TUF 22 primaries next week on the 9th and is headed by coaches Faber and interim Featherweight champion Conor McGregor, but these two will not face off at the end of the season. In fact, Faber is having trouble finding anyone to fight, but hopefully that will be cleared up and he can fight at the finale along with his fighters. This season will be USA against England and has a few very experienced fighters and some strong prospects.
Team USA
Andreas Quintana (8-1), 24, Albuquerque, N.M. is a tough fighter who lost his debut but has won eight straight all by knockout of TKO. He has had one fight in Bellator.
Austin Springer (8-0), 27, Portland, Ore. may not make it far since h has a fight lined up with UFC veteran Steven Siler of the 19th of this month according to Sheepdog.com
Billy Quarantillo (6-1), 26, Tampa, Fla. has some good grappling skills with four of his six wins coming by submission.
Brandon Ricetti (7-1), 28, Chico, Calif. has not fought since November of last year which was his first loss after winning seven straight by submission.
Chris Gruetzemacher (12-1), 29, Peoria, Ariz. is a training partner of Benson Henderson at the MMA Lab and beat John Gunderson in his last fight for WSOF.
James Jenkins (8-1), 29, Long Island, N.Y. is a Chris Weidman training partner who ha finished all but one of his eight wins.
Julian Erosa (14-2), 25, Yakima, Wash. a pretty tall Featherweight at 6′ with 13 finishes in his 14 career wins.
Ryan Hall (4-1), 30, Falls Church, Va. is a BJJ phenom and ground specialist.
The rest of the potential fighters for TEAM USA is as follows:
Thanh Le (4-1), 29, New Orleans, La.
Tim Welch (12-5), 25, Glendale, Ariz.
Tom Gallicchio (19-8), 28, Perth Amboy, N.J.
Brennan Sevin (7-1), 29, Chauvin, La.
Jason Soares (8-0), 25, Miami, Fla.
Johnny Nunez (5-1), 29, Las Vegas, Nev.
Jason Gonzalez (9-2), 25, Colton, Calif.
Mike Flach (7-1), 27, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Team Europe
Artem Lobov (11-10-1), 28, Dublin, Ireland and Martin Svensson (14-5), 30, Malmo, Sweden both may be on the show and have fought each other before with Lobov taking a TKO victory int he second round.
Mehdi Baghdad (11-3), 29, Toulon, France has fought current top ten Featherweight Charles Oliveira and lost by TKO.
Saul Rogers (10-1), 25, Bolton, England has beaten Artem Lobov and has wins over UFC veteran John MacGuire and MMA veteran Mark Sinclair. Could be a good favorite to win it all.
The rest of the cast is as follows.
Abner Lloveras (19-7-1), 32, Barcelona, Spain
David Teymur (3-1), 25, Stockholm, Sweden
Djamil Chan (19-2), 24, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Frantz Frank Slioa (4-0), 24, Stockholm, Sweden
Marcin Wrzosek (10-2), 27, Bydgoszcz, Poland
Martin Delaney (10-1), 36, Bathgate, Scotland
Mohamed Grabinski (10-1), 23, Dusseldorf, Germany
Paulo Boer (10-1-1), 29, Holland
Sascha Sharma (8-2), 27, Stuttgart, Germany
Sean Carter (10-1), 30, Essex, England
Thibault Gouti (10-0), 28, Avignon, France
Vladimir Sikd (10-0), 25, Frankfurt, Germany