Day 1, Season 1. The fighters check out the gym. Theyre impressed. They check out the house. Theyre even more impressed.

And the place is well-stocked with alcohol. The producers thought of everything.

Almost.

They didnt realize how much food 16 fighters can put down, Kenny Florian said. I think they ran out of food the first day. They didnt realize how big of an order we needed as far as food, supplements and all that stuff.

And the cast had little idea what was to come. They reveled to all hours of the night, then got a 5 a.m. wakeup from coaches Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture.

What that brutal wakeup call made clear was that the reality of The Ultimate Fighter wasnt just about the house. The antics of confined men alone wouldnt distinguish the show from The Real World, Big Brother or other reality-show knockoffs. The TUF reality is the collision of an unsupervised house with the disciplined atmosphere at the gym.

The tone was set right away in TUF 1 with a brutal test of endurance in the training center. Liddell admonished fighters not to beat each other up too much, but they wouldve been too exhausted from the cardio workouts to inflict too much damage on each other, anyway.

Dana White, not yet burdened by the murderous travel schedule he would keep when the UFC rapidly expanded, was in the gym and on camera for the early workouts, pushing the fighters through tough exercises and occasionally giving confessionals to reiterate how difficult everything is, selling the sport to a new audience.

Nobody trains as hard as these guys do, White insisted on the broadcast. Thats a fact.

For all the grappling and striking exercises, a treadmill test was the biggest obstacle. Fighters started running for five minutes at 5 miles per hour. Then five more at 6 mph. Then 7. Faster and faster for 30 minutes. Oddly enough, the fighter shown successfully completing the workout was Chris Leben, who spent the previous night getting wasted.

The producers followed the groggy, bewildered fighters as they recovered. Bobby Southworth said it was the hardest workout hes been through. Jason Thacker laughed as a leg cramp kept him from getting out of the van. Then the fighters took turns in an ice bath a recovery trick that in itself might be enough to dissuade people from pursuing careers in sports.

But the producers were hoping early on for a work hard, play hard environment.

"You'd think they'd learn, TUF 1 champion Forrest Griffin said on the UFCs Aftermath program during TUF 13. You'd think they'd maybe seen Season, I don't know, 1 through 12. This happens every year, always toward the end. Someone just gets drunk and makes a complete ass of themselves."

I wont say its encouraged, but lets just say if you drink, its good TV. - Rashad Evans

The tone was set right away in TUF 1.

I was kind of shocked that they provided us with alcohol, fighter Chris Sanford said on camera less than 10 minutes into the series debut. A full bar.

Leben had already found that bar and started serving. Sanford offered a gentlemanly toast. Leben got hammered. By the time he turned in for a couple of hours of sleep, he had also stolen pillows from neighbors beds and spritzed on Thackers bed.

Alcohol fueled a lot of the TUF 1 drama, including a blowout between Leben, Southworth and Josh Koscheck. And even in a calm cast like the TUF 13 crew, the merry drinking could quickly turn to angry drinking, with Tony Ferguson quickly alienating himself from the rest of the house.

TUF 2s Rashad Evans: On the show, they kind of want the antics and craziness to happen. So drinking is not shunned upon at all. I wont say its encouraged, but lets just say if you drink, its good TV. They didnt want guys sitting around to play cards all day. They want guys who drink in the rec room with each other. Thats when all the shit happens.

Yet TUF 2 was more cautious. On the first night in the house, the cast looked warily at the bar. And fighter Tom Murphy saw cautious producers as well:

They brought in serious athletes for our show. I think thats what they wanted. But I think what they found was the demographic of 18 to 25-year-olds that are watching the show wants to see people having ridiculous behavior. I remember Melvin (Guillard) threw a pillow in the pool one day, a couch pillow and they turned off the cameras, the producer called us in and said were going to cancel the show if you guys dont stop getting out of control. A couch pillow in the pool. So all of our guys were pretty serious athletes I think it was more of an idle threat to say, Guys, knock it off. But like I said, it was a couch cushion.

Aside from the caution, TUF 2 dealt with a group of fighters too worn out to party.

Evans: On our season, they trained us way, way, way too hard during the day. So when it came down to it, thats the last thing you want to do is drink. Because tomorrow, I know Im going to get my ass kicked in practice. I dont want to wake up hung over and have to do two hours of practice and get my ass kicked and have to do this twice a day. The next few seasons, it wasnt that hard. They didnt have a hell day like they had the first two seasons.

Alcohol in the house was a sticking point for UFC pioneer Ken Shamrock when he agreed to coach on TUF 3. He recalls:

They asked me to be on the first one, and unfortunately, I was tied up doing other things, so I couldnt do it. They ended up finding up two other guys. I watched the show, and I was a little bit disappointed. So I went on to the show, I sat down and talked with Dana White. I said, listen, if Im going to do this, you've got to promise me you're not going to put alcohol in the house. I saw the things that were going on prior to this. I was like you're putting these guys in a real bad situation. If you put alcohol in the cupboards, that's crazy you know they're going to get bored, you know they're going to get in mischief. I said, listen, I'll do it as long as there isn't alcohol in the house. He said there wouldn't be. I guess we all saw what that was all about.

The TUF 3 cast seemed to appreciate the alcohol. The first-night toasts turned into a long party and a lost eyebrow for Kendall Grove. (Rule #543 on living in the house: Dont pass out when someone else has the razor.)

TUF 6s John Kolosci had one of the most memorable drunken nights after his loss to Mac Danzig drinking to me getting my ass kicked, throwing a foosball table and more stuff into a pool, climbing a cabana, then head-butting a palm tree.

Koloscis memorable confessional: Its a lesson to all the little kids out there that you should not be drinking alcohol because its bad for you.

Getting a cast with the volatility to provide reality-show entertainment along with the fighting skills to make competitive matchups was a challenge early on.

In most seasons, would-be contestants go through a rigorous tryout and interview process. (More on that to come.) For the first season, the process wasnt so firmly established. UFC staff had to scour regional cards to find fighters like Florian.

My audition was actually Dana White showing up at a fight in Boston and watching me fight. He was the one that told me about the show and told me to send in an interview. I still wasnt that interested, but I just sent in a seminar DVD of me teaching (jiu-jitsu), and I got a call from the producers. For Season 1 and I think even Season 2, there were no tryouts. It was just based on your record and the whole interview process.

The UFC also got the word out at established fight camps such as American Kickboxing Academy, where they found Koscheck, Southworth and Mike Swick. But Swick says AKA fighters were confused at first.

They were in need of people. They didnt have enough. None of us from AKA had applied. They kept asking why we hadnt applied. We didnt really know the details. We thought it was for UFC fighters. We didnt know it was for fighters who werent in the UFC. They kept coming back. Basically, we sent in videos of our fights. We submitted it, and they called us back.

We didnt have a fight audition where we had to train or grapple. We just had an interview. They put us in a hotel room and locked the door. We couldnt leave for three or four days. They weeded us out. They made a final cut right at the end. A few people who thought they were in the show they got cut. We didnt really know what to expect. It ended up being three people from my team.

Despite all the questions about the show, TUF 1s talent was quite strong. Half of the 16 fighters went on to long UFC careers, and that didnt include Southworth, the most polished fighter at the shows outset. Plenty of fighters had decent resumes. Griffin had beaten Jeff Monson and Chael Sonnen. Diego Sanchez was 11-0 and a King of the Cage champion. Leben was 14-1 (Sherdog lists four of those bouts as amateur). Only Thacker, who seemed overwhelmed from the outset, was out of his depth.

For TUF 2, with heavyweights and welterweights, the process was still laid-back, with fighters able to get through even if they were a little reluctant. Murphy didnt watch the first season, and his sister prodded him to apply for the second. He borrowed a video camera and did one take of himself in a kimono describing his training with Carlson Gracie, taking care to drop TUF 1 runner-up Stephan Bonnars name as well. Then he went home for the second part of his clip:

I have a little wrestling room in my garage. My kids were running around. I said these are my toughest opponents I opened the door and showed my kids. The video took me about 15 minutes. I sent my application in, and the rest just happened.

