Five TUF Turkeys | SPIKE

It's Thanksgiving week, and as we continue to look ahead to a two-hour double episode of The Ultimate Fighter: Team GSP vs. Team Koscheck on Wednesday, December 1 at 9PM/8c, it's time for some turkey. Luckily, The Ultimate Fighter has had no shortage of turkeys over nearly 12 seasons, so we're all set.

Whether it's a highly-regarded fighter failing miserably to meet expectations, a coach not working out as expected, or even a successful fighter wasting the opportunity of a lifetime, the history of The Ultimate Fighter is littered with boneheaded moves. We've gone back over the archive and picked our top five TUF Turkeys for you to sample.

Turkey No. 5: Marc Stevens

When Stevens came out and decimated T.J. O'Brien in the first elimination fight, the former University of Buffalo wrestler made an immediate impression, and while his being selected first overall was partly the result of a clever ruse by Georges St-Pierre, Josh Koscheck was happy to have his former wrestler in the Team Koscheck fold, acting as his protégé.

That happiness was diminished, however, when Koscheck gained control of fight selection and matched Stevens against Team GSP's sixth pick, Cody McKenzie, who'd gotten on Koscheck's nerves with his trash talk. Kos was hoping that Cody would meet the same fate as O'Brien, but instead, McKenzie's initial rush threw Stevens off his gameplan, and he attempted a double-leg takedown that landed him right in position for Cody's trademark "McKenzietine," and the top pick was put to sleep in less than 20 seconds.

The shock and disappointment didn't lessen Koscheck's belief in his top pick, and he went to bat hard for Stevens during the Wild Card selection, and Stevens was matched against Aaron Wilkinson for a second chance in the competition. The first round of that fight showed Stevens' talent, as he controlled the fight, particularly on the ground. In the second round, though, a tired Stevens looked to bring the fight to the floor again, and got caught in another guillotine choke. Being beaten twice by the same hold and wasting both of your opportunities is clearly the work of a Turkey.

Turkey No. 4: Gabe Ruediger

If you wanted to pick a TUF Turkey to enjoy Thanksgiving with, the food is probably the best at Ruediger's place. Or at least, the dessert.

Ruediger, of course, is best known for being booted from TUF 5 after failing to make weight for his preliminary fight with Corey Hill. Ruediger was seen taking his weight-cutting responsibilities very lightly in the house, and resorted to getting a colonic in his failed bid to make the 156-pound weight limit.

In the end, Ruediger was sent packing after an angry speech from a disappointed Dana White, never to be seen in the UFC…or so we thought. After winning six straight fights on the regional circuit, Ruediger was tapped to fill in for an injured Terry Etim at UFC 118 in August, facing his former Team Penn compatriot, Joe Lauzon. Lauzon wasn't about to let his former teammate forget his failure, coming out for the fight in a t-shirt that read "I love fighting like a fat kid loves cake." From there, Lauzon added injury to insult, earning Submission of the Night with an arm-bar in just two minutes.

Turkey No. 3: Joe Scarola

There's no shame in being a top pick who doesn't make it…when it comes to top picks in team selection standing tall with six-figure contracts, Ryan Bader is the exception rather than the rule. However, losing to Mac Danzig was just the beginning for Scarola.

Scarola, who was picked first by good friend Matt Serra after Matt Hughes teased the possibility of picking Scarola for his team, submitted to Danzig's triangle choke with just six seconds remaining in the first round of their preliminary fight. With his chance at the six-figure contract gone after the first preliminary fight, Scarola battled with homesickness, and began asking to make a phone call home. When that failed, Scarola was warned by Matt Serra that if he left the house, he'd lose his job teaching at Serra's schools on Long Island. Despite that warning – and assurances from Dana White that he'd never fight in the UFC if he left – Scarola packed up and went home on the season's third episode. Scarola wound up opening his own school, but hasn't competed professionally since his loss to Danzig.

Turkey No. 2: Ken Shamrock

When Shamrock and Tito Ortiz were announced as the coaches for Season 3 of The Ultimate Fighter, it was assumed that Shamrock would have the natural advantage, having extensive experience training fighters at his Lion's Den training camp. However, over the course of the season and his pair of losses to Ortiz that followed, Shamrock did extensive damage to his legacy with a series of poor decisions.

From his unorthodox training methods during fighter evaluation to his failure to bring a jiu-jitsu coach as part of his coaching staff, Shamrock's decisions were constantly questioned by the fighters. Over the course of the season, Shamrock continually came off as being out of touch, while his hated rival showed fans a different side of "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy," and emerged from the show as a much more sympathetic figure. But hey, at least Shamrock won at pool.

Turkey No. 1: Travis Lutter

OK, let's start by giving credit where credit is due. Travis Lutter was hardly a Turkey on The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback. He won all three of his fights on the show, including two first-round submissions, and earned his shot at the UFC Middleweight Championship by defeating Patrick Cote, who would go on to earn his own shot at the belt after running off five straight wins after the show. However, when he got his chance to fight Anderson Silva at UFC 67, Lutter cemented his reputation as TUF's all-time biggest turkey.

Having earned the opportunity of a lifetime, Lutter weighed in for the 185-pound title fight at 187 pounds. The fight with Silva became a non-title bout, and Lutter submitted to a barrage of elbow strikes from the Spider in the second round. Lutter got one more chance, facing Rich Franklin at UFC 83, and following a second-round TKO at the hands of the former UFC Middleweight Champion, Lutter was cut from the UFC. He's fought just twice since, and lost his last fight to Rafael Natal in the first round earlier this year in Worcester, Mass.

Source: UFC