MMAjunkie.com Fight Biz: Women's MMA readies for reality TV with "Ultimate Women Challenge"

MMAjunkie.com Fight Biz: Women's MMA readies for reality TV with "Ultimate Women Challenge" by Steve Sievert on Aug 03, 2009 at 8:01 am ET Television producer Lyle Howry is quick to dismiss attempts to compare his new women's MMA reality show to "The Ultimate Fighter," but "TUF"-like success is very much his goal. 

"Ultimate Women Challenge" recently began production and will bring together 16 MMA fighters in September to compete for contracts with a yet-to-determined promotion. The show will put the women through three weeks of intense training and, Howry hopes, deliver the same jolt for women's MMA that "TUF" produced for the sport as a whole. 

"That's the only reason I'm doing it," Howry, who's been producing traditional martial-arts programming for a decade, told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "This has been a passion of mine for numerous years. I just love watching women fight. They seem to just give a great fight. It's a great live fight to watch. I would love to have these girls have the recognition that the UFC has, and I think the way that I've got it structured, they will." 

In spite of the success of "TUF," Howry believes it would be a mistake to produce a women's knockoff of the show's format. To be sure, there will be similarities. The women will share a house during taping, and each episode will end with an elimination bout. However, in a departure from "TUF," Howry intends to take viewers into the lives of the competitors beyond the ring and weight room. 

"The show is different than 'The Ultimate Fighter.' If anything, it's more targeted toward 'The Contender'-type but even more developed, and (it's) deeper into the women's lives," Howry said. "They will be training daily, but they will be doing other things than just fighting in the show. They will be getting involved in community efforts and things of that nature. It makes the show more interesting. There's a whole storyline behind the show, which makes it unlike most of the shows that have been done." 

HT: MMAJunkie