I just got done watching a screener copy of TUF 7 and am excited about the new direction of the show. After 5 consecutive seasons without a serious change in production, Dana White implements some new rules that should make for an exciting competition.

TUF 7 opens up with montage of fighters from previous seasons, and the host explains that the show usually carries 16 contestants. After a brief synapsis of the rules , we get to see clips of fighters who did not take TUF seriously and , consequently, made less then admirable exits from the show. Think Joe Scarola , Gabe Ruediger, and the infamous “Lobstah”.

The fighters are puzzled when they see van loads of fighters unloading into the TUF gym. Until this season, every show carried 16 contestants.

After introducing the coaches,Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Forrest Griffin, Dane White addresses the 32 contestants about previous frustrations with TUF contestants. White addresses the fighters like only he can; an authoritative narrative delivered with quite a few F bombs.

“What I get tired of every season… drives me [expletive] crazy, are the [expletive] and the posers who come on this show because they think they want to be fighters. They get here and the [expletive] camera is bothering them, they get nervous they don’t want to fight they don’t want to do this, and every season it makes me sick to my stomach because I think of all the guys that wanted to be there, who wanted that opportunity.

I found the [expletive] solution to that problem.

There’s 32 guys here. The next 48 hours are going to be the most important 48 hours of your entire [expletive] life, because this season you are going to fight your way onto the show.

In 24 hours you are going to weigh in, and in 48 hours you’re going to fight.

“I think some of them crapped their pants… I smelled it” , comments Rampage Jackson after seeing the astonished look on the faces of all 32 contestants.

In previous seasons, the TUF coaches would evaluate the fighters by watching them spar, roll, etc. in the gym. on “The Ultimate Fighter 8” Team Forrest will corner half of the fighters and Team Rampage will corner the other half. They will also be conducting their team evaluations during the fights. They will pick teams after they widdle the competition down to the 16 winning contestants. The fighters have already been matched up prior to the debut episode.

In every past season, we don’t see a fight until episode 2 or 3. On “The Ultimate Fighter 8”, we see the first fight within the first 11 minutes of the show.

I am not going to post the winners of the bouts because I don’t want to spoil the fun, but here are the single elimination tournament matchups. Besides, If you look hard enough on this blog you can find the final 16 contestants.

Middleweights
Mike Dolce vs. Prince McClean
Cale Yarbrough vs. John Clarke
Amir Sadollah vs. Steve Byrnes – My pick for fight of the night
David Baggett vs. CB Dollaway
Dante Rivera vs. John Wood
Nick Klein vs. David Mewborn
Paul Bradley vs. Reggie Orr
Jeremy May vs. Dave Roberts

Every fighter looked hungry and ready to go and all but one fight was finished by knockout or submission. The second episode will feature the light heavyweight single elimination tournament and promises one of the most brutal knockouts in TUF history.

It’s worth mentioning that Mike Dolce is a resident of New Jersey and John Clarke is from New Haven Connecticut, so the Northeast has some representation on the show.

All in the all, the first show was pretty awesome and I expect the second installment to be great as well. “The Ultimate Fighter 7” airs Wednesday night on SpikeTV after Ultimate Fight Night 11 – Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon.