The Ultimate Fighter 3 was the third season of the mixed martial arts reality television series The Ultimate Fighter. It premiered on April 6, 2006, immediately after the conclusion of Ultimate Fight Night 4. The season featured sixteen fighters (eight light heavyweights and eight middleweights) with still-feuding former champion Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock as coaches. The finale aired on June 24, 2006 and tied the UFC's all-time record with a 2.0 overall rating. There were several rule changes from the previous Ultimate Fighter seasons. There were to be no team challenges. All fighters would have to win a preliminary match before advancing to the semi-finals—which in practice started the single-elimination tournament at the beginning of the series instead of near the end. The first preliminary match was set by the team who won a coin toss. All subsequent first-round match-ups were set by the team that won the previous match. Each fight was set for two rounds instead of the normal three. If there was a draw after two rounds, the match would go to a final, five-minute tiebreaker round. In such a case, the judges' final decision on the match would be based solely on the third round (unless the fight was stopped by the referee before the end of the round). Coaches were allowed to bring two other assistant coaches to assist with training, whereas in previous seasons, assistant trainers hired by the UFC worked for both camps! This series of The Ultimate Fighter was also the first in which fighters who reside outside North America had participated (Michael Bisping, Clitheroe, England; Ross Pointon, Stoke-on-Trent, England). As a part of their agreement to work as coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 3, Shamrock and Ortiz had a rematch of their UFC 40 fight at UFC 61 A 5 disc DVD set of the entire season, full finale, and auditions was released in stores entitled The Ultimate Fighter 3: The Ultimate Grudge.

Cast

Coaches and Trainers

Fighters

Host

Episodes

Episode 1: Fresh Meat (Original Air Date: 6 April 2006) Episode 2: The Basketball (Original Air Date: 13 April 2006) Episode 3: Team Dagger (Original Air Date: 20 April 2006) Episode 4: Hitting it Hard (Original Air Date: 27 April 2006) Episode 5: The Truce Is Over (Original Air Date: 4 May 2006) Episode 6: The Letter (Original Air Date: 11 May 2006) Episode 7: Mohawk (Original Air Date: 18 May 2006) Episode 8: The Fuse Is Lit (Original Air Date: 25 May 2006) Episode 9 :The Golden Boy (Original Air Date: 1 June 2006) Episode 10: Full House (Original Air Date: 8 June 2006) Episode 11: The Jungle (Original Air Date: 15 June 2006) Episode 12: Bangin' (Original Air Date: 15 June 2006)

Tournament Bracket

Middleweight Bracket

Light Heavyweight Bracket

''* Inhofer decided to quit the show. His semi-finals spot was then replaced by Forbes.'' ''* Hamill was injured after his fight. Pointon stepped up one weight class to replace him.''

The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale

The Ultimate Fighter: Team Ortiz vs. Team Shamrock Finale (also known as The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale) was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on June 24, 2006. Featured were the finals from The Ultimate Fighter 3 in both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight divisions as well as a main event between Kenny Florian and Sam Stout. This event also marked the debut of future Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping During the event Randy Couture was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame and the return of Jens Pulver was announced.

Results

Bonus awards

Reported payout

Michael Bisping: $10,000 Kendall Grove: $10,000 Rory Singer: $10,000 Mike Nickels: $10,000 Matt Hamill: $10,000 Kalib Starnes: $10,000 Keith Jardine: $10,000 Solomon Hutcherson: $5,000 Josh Haynes: $5,000 Ed Herman: $5,000 Ross Pointon: $5,000 Jesse Forbes: $5,000 Danny Abaddi: $5,000 Luigi Fioravanti: $4,000 Sam Stout: $4,000 Wes Combs: $2,000 Wilson Gouveia: $2,000 Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $124,000

Coaches' Fight

UFC 61: Bitter Rivals was held on July 8, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.