UFC ANNOUNCES COACHES FOR SECOND SEASON OF
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTERTM

Hughes, Winner of June 4 Tanner-Franklin Fight To Star In Hit Reality Series On Spike TV

Las Vegas, NV--UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes has been selected to be one of the coaches for the second season of Spike TV’s hit reality series The Ultimate FighterTM, while the second coaching spot will be decided Saturday inside the OctagonTM at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters, UFC President Dana White announced today.

Not only will the middleweight belt be on the line between Evan Tanner and Rich Franklin at UFC 53, but the winner will also become the coach opposite Hughes on The Ultimate Fighter. “Matt Hughes is a great champion of the UFC and will be an outstanding coach on The Ultimate Fighter,” said White, who also is featured on the series. “There’s even more at stake now in the Tanner-Franklin fight. I’m excited to find out who will emerge as the new middleweight champion and as our second coach on the show.”

The Ultimate Fighter’s second season is scheduled to tape this summer in Las Vegas and will premiere on August 22, 2005 on Spike TV.  Find out who will be the coach by ordering the pay-per-view on Saturday at 10 p.m. EDT, on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, Bell ExpressVu and Viewer’s Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $34.95
Season No. 1 (13 weeks) of The Ultimate FighterTM averaged a 1.7 household rating (1.5 million) with a 2.0 (1,015,000) among males18-49 a 2.4 (604,000) in M18-34 and an average audience of 2.1 million viewers. The coaches for the first season were light heavyweights Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell. Forrest Griffin (light heavyweight) and Diego Sanchez (middleweight) were The Ultimate Fighter champions for the premiere season and each received a six-figure deal with the UFC® organization. Stephan Bonnar was also awarded a contract after his epic battle in the Finals versus Griffin. The audience peaked during the Bonnar/Griffin fight with 3.3 million viewers. Craig Piligian of Pilgrim Films and Television, Frank Fertitta III, Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White of Zuffa, LLC are the show’s executive producers.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship brand is the world’s leading professional mixed martial arts association and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC fight programs feature six live pay-per-view events annually through cable and satellite providers. In addition to its U.S. distribution, UFC fight programs are distributed internationally throughout the world, including broadcast on WOWOW, Inc. in Japan, Globosat in Brazil and Bravo in the United Kingdom.

Zuffa, LLC licenses the distribution of its fight show DVDs through Studioworks Entertainment, a Ventura Distribution company. “Ultimate Fighting Championship,” “Ultimate Fighting,” “UFC,” “Submission,” “As Real As It Gets” and the Octagon cage design are registered trademarks or trademarks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions. All other marks that may be referenced herein belong to their respective holders.