Garbrandt, Dillashaw to coach The Ultimate Fighter 25: Redemption

During UFC Fight Night 103 on Sunday, it was announced that UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt and top contender T.J. Dillashaw would coach The Ultimate Fighter 25. The season will be welterweight.

The talent of cast is expected to be higher than usual as it will be made up of former TUF contestants and winners, and one current UFC fighter. The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption will premiere on Wednesday, April 19, at 10 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.

The cast will be announced at a future date.

Garbrandt served as an assistant coach when Team Alpha Male founder Urijah Faber coached opposite Conor McGregor on Season 22 of the series. Dillashaw too helped put Team Faber during the series.

However, Dillashaw eventually split from TAM, and Garbrandt was among his harshest critics, setting up a natural backstory of the series. The series is in desperate need of invigoration, even reinvention, and the new UFC owners WME-IMG have cut back on the show’s budget. But the natural, seething enmity between Garbrandt and Dillashaw should provide sparks, and notably increasing the talent is a step in the right direction.

As an alternative, the UFC might consider notably decreasing the talent level. The earliest UFCs were exciting not because the skills set of the fighters was so deep, but because it wasn’t. Fighters skilled in a single discipline make for fights that are in their own way compelling, and very hard to predict.

A TUF series in which exponents of Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Thai, wrestling, BJJ, boxing, etc all fight for their style could be a compelling return to the roots of mixed martial arts. In the meantime, Garbrandt and Dillashaw chewing each other out for 13 weeks could be worth eating popcorn in front of. Could even see Garbrandt emerge as a star.