Reality hits hard for Fighter fans

Back five years ago when Bobby Southworth was holed up in a Las Vegas house with 15 other fighters, making meals for some of them and making trouble with others, he had no idea he was helping mixed martial arts skyrocket.

He certainly wasn't alone. UFC had begun to clean up its act, weeding out the bar-room brawlers and firming up the rules, but it had yet to get any traction with the common sports fan.

Parent company Zuffa, including UFC president Dana White, looked at a reality show as a last chance to make things work, but couldn't find a home for it until they landed on Spike TV and that was only after agreeing to pay the $10 million in production costs.

Sure enough, people fell for the show. Reality reeled them in. Chances are if you're excited about Chuck Liddell meeting Rich Franklin at GM Place on Saturday, you watched Southworth, Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Chris Leben and others split time between that house and the octagon in early 2005.

The numbers say it. That Fighter finale was the first live broadcast of a UFC card on regular television and was watched by 3.3 million people.

More telling is that the next pay-per-view event, UFC 52 with its rematch between Liddell and Randy Couture headlining, drew 14,274 fans to the venue, made $2,575,450 in gate receipts and had 280,000 PPV buys. The first fight between Liddell and Couture two years earlier did 5,517 in attendance, $645,140 at the gate and 48,000 buys.

"Where would the UFC be now if the Ultimate Fighter 1 didn't happen?" said Southworth, 40. "It's hard to guess, but I don't think it could have happened this fast. You're talking about a quantum leap.

To me, without the Ultimate Fighter, you're looking at another quarter of a century before it got this big. To me, you're looking at something like 2030. I don't think anybody, including Zuffa and Dana White, had an inkling that this explosion would happen. I'm sure they hoped for the best, but their highest hopes were nothing like what ended up happening."

The athleticism was a key. That's obvious. The light-heavyweight final between Griffin and Bonnar, where they exchanged monster punches for three rounds, is regarded as one of the greatest bouts in UFC history. And Griffin, Diego Sanchez, Josh Koscheck and Kenny Florian have all gone on to be headliner types.

More than that, though, Fighter started to hammer away at the stereotype the UFC was just an elaborate tough-man contest.

With Survivor producer alum Craig Piligian helping lead the way behind the scenes, Fighter showed personalities. Leben, 29, was the tortured soul. Nate Quarry, 38, tried to mentor him.

Southworth was the wiley veteran with an edge and Koscheck, 32, the cocky former NCAA wrestling champion, quickly became his running buddy. Griffin, 30, was goofy and fun loving. Sam Hoger, 29, was a loner accused of stealing gear.

"It was imperative to let people understand what the fighters were really like," said Mike Goldberg, UFC's longtime play-by-play man. "The message hadn't yet been sent to the masses."

Like most people involved in reality shows, Southworth says there was some selective editing. He insists that he tried to be leader, by doing things like cooking for his younger teammates. That didn't get much play.

There was extended time devoted to a testy relationship with Leben, which included Southworth, after a night of partying, calling Leben "a fatherless bastard" during an argument.

It escalated later in the episode, when Leben went to sleep on the front lawn to avoid confrontation, Southworth and Koscheck turned the gardening hose on him and Leben went bezerk, destroying a window and a door in his rage.

"If I could do it again, I wouldn't have called Chris a bad name," said Southworth. "I've apologized publicly and I've apologized to Chris in private. He says that he's forgiven me, but I'm sure he hasn't forgotten and I understand that."

Southworth also says that even though the show "didn't do the most for me," but admitted that if "you watched from a neutral perspective, it was phenomenal TV."

Oddly enough, he would gladly do it again if they did another lightheavyweight show in the next year or two. This current season was going to also include light heavyweights initially and he did show up for tryouts, but they opted to stick strictly with middleweights.

"I think I've got a few good fights in me," said Southworth, who hasn't competed since 2008 and is living now in San Antonio, Texas. "It's funny, but when you're there you're complaining about everything you don't have.

"The fact of the matter is that it's that type of isolation that helps you focus."

UFC 115 CARD

UFC 115: Liddell vs. Franklin Saturday, GM Place

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view)

- - Chuck Liddell vs. Rich Franklin

- - Patrick Barry vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic

- - Martin Kampmann vs. Paulo Thiago

- - Ben Rothwell vs. Gilbert Yvel

- - Carlos Condit vs. Rory MacDonald PRELIMINARY CARD

(Spike TV)

- - Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman

- - Evan Dunham vs. Tyson Griffin PRELIMINARY CARD

(Not televised)

- - David Loiseau vs. Mario Miranda

- - Peter Sobotta vs. James Wilks

- - Ricardo Funch vs. Claude Patrick

- - Jesse Lennox vs. Mike Pyle