Thursday, September 27, 2007

Uproar as TUF 6 Coach Matt Hughes Practices Witchcraft on Show

The second episode of "The Ultimate Fighter: Season Six", which aired last night on SpikeTV and featured coach Matt Hughes practicing witchcraft, has left the MMA world up in arms over what many perceive to be a gratuitous mixing of sports and religion. In the episode, the former welterweight champ sacrificed a goat in the Octagon while chanting over a smoking cauldron. Did Hughes go too far? By encouraging his team to dance around a bonfire blazing within the UFC Training Center, was Hughes imposing his beliefs on the aspiring fighters? "I felt a little uncomfortable but I didn't have a problem saying no," said TUF 6 competitor Mac Danzig in a phone interview. He was seen foregoing the rituals, and in a subsequent training session was forced to wear a crown of thorns. "Yeah, that sucked," said Danzig. With last night's episode, Hughes joins former TUF coaches Ken Shamrock (who suggested his charges eat babies) and Randy Couture (who led his team on a Las Vegas crime spree that resulted in two bank robberies and a carjacking) as controversial reality TV personalities.