Spring Break
UConn Alum Fights Way To 'Ultimate' UFC Debut
Aly Shea
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: Focus
Dan Cramer, who graduated in December as an economics major, is just one of 32 fighters competing for a six-figure UFC contract tonight on the premiere of SpikeTV's "The Ultimate Fighter."
The show airs at 10 p.m. and Cramer will be at Thirsty Dog Pub & Grille to watch with friends, explain the show to patrons and either celebrate his success or mourn his failure - he isn't allowed to say whether he makes it past the first round of the show or not. Cramer has donated a lot of the free merchandise he received for being on the show and will raffle it off to patrons.
Each of the first two episodes featurs eight fights. Cramer's first fight will air April 9.
The show "The Ultimate Fighter" is in its seventh season. Over the course of the 12-episode season, "UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and top light heavyweight contender and Season 1 champion Forrest Griffin will train and coach fighters in the middleweight division," according to SpikeTV. "'The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs Team Forrest' is hosted by Dana White, UFC President."
And this season is different from others in that there are more contestants.
In the past six seasons, 16 contestants have lived in a house together and set up tournament-style fights in order to win a UFC contract, Cramer said, but this season the number of contestants was doubled.
With only 16 spots in the house and a need to eliminate half the competitors, the contestants fought each other.
"We did 16 fights in the first two days to figure out who would end up in the house - winners stayed in the house, losers had to leave," Cramer said. Cramer's contract with the show prohibits him from saying whether or not he made it into the house.
"The Ultimate Fighter" house cuts off their fighters from contact with the outside world while they endure a grueling regimen of jiujitsu, judo, muay thai, boxing and wrestling with each other.
Even after participants are eliminated in the tournament-style fights, they continue living in the house until the end of the season, when a new "Ultimate Fighter" emerges. Contestants trained morning, noon and night, Cramer said.
The show airs at 10 p.m. and Cramer will be at Thirsty Dog Pub & Grille to watch with friends, explain the show to patrons and either celebrate his success or mourn his failure - he isn't allowed to say whether he makes it past the first round of the show or not. Cramer has donated a lot of the free merchandise he received for being on the show and will raffle it off to patrons.
Each of the first two episodes featurs eight fights. Cramer's first fight will air April 9.
The show "The Ultimate Fighter" is in its seventh season. Over the course of the 12-episode season, "UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and top light heavyweight contender and Season 1 champion Forrest Griffin will train and coach fighters in the middleweight division," according to SpikeTV. "'The Ultimate Fighter: Team Rampage vs Team Forrest' is hosted by Dana White, UFC President."
And this season is different from others in that there are more contestants.
In the past six seasons, 16 contestants have lived in a house together and set up tournament-style fights in order to win a UFC contract, Cramer said, but this season the number of contestants was doubled.
With only 16 spots in the house and a need to eliminate half the competitors, the contestants fought each other.
"We did 16 fights in the first two days to figure out who would end up in the house - winners stayed in the house, losers had to leave," Cramer said. Cramer's contract with the show prohibits him from saying whether or not he made it into the house.
"The Ultimate Fighter" house cuts off their fighters from contact with the outside world while they endure a grueling regimen of jiujitsu, judo, muay thai, boxing and wrestling with each other.
Even after participants are eliminated in the tournament-style fights, they continue living in the house until the end of the season, when a new "Ultimate Fighter" emerges. Contestants trained morning, noon and night, Cramer said.
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