As 600 hopefuls try out, 'TUF: Brazil 4' heads to U.S. (here's why)

(This story appears in today’s edition of USA TODAY.)

RIO DE JANEIRO – The UFC’s most successful international edition of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the promotion’s long-running reality/competition series, is heading Stateside.

UFC officials on Monday revealed the plans, which will see eight Brazilian lightweights and eight Brazilian bantamweights travel to Las Vegas in hopes of earning a six-figure contract with the world’s largest MMA organization as cast members on “TUF: Brazil 4.”

“We just found it’s an easier way to streamline the process for us,” Dan Farmer, producer for “The Ultimate Fighter” International, tells USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie. “It’s where our headquarters are. We have a full production company that’s been doing it for over 20 seasons, and it just allows us to consolidate our operations. We’re able to involve (UFC President) Dana White more.

“We just think it’s going to lead to a better season because we have that whole dynamic going and just the resources we’ll have.”

Farmer oversaw Monday’s “TUF: Brazil 4? open tryout session, which drew more than 600 UFC hopefuls to Brazil’s Windsor Barra Hotel just two days after “UFC 179: Aldo vs. Mendes 2? took place at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanazhino Gymnasium. While the show’s ratings have lagged in recent seasons, the large turnout is a testament to just how many hopefuls see it as vehicle to the UFC roster.

“We were overwhelmed when we saw the entries coming in,” Farmer says. “The turnout was so incredible. The line was down the block.”

UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, who was on hand to assist in evaluating potential cast members, says Brazil boasts a wealth of unsigned talent and that tryout attendees often appear more focused than their North American counterparts.

“There is a huge untapped pool here,” Silva says. “We do have a lot of Brazilians, but there are still so many more, and it’s different, I find, with the Brazilian ‘TUFs’ in that quite often in the American ones, sometimes you have guys who just want to be TV stars or be famous. But these kids, you see there’s a lot of crying, a lot of emotion in it because for them. This is life-changing.

“This isn’t just about being on TV. It’s like, ‘I can make a better life for myself and my family.’ So the stakes are very high.”

UFC officials indicated they will initially select 16 lightweights and 16 bantamweights, who will compete in elimination bouts at a site yet to be determined in Brazil shortly after the new year. Camera crews will then document the winning fighters’ journey to Las Vegas, where a six-week filming run will begin in the first quarter of 2015.

“TUF: Brazil” airs on Globo in the South American nation, and Farmer says the show draws “consistently between 7 and 14 million viewers per episode” in its Sunday night broadcast slot. The series then streams via minor tape delay on ufcfightpass.com, the promotion’s digital streaming service.

While the show already includes a few minor differences from its American counterpart, mostly aimed at appealing to Brazilian tastes, Farmer says this season will include several new elements that could also later make their way to the domestic version of “TUF.”

“We’re going to get the fighters out and around Las Vegas and really capture the experience and profile what a great destination las Vegas can be and the fact that it is the ‘Fight Capital of the World,'” Farmer says. “I also have a special little twist that I’ve added into the format of the show. I know a lot of people have been asking for some format changes, so we’ve made a little minor adjustment that’s going to make the fights a little more interesting.”

Widely accepted as the launching pad for MMA’s current popularity boom around the world, “TUF” launched in 2005 and has since delivered 20 domestic editions, as well as seven international versions, including series based in Australia, Canada and China.

Current UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw is a product of the show, as are former titleholders Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin and Matt Serra.

The UFC returns to Brazil on Nov. 8 for UFC Fight Night 56, which takes place in Uberlandia. This past weekend, UFC execs announced plans host seven fight cards in Brazil in 2015.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.