Schaub and Roy Nelson have earned berths into the final four. Two fights on Dec. 2 will determine the other semifinalists. The show continued to tease that Kimbo Slice may replace Matt Mitrione against James McSweeney, though the ratings magnet is nursing a knee tendon injury. Marcus Jones will face Darill Schoonover in the other quarterfinal. The field will be narrowed to two finalists on a second hour of TUF on Dec. 2.
Also this week, Coach Rashad Evans and Mike Van Arsdale defeated Quinton Jackson and Tiki Ghosn in a beach volleyball challenge. Evans got $10,000 for winning the coach’s challenge, and all of his fighters received $1,500 apiece.
The episode scored a 1.76 rating for an average of 2.4 million viewers, in the same range as last week. It will be the highest-rated season in TUF history.
In another TUF note this week, UFC President Dana White told MMAJunkie.com that the company is ready to launch international versions of the reality series targeted to specific nations in “in the next couple of months with seven or eight countries.” White hinted that the UFC would find a way to broadcast the show on the Internet so fans in every country could see the nation-specific programming.