At that time, we were locked in your rooms we couldnt even go to the stairwell and work out. You werent allowed to do anything at that time. - Tom Murphy

Still, producers had felt emboldened by the first seasons success to start challenging prospects such as mild-mannered welterweight Luke Cummo.

The producer told me he knew there was a New York asshole inside me and he wanted to find out what it would take to come out. During the second interview at the table with several producers, the head told me there were some real animals in the house, and what was I doing there? But I told him that I would fight them. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?

And they managed to bring in a few eccentrics some of whom, like Cummo, had considerable talent as well. Cummo pulled his mattress off his bed so his head could face north. When Mike Whitehead asked how he could be sure he was facing north, Cummo said he brought a compass.

They also tested how well fighters dealt with deprivation. Murphy said the prospects in his class were given medicals and then screen tests, then sent back to their rooms.

At that time, we were locked in your rooms we couldnt even go to the stairwell and work out. You werent allowed to do anything at that time. Then they call you back up and put you for an interview at a round table.

Then the interviews were befuddling. Murphy didnt make a great first impression.

Danas like, Look at you. Look at how fin small you are. I was like 230 at the time. His phone rings, he stands up and walks out of the room, and I never saw him again. Im thinking, Oh my God that was my interview. Dana White told me how small I was to be on a heavyweight show, and then he walks out of the room.

We just talked about home-schooling my whole interview. We didnt talk about anything else. No fighting, nothing. I went home, they called me up. I must have made an impression on somebody.

Evans also heard he was too small. The recent college grad had his nice little job interview routine down pat. Then Dana White quickly shook him out of it. Heres how Evans recalls it:

White: Youve gotta be fucking kidding me.

Evans: What?

Im fucking bigger than you.

OK.

What are you, fucking 5-foot fucking 7?

No, Im 5-11.

Bro, I just had guys that had to fucking duck down through the door to get inside here. And you fucking come in here, little and small. Listen, heres whats going to happen. Im going to let you come on my show, your fucking little ass is going to get held down for 15 minutes straight. You Cuba Gooding Jr.-looking motherfucker. Ive got a guy whos 6-4, 240 pounds, and he can move like a cat you think you can compete with a guy like that?

Evans had to regroup quickly.

I was so taken aback. I didnt know what to say. I went in there thinking it was going to be a proper interview. I had to think on my feet. So I thought, OK, Im going to play your game.

And so Evans drew upon a boxing analogy, right up the alley for longtime boxing devotee White.

When heavyweights were heavyweights, it wasnt about the biggest guy. You see Muhammad Ali, you see Joe Frazier, you see all the guys that were considered the greatest in boxing they werent cumbersome, big guys that you have now. Boxing was funner to watch back then because the guys werent so big and cumbersome. Guys were able to move, guys were able to put on more of a show because it wasnt all about the size. Thats what I am right now for this season Im the guy thats going to go in there and fight hard as hell and be one of the little guys. Its not going to be boring like you see most of these unathletic heavyweights now.

The interview ended, and Evans didnt think he was going to get picked. But he got one show of support.

One of the producers, Wayne Sampson, was like, I like your interview, I went to bat for you, they might give you a call back. Please do me one favor. If you get on the show, please dont get your ass kicked the first fight.

Evans won the TUF 2 heavyweight division and the UFC light heavyweight belt. Score one for Sampson.

A quick note on quotes: When quotes are taken from TUF broadcasts, books or other sources, they are attributed as such. Unattributed quotes are taken from first-hand interviews for the book Inside The Ultimate Fighter, which was never published. See the intro to this series to see what happened to that book.

Next week: Life and reality in a fishbowl

Excerpt from:

Inside The Ultimate Fighter: Talent, check. Alcohol, check. Food ...? - Bloody Elbow