The teams competed in physical challenges, segments hosted by singer Willa Ford, to determine which had the right to pair one of their fighters against an opponent of their choice in the same weight class, with the loser being eliminated.
Even though the main attraction of the event was Rich Franklin vs. the UFC Hall of Fame Ken Shamrock, the spotlight was stolen by the light heavyweight finale between Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar.
In their first fights, Forrest defeated Alex Schoenauer by TKO but suffered what appeared to be a serious cut above his eye; Stephan earned a controversial decision win over seasonal favorite Bobby Southworth.
An estimated three million viewers saw the Bonnar-Griffin fight live on Spike, and the resulting pay-per-view where coaches Liddell and Couture squared off saw a then-record 280,000 buys.
It also kicked off what has been termed "the TUF boom", where interest in both watching MMA fights as well as training in disciplines such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, amateur wrestling, and judo rose amongst the general public.