The brand new UFC FIGHT PASS Original Series – Where Are They Now? – is now live on the UFC’s digital streaming service.
Season One of WATN? was released today “Netflix style” – meaning all six episodes were made available at once giving FIGHT PASS fans the choice of watch one or two episodes or “binge watching” all six in one go.
WATN? catches up with some of the most memorable characters from the first four seasons of The Ultimate Fighter: Bobby Southworth (Season 1), Luke Cummo (2), Noah Inhofer (3), Tait Fletcher (3), Din Thomas (4) and Shonie Carter (4).
All six men have retired from active MMA. Some have completely moved on from the sport, some have become trainers and gym owners, some have found great success outside the Octagon while others are still trying to find something beyond MMA.
The concept of the new show was a simple one: catch up with former UFC fighters – in Season One’s case six contestants from the first four series’ of The Ultimate Fighter – and see what they’d been doing since they walked away from the Octagon for the final time.
Some of these guys haven’t appeared in the UFC – or even MMA in general – in years. What has been the next chapter of their lives been like? Those are the stories Where Are They Now? sets out to tell.
FIGHT PASS customers: Where Are They Are Now? can be found here
Don't have FIGHT PASS yet? What are you waiting for? Check out the season trailer for "Where are they now" and sign up here
STERLING LOOKING TO SECURE TITLE FIGHT THIS SUNDAY
The Featured Bout on the Fight Pass Early Prelims for this Sunday’s UFC FIGHT NIGHT in Las Vegas sees the undefeated Aljamain Sterling take on the very much underrated Bryan Caraway.
It is a high-stakes bantamweight match-up between the No.4 ranking Sterling and the No.8 ranked Caraway, and both men believe victory this weekend should result in a title shot.
Unsurprisingly, the outspoken “Funk Master” Sterling has been very vocal about what a win will do for his title ambitions.
He said: “This is my coming out party. Look at the rankings. I am at No.4 and when I beat the No.8 guy I have to get a shot next. (Champion Dominick) Cruz is fighting the No.3 (Urijah Faber) at UFC 199 (June 4), the No.2 guys (Renan Barao) has moved up to featherweight and the No.1 guy (TJ Dillashaw) already has a fight lined up in July, against (Raphael Assuncao) who is ranked lower than me.
“I think the kind of performance I’m going to be out there on Sunday will show who the next No.1 contender is – and who the next UFC champion is.”
If that sounds confident, it is a confidence shared by Long Island trainers Ray Longo, Matt Serra and gym-mate Chris Weidman. Check out this special preview to hear from a camp who feel they have a UFC world-champion in waiting in the Funk Master.
MORE THAN JUST “MR TATE” – CARAWAY IS WORTHY CONTENDER
Ahead of the biggest fight of his 11-year career, Bryan Caraway admits most MMA fans were introduced to him in less than ideal circumstances.
He said: “I think most fans first really heard of me when I made a mistake and tweeted that I’d fight Ronda Rousey. This was around the first fight (between Ronda and Caraway’s partner Miesha Tate) and emotions were running high. It was a stupid thing to tweet, I was replying to one fan who kept tweeting and tweeting at me trying to get me to lose my cool, and, for 10seconds I did lose my cool.
“I tweeted something dumb, Ronda was the darling of MMA at the time and everyone thought I must be (not a nice guy) based on that.”
Caraway was cast as a villain from the second that 140 character comment was sent into cyberspace. Baiting the bantamweight on social media became a sport. The experience of a social media crucifixion turned Caraway off Twitter – and even doing media interviews – for the next five years.
He said: “Honestly, there’s only so many times you can read the most horrible things about yourself, your girlfriend and your mother before you ask yourself why do you bother going on social media.”
Caraway said it has taken a long time for Tate – the newly crowned UFC bantamweight champion and one of the biggest stars in the sport – to convince him that he was only hurting his own career ambitions by refusing to promote himself.
The 11-year veteran, 31, said: “Miesha is really learned to put herself out there. She’s the champion now, but even before that she got so comfortable in front of the cameras. She’s been pushing me to do more to outreach the fans and media. She says ‘If they saw the Bryan I know, you’d start building more of a fan base. But to do that, you’ve got to do media and put yourself out there.’”
Caraway has begun to do exactly that, as can be seen in this interview but he stresses the obvious: “If I don’t win fights, all the interviews and other stuff won’t happen anyway. The focus is on beating Sterling, who’s a really tough opponent, style-wise, because he’s a great athlete.”
Sterling says this Sunday night’s Featured Fight on the UFC FIGHT PASS Early Prelims is his coming out party. Caraway has his own ambitions, though. He said: “Every fight is the most important one, but this fight, with all the hype, all the talking, this is the one where I get to show everyone what the real Bryan Caraway is all about.”
