The full cast list for The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir has finally been revealed. This eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter will feature combatants from the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions. There will be 32 combined fighters that will participate in two 16 man elimination tournaments to decide this years “Ultimate Fighter” in each division.
The light heavyweight division will feature the siblings of a couple UFC veterans. Lance Evans is the brother of light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans while Jason Guida is the brother of lightweight contender Clay Guida.
LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Ryan Bader
Age: 24
MMA Record: 7-0-0
Trains With: Arizona Combat Sports
Location: Chandler, Ariz.
Antwain Britt
Age: 29
MMA Record: 4-0-0
Trains With: Bombsquad MMA
Location: Virginia Beach, Va.
Jules Bruchez
Age: 30
MMA Record: 3-2-0
Trains With: Ronin Dojo
Location: Lafayette, La.
Lance Evans
Age: 30
MMA Record: 4-2-0
Trains With: TKO MMA
Location: Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Karen Grigoryan
Age: 26
MMA Record: 5-0-0
Trains With: RusFighters Sport Club
Location: Russia
Jason Guida
Age: 30
MMA Record: 26-13-0
Trains With: Hellhouse Gym
Location: Chicago
Ryan Jimmo
Age: 26
MMA Record: 6-1-0
Trains With: Titans MMA
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Kyle Kingsbury
Age: 26
MMA Record: 7-1-1
Trains With: American Kickboxing Academy
Location: Sunnyvale, Calif.
Tom Lawlor
Age: 24
MMA Record: 6-2-0
Trains With: American Top Team
Location: Oviedo, Fla.
Ryan Lopez
Age: 25
MMA Record: 5-3-0
Location: Oklahoma City
Vinicius Magalhaes
Age: 23
MMA Record: 2-2-0
Trains With: Team Quest
Location: Temecula, Calif.
Eric Magee
Age: 23
MMA Record: 3-1
Trains With: South Shore Sports Fighting
Location: Rockland, Mass.
Eliot Marshall
Age: 27
MMA Record: 5-1-0
Trains With: Eastern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Location: Boulder, Colo.
Sean O’Connell
Age: 24
MMA Record: 1-0-0
Location: Salt Lake City
Shane Primm
Age: 23
MMA Record: 1-0-0
Trains With: Team Gracie Tampa
Location: Tampa, Fla.
Krzysztof Soszynski
Age: 30
MMA Record: 16-8-1
Trains With: Team Quest
Location: Temecula, Calif.
The lightweight division will feature a guy that many insiders have been talking about lately. Joe “The Hybrid” Duarte is an incredibly strong and well rounded up and coming lightweight that cuts down to 155 from 190 pounds. Previously Dana White had commented that he may have fund “the next Anderson Silva” and most have concluded that Duarte is the man he is talking about. It will be interesting to see what this season holds for Duarte and if he will be able to live up to early hype.
LIGHTWEIGHT
Jose Aguilar
Age: 25
MMA Record: 17-3-0
Trains With: Grapplers Edge
Location: Las Cruces, N.M.
Fernando Bernstein
Age: 25
MMA Record: 2-0-0
Trains With: Progressive Martial Arts
Location: San Clemente, Calif.
Junie Allen Browning
Age: 22
MMA Record: 2-0-0
Trains With: Four Seasons Martial Arts
Location: Lexington, Ky.
Rolando Delgado
Age: 26
MMA Record: 7-3-1
Trains With: We$t$ide Fight Team
Location: North Little Rock, Ark.
Joseph Duarte
Age: 24
MMA Record: 3-0-0
Trains With: Unleashed Training Facility/Alliance MMA
Location: San Diego
Charles Diaz
Age: 30
MMA Record: 14-4-0
Trains With: Team EFX
Location: El Cajon, Calif.
Efrain Escudero
Age: 22
MMA Record: 10-0-0
Trains With: Southwest Martial Arts
Location: Tempe, Ariz.
Brandon Garner
Age: 26
MMA Record: 4-1-0
Trains With: Team ROC
Location: Raleigh, N.C.
David Kaplan
Age: 28
MMA Record: 3-1-0
Trains With: Lloyd Irvin Team
Location: Las Cruces, N.M.
Brian McLaughlin
Age: 23
MMA Record: 5-0-0
Trains With: Team Gracie Tampa
Location: Tampa, Fla.
Wesley Murch
Age: 25
MMA Record: 4-2-0
Trains With: Trojan Gym
Location: Bristol, U.K.
Shane Nelson
Age: 24
MMA Record: 11-3-0
Trains With: B.J. Penn’s MMA Academy
Location: Hilo, Hawaii
Phillipe Nover
Age: 24
MMA Record: 5-0-1
Trains With: Team Renzo Gracie
Location: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Ido Pariente
Age: 30
MMA Record: 13-4-0
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
John Polakowski
Age: 26
MMA Record: 3-1-0
Trains With: The Pit
Location: San Luis Obispo, Calif.
George Roop
Age: 26
MMA Record: 7-3-0
Trains With: Ultima MMA
Location: Tucson, Ariz.
The filming of TUF 8 has recently been wrapped up and the first episode will air on SpikeTV, September 17th.
Shane Primm is one of the TUF finalists this season. As you all know the show’s full season has already been recorded but not the finals which are live.
Whoa! I thought Shane was going to be one of the finalists. Are you for real or just speculating? Where did you hear that from? I’m looking at you Jeff!