When the eighth installment of "Ultimate Fighter" was set to begin I groaned at the prospect of thirteen weeks of a formula that had been done to death and was on its last legs following the most lackluster season (# 7) in my opinion in the series history - and wow was I wrong about Season 8.

Maybe it was due to my low expectations but I thought this past season of TUF ranks right up there alongside Seasons 1 and 5 as my personal favorites and accomplished a number of goals - creating stars, showcasing legitimate talent that can make the leap to the dangerous waters of the UFC and most importantly I was genuinely excited at the end of most episodes to watch the following week, which is rare in our current state of over exposed products in both MMA and professional wrestling.

A lot of people will point to the amateur stunts that involved urine and semen during this season as a turn off and granted some of the pranks went over the line but they helped establish a number of characters on the show led by Krzysztof Soszynski and added some much needed color to a number of fighters. After watching Season 7 I was worried that charisma was a lost trait among talent in the house but this season did everything Season 7 did not.

Junie Browning got tons of face time on this season, which resulted in a big spike in numbers during the early half of the season and make no mistake about it - he was given ample rope to hang himself with and survived being thrown out of the house when many fighters with less personality would have been sent packing. By the end of the series, the despised Browning was made to look like a total washout with his teammates and coaches abandoning him and Browning being forced to tap out to a fighter he felt was superior to - it was poetic justice to the craziest fighter in the series history. However, one has to question how Browning's treatment will affect future fighters in the house who realize that if they lack certain skills, they can make up for their shortcomings by being the craziest guy in the house. Despite Browning's performance in the last episode - he will be on the live special fighting Dave Kaplan, while the rest of the non finalists will be on the undercard in non televised bouts - that is not a coincidence and the UFC knows Browning is an attraction.

Arguably the biggest beneficiary of this past season was UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who came across as the most loveable fighter in the UFC, who adopted every member of his team as if they were his own sons and reached a fan base that had only heard the stories of the great "Minotauro" from Japan. A whole new audience will be cheering Nogueira on December 27th against Frank Mir, who didn't come across a total dick during the series but enough that there should be an interesting dichotomy leading into their title fight at the end of the month.

Best of all this season we have fighters such as Ryan Bader, Phillipe Nover and Vinny Magalhaes who could legitimately make the leap to the UFC and could one day be contenders in their respective divisions. Bader is clearly powered by his wrestling from his days at Arizona State and is going to have to evolve as a fighter to survive while Magalhaes is in the same boat when it comes to a huge reliance on his world class jiu jitsu to off set a weak stand up game and Nover looks right now to be the complete package that could be a force at 155 or even 145 in the next few years. My biggest problem in Season 7 was that I couldn't fathom any of the fighters on that show hanging with the top heavy middleweight division of the UFC and with the WEC eliminating their 18 division - where would these guys end up?

I felt this blog was necessary because I really detested Season 7 of this series and was hopeful they would pull the plug on the formula and give the show a new coat of paint but this past season renewed my interest in the reality show and served the multiple purposes it had to. This season demonstrated why TUF was the catalyst for the UFC boom and was the vehicle that helped create many of the company's top stars today.

And I'm picking Nover and Bader.