With the UFC set to do their first all international version of TUF, the question I find myself asking is: Which camp will the fighters come from.
As the sport has grown, we have seen the emergence of not just the fighters, but the camps that they come from as well. We've also come to see the different specialties that each camp provides. With American Top Team, you will almost always get guys who are very big for their weight classes but have no problem with weight cuts, and are notorious for their hard work and dedication. Jackson-Winklejohn, you have the ultiamte strategists and gameplanners who know exactly how to use the strengths of a fighter to the utmost.
This past TUF, we saw two fighters who came from the same camp, Jackson-Winklejohn, who everyone now seems to think could be among the top fighters in their divisions, something I don't disagree with. John Dodson will no doubt drop to Flyweight in 2012, his natural weight class. And Diego Seems to have the same berserker style that Aldo has, making for quite possibly the most exciting future possible match up.
So the question remains, of those great teams and camps in Brazil, which of them will provide the best talents. I believe Nova Uniao will no doubt be well represented, as well as Black House and Brazilian Top Team. But more so than the larger camps, I think the fighters I'm most interested to see are guys from the smaller, essentially unknown camps. We could also see a resurgance of Chute Boxe Academy.
All in all this should be a very exciting season of TUF, with quite possibly the best possible fights if the Brazilian fighting spirit is on full display. And if I had to pick a camp that I think will produce a winner, I would have to go with Nova Uniao.