Earlier today Conor McGregor's team for the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter was announced along with the list of American opponents to be coached by Urijah Faber in a Europe Vs The USA style tournament.
We were hoping to see a few Irish prospects on the list of participants, but instead we saw only one, and he's a prospect killer.
Artem "The Russian Hammer" Lobov, also commonly referred to as "The Prospect Killer" by his friends at SBG, will be the only fighter who fights out of Ireland on the show, and if you are unaware of his career up to this point, you will surely recognise him as Conor McGregor's sparring partner in the ultra popular UFC Embedded Vlog series.
We're looking forward to seeing Lobov on the show, and of course we're looking to see how Conor McGregor handles the coaching role as he attempts to defeat Faber, who has already coached on the Ultimate Fighter (opposite Dominic Cruz in 2012).
Here are both teams in full:
United States
Andreas Quintana, 8-1, 24, Albuquerque, N.M.
Austin Springer, 8-0, 27, Portland, Ore.
Billy Quarantillo, 6-1, 26, Tampa, Fla.
Brandon Ricetti, 7-1, 28, Chico, Calif.
Brennan Sevin, 7-1, 29, Chauvin, La.
Chris Gruetzemacher, 12-1, 29, Peoria, Ariz.
Jason Soares, 8-0, 25, Miami, Fla.
Johnny Nunez, 5-1, 29, Las Vegas, Nev.
James Jenkins, 8-1, 29, Long Island, N.Y.
Jason Gonzalez, 9-2, 25, Colton, Calif.
Julian Erosa, 14-2, 25, Yakima, Wash.
Mike Flach, 7-1, 27, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Ryan Hall, 4-1, 30, Falls Church, Va.
Thanh Le, 4-1, 29, New Orleans, La.
Tim Welch, 12-5, 25, Glendale, Ariz.
Tom Gallicchio, 19-8, 28, Perth Amboy, N.J.
Europe
Artem Lobov, 11-10-1-1, 28, Dublin, Ireland
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
Martin Svensson, 14-5, 30, Malmo, Sweden
Mehdi Baghdad, 11-3, 29, Toulon, France
Mohamed Grabinski, 10-1, 23, Dusseldorf, Germany
Paulo Boer, 10-1-1, 29, Holland
Sascha Sharma, 8-2, 27, Stuttgart, Germany
Saul Rogers, 10-1, 25, Bolton, England
Sean Carter, 10-1, 30, Essex, England
Thibault Gouti, 10-0, 28, Avignon, France
Vladimir Sikic, 10-0, 25, Frankfurt, Germany
The show will feature 12 episodes airing Thursday mornings in the UK and Ireland on BT Sport (part of the Setanta pack in Ireland), and repeated on Thursday evenings. Each episode’s winner will advance in the single-elimination tournament, leading to the season finale card on December 11 in Las Vegas.
