We’ve seen a lot of wacky stuff on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) over the years, but we’ve never seen this: TUF 33 coach, Chael Sonnen forked over $12,500 to rival coach Daniel Cormier’s fighter, Jeff Creighton, after his guy, Andreeas Binder, missed weight by five pounds.
TUF is not a place for weight bullies — you have to make weight multiple times over a period of roughly six weeks. If you’re one of those dudes who needs to starve themselves like a European supermodel weeks out to make weight, you might want to consider competing up a division for TUF, lest you end up like Binder.
Binder did the best he could do with a sauna and a prayer, but still couldn’t get down below 176 pounds … five pounds over the Welterweight limit for his semi-final fight with Creighton. Creighton was well within his rights to turn down the fight and just get a bye into the next round, so Coach Sonnen decided to open his wallet and sweeten the deal.
Video from TUF 33 on ESPN+ shows Sonnen calling Cormier and offering to pay $1,000 per pound to Creighton. Cormier got Creighton on the phone in the sauna, and he turned the screws demanding $2,500 per pound.
Uncle Chael showed up to the weigh-ins with an envelope stuffed with $12,500 in cash.
The dedication to his fighter wouldn’t end up panning out, at least not in the cage: Creighton split Binder’s forehead open with a big elbow in the first round and then beat on him so badly in the second that both men were covered in Binder’s blood.
The judges were unanimous: there would be no third round needed for this fight.
But, Sonnen did protect his fighter from the wrath of Dana White, which was his primary objective.
“This is a potential disaster,” Chael said when he discovered Binder would miss weight by five pounds. “Dana White doesn’t forgive fighters that miss weight on The Ultimate Fighter. I cannot think of a single person since 2005 that has missed weight on TUF and was given [another] opportunity. We made a mistake and now we need grace.”
White seemed happy enough with the arrangement on the show, which is the first attention grabbing moment we’ve seen in awhile. TUF is clearly past its “Best Before” date, but Sonnen is definitely doing everything he can to bring a little excitement (like this) back to the stale format.
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