Who Will Become The Next Ultimate Fighter?

With just a week until the finale, the return of The Ultimate Fighter hit a bump in the road as finalist Treasean Gore, was forced to withdraw due to a serious knee injury. Gilbert Urbina, whom Gore beat in the semi-finals will now find himself in the championship bout.

Gore would have been the only finalist in the 29^th series to represent team Ortega as Bryan Battle, Brady Hiestand, and Ricky Turcios were all members of team Volkanovski.

Bryan “Pooh Bear” Battle entered the competition with a professional record of 5-1. Outside of the Ultimate Fighter, his last win was via Rear-Naked Choke in RD 2 against Ben Fowler at Hardrock MMA 117.

The victory against Fowler seemingly handed the 26-year-old American all the confidence in the world as he defeated Kemran Lachinov in the quarter-finals and took out Brian Ortega’s number one pick, Andre Petroski in the semis.

Battle believes that his opponent’s lack of fight camp will give him a significant advantage and predicts a finish:

“Gilbert has been training but he hasn’t been in fight camp and if you aren’t in fight camp, I have a hard time believing you will be able to keep up with my pace. I see the first round being extremely competitive and I see me taking over and getting a finish in the second.”

Gilbert Urbina became the third Urbina brother to be on the show. Hector Urbina was announced as one of the fighters on “The Ultimate Fighter: Redemption” and was picked 4^th by Cody Garbrandt. However, after failing to make the welterweight limit of 171 pounds, only getting down to 188.4, Urbina was removed from the competition.

Meanwhile, Elias Urbina was a contestant on TUF 23 where he won his preliminary fight against Norman Paraisy before losing in the quarter-finals to Eric Spicely via Unanimous decision.

Gilbert looks to make it 3^rd time lucky for his family as he advances to the final and has the chance to earn himself the UFC contract. The 25-year-old beat Michael Gillmore in the quarter-finals before being knocked out in the second round by Gore in the semis. 

Before entering the house in June, Urbina tallied up a professional record of 6-1 with his only career loss coming against top UFC welterweight contender Sean Brady.

Saturday night’s winner will become the tournament champion in the 29^th series of the Ultimate Fighter and earn a six-figure UFC contract. That begs the question, who will be crowned as the next Ultimate Fighter?

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