Season premieres Wednesday, April 18 on FS1
Las Vegas – The highly anticipated 27th season of The Ultimate Fighter® will see UFC® heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic coach opposite light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Following the series, which debuts Wednesday, April 18 on FS1, the two will battle for the heavyweight crown during the 7th annual UFC International Fight Week (July 3-7) at UFC 226®: MIOCIC vs. CORMIER at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, July 7.
The Ultimate Fighter®: Undefeated will also feature a dynamic cast of unbeaten lightweight and featherweight fighters. Each tournament winner will receive a six-figure UFC contract. The season will air for 12 consecutive Wednesdays on FS1, followed by a live finale to be announced at a later date.
Both coaches recently defended their championships at UFC 220 earlier this month in Boston.
Miocic (18-2, fighting out of Independence, Ohio) netted his historic third heavyweight title defense with a dominant decision over dangerous striker Francis Ngannou. The NCAA Division I wrestler and Cleveland Golden Gloves boxing champion has been on a tear since 2015. Going into the bout with Ngannou, the consensus “baddest man on the planet” had earned five consecutive knockout victories against Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski and Mark Hunt. Miocic now looks to lead his team to victory before further etching his name in the record books.
As for Cormier (20-1 1NC, fighting out of San Jose, Calif.), the former Olympian earned a spectacular TKO win against knockout artist Volkan Oezdemir. During his reign as light heavyweight champion, Cormier has also earned impressive title defense wins over Anthony Johnson and Alexander Gustafsson. The bout against Miocic will mark his first at heavyweight since defeating Roy Nelson in 2013. Prior to joining UFC, Cormier won the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix by besting Josh Barnett in the final. He now aims to join Georges St-Pierre, Conor McGregor, BJ Penn and Randy Couture as a two-division UFC champion.
Below is a full list of competitors (name, professional record, age and fighting out of):
LIGHTWEIGHT
- Thailand Clark – 7-0 | 28 | Fort Worth, Texas
- Joe Giannetti – 6-0 | 22 | Norwell, Mass.
- John Gunther – 6-0 | 32 | Cleveland, Ohio
- José Martinez Jr.– 4-0 | 27 | Lorain, Ohio
- Luis Peña – 4-0 | 24 | Hillsboro, Miss. by way of Naples, Italy
- Richie Smullen – 3-0-1 | 26 | Arklow, Ireland
- Mike Trizano – 6-0 | 25 | Ramsey, N.J.
- Allan Zuniga – 13-0 | 25 | San Miguel, Costa Rica
FEATHERWEIGHT
- Jay Cucciniello – 8-0 | 31 | Malaga, Spain by way of Dublin, Ireland
- Tyler Diamond – 9-0 | 26 | Oroville, Calif.
- Brad Katona – 6-0 | 25 | Dublin, Ireland by way of Winnipeg, Canada
- Bryce Mitchell – 9-0 | 23 | Cabot, Ark.
- Suman Mokhtarian – 8-0 | 25 | Sydney, Australia
- Dulani Perry – 4-0 | 31 | Houston, Texas
- Kyler Phillips – 5-0 | 22 | Surprise, Ariz.
- Ricky Steele – 5-0 | 29 | Boise, Ida.
For more show information, bios, videos and photos, visit ultimatefighter.com and follow us on Twitter @UltimateFighter and Facebook.
About UFC®
UFC® is a premium global sports brand and the largest pay-per-view event provider in the world. Acquired in 2016 by global sports, entertainment and fashion leader Endeavor (formerly WME | IMG), together with strategic partners Silver Lake Partners and KKR, UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas with a network of employees around the world. UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe, while programming is broadcast in over 163 countries and territories to more than 1.1 billion TV households worldwide in 35 different languages. UFC FIGHT PASS®, a digital subscription service, delivers exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content to fans around the world. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram: @UFC.
About FOX Sports
FOX Sports is the umbrella entity representing 21st Century FOX’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets. Built with brands capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FOX Sports includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FOX Sports includes the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; FS1, FS2; FOX Sports Regional Networks, their affiliated regional web sites and national programming; FOX Soccer Plus; FOX Deportes and FOX College Sports. In addition, FOX Sports also encompasses FOX Sports Digital, which includesFOXSports.com and FOX Sports GO. Also included in the Group are FOX’s interests in joint-venture businesses Big Ten Network and BTN 2Go, as well as a licensing agreement that established the FOX Sports Radio Network.
About Pilgrim Media Group
Pilgrim Media Group, a Lionsgate company, produces a wide variety of unscripted and scripted content for television and digital platforms, as well as feature films. Among the company’s series are: The Ultimate Fighter for Fox Sports 1, Discovery’s Street Outlaws, Fast N’ Loud, Misfit Garage, Garage Rehab and the upcoming Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman; two-time NAACP Award-winner Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s for OWN; Wicked Tuna and Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks for National Geographic; Bring It! for Lifetime; and My Big Fat Fabulous Life for TLC, among many others. Pilgrim also produced the scripted series Recovery Road for Freeform, multiple original movies for Lifetime, and is in development on numerous other scripted projects for TV, film and streaming outlets. Pilgrim’s feature documentary Soufra (which won two awards at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival) premiered in North America at DOC NYC, with 2017 theatrical runs in New York and Los Angeles. The company also continues to produce award-winning content via its digital studio 1620 Media.