial artist, who competed in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight division of the UFC. A professional competitor ...

served as one of the two coaches. The other coach was

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American retired mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champi ...

. Henderson earned his place as a coach at

UFC 93 ''UFC 93: Franklin vs. Henderson'' was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on January 17, 2009 at The O2, Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. Background The main event featured a Light Heavyweight bout between fo ...

by defeating

Rich Franklin Richard Jay Franklin II (born October 5, 1974) is an American businessman and retired mixed martial artist. He is best known for competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where he is a member of the UFC Hall of Fame and a former UFC Middl ...

. Bisping and Henderson fought each other at

UFC 100 ''UFC 100'' was a mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on July 11, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event was the most bought UFC pay-per-view of all time with a buyrate of 1.6million, until UFC 202 brok ...

on July 11, 2009. Henderson defeated Bisping at the event via second-round knockout.

Cast

Coaches

* Team United States **

, head coach **

Cyrille Diabaté Cyrille Moktar Diabaté (born October 6, 1973) is a retired French mixed martial artist and kickboxer. He has also competed in shoot boxing and Muay Thai. He has fought at Palace Fighting Championship, Tachi Palace Fights, PRIDE, ShoXC, Deep, ...

, Muay Thai instructor ** Ricardo Feliciano, Jiu-Jitsu instructor ** Gustavo Pugliese, Boxing instructor **

Heath Sims Heath Sims (born October 14, 1971) is an American mixed martial artist, Olympic wrestler and MMA trainer. He is a long time training partner of Dan Henderson and a highly respected MMA coach who was the wrestling instructor for the US team on T ...

, Wrestling instructor * Team United Kingdom **

, head coach ** Dave Jackson, Thai Boxing instructor ** Mario Neto, Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor

Fighters

* Team United States ** Lightweights: Santino DeFranco,

Jason Dent Jason William Dent (born June 12, 1980) is a retired American mixed martial artist. A professional from 2003 until 2012, he fought in the UFC, King of the Cage, and was a competitor on SpikeTV's '' The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United ...

, Cameron Dollar, Richie Whitson ** Welterweights:

DaMarques Johnson DaMarques Johnson (born June 28, 1982) is a retired American mixed martial artist. He competed for the UFC and King of the Cage and was the Welterweight runner-up on '' The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom''. Background Johnson ...

, Frank Lester, Mark Miller, Jason Pierce * Team United Kingdom ** Lightweights: Jeff Lawson,

Ross Pearson Ross Pearson (born 26 September 1984) is a retired English mixed martial artist who last competed in 2019. A 26-fight veteran of the UFC, he was a three-time "Fight of the Night" winner and was the lightweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 9. ...

, Martin Stapleton,

Andre Winner Andre Badi Winner (born 9 November 1981) is a Grenadian-born English mixed martial artist. He was a cast member of Spike TV's '' The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom'', reaching the final. Winner is also a member of Team Roug ...

** Welterweights: Dean Amasinger, David Faulkner,

Nick Osipczak Nicholas Dominic Osipczak (born 30 December 1984) is an English professional mixed martial artist, most famous for his fights and wins in the welterweight division of the UFC. He was also a cast member of Spike TV's '' The Ultimate Fighter: ...

James Wilks James Brett Wilks (born 5 April 1978) is an English film producer, vegan activist, a combatives expert and instructor, and former professional mixed martial artist. A professional from 2003 until 2012, he competed for the UFC, King of the Ca ...

* US Fighters Eliminated in or before Entry Round: ** Lightweights: Paul Bird, John David-Shackelford (failed medical exam), Tommy Hayden,

Waylon Lowe Michael Waylon Lowe (born October 31, 1980) is an American mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Lightweight (MMA), Lightweight division. A professional competitor since 2006, he has competed for the Ultimate ...

, Rob Browning ** Welterweights: Steve Berger, Ray Elbe, Christian Fulgium (failed to make weight),

Kevin Knabjian Kevin Knabjian (born July 5, 1984) is a retired American mixed martial artist of Armenian descent. A professional from 2003 until 2012, he competed for the UFC and the WEC. Mixed martial arts career Knabjian went to Eastern Illinois University ...

, Kiel Reid * UK Fighters Eliminated in Entry Round: ** Lightweights: James Bryan, Dan James, Gary Kelly, A.J. Wenn ** Welterweights: James Bateman, Tommy Maguire,

Che Mills Ché Mills (born 29 October 1982) is an English mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Welterweight division of Cage Warriors. A professional competitor since 2003, he has also competed for the UFC, Cage Rage, BAMMA, and M-1 G ...

, Alex Reid

Others

*Host:

Dana White Dana Frederick White Jr. (born July 28, 1969) is an American businessman who serves as president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), a global mixed martial arts organization. In August 2019, White's net worth was estimated at $500 milli ...

*Narrator:

Mike Rowe Michael Gregory Rowe (born March 18, 1962) is an American television host and narrator. He is known for his work on the Discovery Channel series '' Dirty Jobs'' and the series '' Somebody's Gotta Do It'' originally developed for CNN. He hosted ...

Episodes

;Episode 1 – Bangers & Mashers *The episode was filmed at the Wolfslair MMA Academy in England. *Dana White announced that of the 16 competitors there, only eight would be flying to the United States. They fought in elimination matches to decide who made the trip. *The elimination matches were two rounds, with a third sudden victory round if there was a draw after the second round. *The fights actually occurred before UFC 93, so both Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson were present to observe the fights, as was Michael Bisping. *Andre Winner defeated Gary Kelly via KO (knees and punches) at 1:48 of round 1. *Jeff Lawson defeated James Bryan via submission (

armbar An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow joint or shoulder joint. An armlock that hyper-extends the arm is known as an armbar, and it includes the traditional armbar, pr ...

) at 1:45 of round 1. *James Wilks defeated Che Mills via submission (

heel hook Heel hook may refer to: * Heel hook, in grappling * A climbing technique {{disambig