1 of the best fighters to come out of TUF season 2 & 1 of the worst
By Amy Kaplan
The second season of The Ultimate Fighter had ginormous shoes to fill after the epic finale between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. The show put the UFC on the map and every fighter coming through the show since then will never stack up to the two legends. But they are going to try.
The coaches for season two were Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin who each took half of the fighters to form a green team and a blue team. The athletes were welterweights and heavyweights. The season aired on Spike TV from Aug 22 through Nov. 5, 2005.
Team Franklin included welterweights Jorge Gurgel, Marcus Davis, Anthony Torres, Melvin Guillard and heavyweights Keith Jardine, Seth Petruzelli, Rashad Evans, and Brad Imes.
Team Hughes included welterweights Joe Stevenson, Josh Burkman (who replaced Jason Von Flue in episode two), Sammy Morgan, Luke Cummo and heavyweights Mike Whitehead, Dan Christison, Rob MacDonald, and Tom Murphy.
Best fighter to come out of TUF season 2: Rashad Evans
When it comes to the best, it's an absolute no-brainer for this season. Rashad Evans won the season for heavyweights after defeating Keith Jardine and Brad Imes but his success didn't stop there. After the win he returned to light heavyweight and won seven fights versus UFC veterans like Stephan Bonnar, Chuck Liddell, Michael Bisping and Forrest Griffin. He won several Knockout of the Night bonuses and a little thing called the UFC title when he defeated Griffin. Unfortunately, he lost it to Lyoto Machida six months later.
He bounced back winning four in a row before losing to Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title. But he kept on trying, fighting (and beating) the likes of Dan Henderson, and Chael Sonnen. He retired from the UFC after losing to Anthony Smith at UFC 225 but made a brief comeback at Eagle FC where he won a decision to Gabriel Checco in 2022.
He now works for the UFC as an on-air broadcaster and is a well respected member of the MMA community. He was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fane on July 5, 2019.
Worst fighter to come out of TUF season 2: Anthony Torres
It's a bad sign when you're the only fighter on the cast without your own Wikipedia page. Anthony Torres never really had much of a shot at making it in MMA. He lost his TUG fight to Luke Cummo and then won just two of his next five fights. He hasn't competed in MMA since 2013 (a loss to Josh Calvo at PXC 38) but he has competed in grappling as recently as 2019, unfortunately, he lost that too.