The season featured sixteen fighters (eight light heavyweights and eight middleweights) with still-feuding former champion Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock as coaches.
The finale aired on June 24, 2006 and tied the UFC's all-time record with a 2.0 overall rating.
All fighters would have to win a preliminary match before advancing to the semi-finals—which in practice started the single-elimination tournament at the beginning of the series instead of near the end.
[2] Featured were the finals from The Ultimate Fighter 3 in both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight divisions as well as a main event between Kenny Florian and Sam Stout.
Michael Bisping: $10,000 Kendall Grove: $10,000 Rory Singer: $10,000 Mike Nickels: $10,000 Matt Hamill: $10,000 Kalib Starnes: $10,000 Keith Jardine: $10,000 Solomon Hutcherson: $5,000 Josh Haynes: $5,000 Ed Herman: $5,000 Ross Pointon: $5,000 Jesse Forbes: $5,000 Danny Abaddi: $5,000 Luigi Fioravanti: $4,000 Sam Stout: $4,000 Wes Combs: $2,000 Wilson Gouveia: $2,000 Disclosed Fighter Payroll: $124,000[citation needed] UFC 61: Bitter Rivals was held on July 8, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.