Duane Ludwig on TUF 25: This is by far the best season for the fights themselves

The next season of The Ultimate Fighter, TUF 25, looks like it should be a good one. The season will be coached by reigning bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt and former champion TJ Dillashaw, who are estranged former teammates and heated rivals. The cast, meanwhile, will be composed of TUF veterans – ranging from Joe Stevenson to Julian Lane to James Krause – each eager to get their career back on track with a TUF tournament win.

According to Duane Ludwig, who spent three days a week helping his star pupil Dillashaw coach these veterans, the season also produced some dynamite fights. In fact, Ludwig believes this season of the show produced the best fights in TUF history. He explained this belief on Wednesday’s edition of BJ Penn Radio.

“I haven’t watched all of the past seasons, but [based on] my memory of the past seasons, this is by far the best season for the fights themselves,” he said. “The fights themselves were amazing. It’s going to be a good show. The editing aside, the fights themselves, all the fights were awesome. Hopefully, the public gets to see all the fights, because each one of them was bad ass. I know in the past they’ve shown just clips of fights, like a quick recap, but I hope they show each and every fight, because they were truly worth watching.”

Ludwig then explained why he thinks these fights turned out to be so exciting. In his opinion, it all comes down to the determination of the cast of veteran competitors.

“They were all super eager,” Ludwig said of the cast. “Every one of the guys that was on our team, they came eager to learn and they came to fight and win. Nobody was there for – I don’t know what other reasons you’d go there for – but they all showed up to fight, compete and win. That’s why there were so many great fights.”

Will you be watching TUF 25 when it premiers on April 19? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/16/2017.