The first episode features sixteen elimination round fights. The winner of each fight will move on to compete in their respective tournament and be included in the season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.
The fighters arrive to The Ultimate Fighter House Brazil. As they claim their beds, Anistavio "Gasparzinho" Medeiros de Figueiredo, decides to take a mattress and sleep outside.
Vitor Belfort announces the first middleweight fight of the season to be Renee Forte versus Daniel Sarafian. Delson Pe De Chumbo discusses with his teammates that members from both teams share a room. He suggests that the rooms should be split so that only people from a single team stay in it.
Anistavio Gasparzinho is up throughout the night wrestling with a statue of a panther and playing jokes disturbing other fighters sleep. He was temporarily locked outside the house, but made enough noise to be let back inside. Rony Jason decided that if he wasn't going to be able to sleep due to Gasparzinho's actions he was going to train. While working out with a punching bag, Rodrigo Damm approaches Rony to ask him to stop because it is disturbing others. Rony tells Damm that it was Damm's team, Team Vitor, that started disturbing people during the night.
Wanderlei Silva admits that if he was in control, he would take his team's Francisco "Massaranduba" Drinaldo against Vitor Belfort's Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira. Unfortunately, down 3-0 at this point, it's not his pick to make. Silva thinks his fighter would do well, considering his tough upbringing versus Ferreira's background as a "playboy," or one of the privileged. Silva even points at Belfort as one of those playboys, especially considering his penchant for manicures. We waste little time finding out if Silva's dream will come true, as fight selection is upon us immediately.
With Vitor Belfort in charge with a commanding 4-0 lead, the team members are confident and talking about sweeping the eight opening-round fights, though last-round pick Anistavio "Gasper" Gasparzinho feels like a forgotten member of the team.
Vitor Belfort's Team is up 5-0 over Wanderlei Silva's squad. There's an immediate official announcement of Team Vitor's No. 8 pick Anistavio "Gasparzinho" Medeiros vs. Team Wanderlei's No. 1 pick Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra. They are friends and not happy about fighting for the final featherweight semifinal slot, but Rony certainly seems more comfortable with the selection than Anistavio.
Wanderlei Silva is still heated with fellow head coach Vitor Belfort, who had matchmaking duties and pit friends Anistavio "Gasparzinho" Medeiros (Team Vitor's No. 8 pick ) vs. Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra (Team Wanderlei's No. 1 pick ). However, with Rony's win in the featherweight-quarterfinal fight, Wanderlei gets his first win of the season. Team Vitor is now up 5-1.
Vitor Belfort's team has six spots in the four upcoming tourney semifinal matches, while Wanderlei Silva's squad has but one. The final spot will be defined in this episode, a no-brainer matchup between the final two fighters left to compete. It's Team Wanderlei's Delson Heleno vs. Team Vitor's Sergio Moraes in a middleweight fight.
The teams have been divided based on the dominance of Vitor Belfort's squad over Wanderlei Silva's team in the opening rounds, so emotions are tense as we get started. The coaches try to remain positive during a grand ceremony of the team switches is held. As previously announced, Marcos Vinicius "Vina" Borges Pancini, Renee Forte and Delson "Pe de Chumbo" Heleno, all eliminated from the tournament, will shift over to Team Vitor. Meanwhile, winners Thiago "Bodao" de Oliveira Perpetuo, Sergio "Serginho" Moraes and Godofredo "Pepey" de Oliveira make the move to Team Wanderlei.
Dana White takes coaches Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort to a soccer field, where the coaches will each have 10 scoring chances from the penalty spot. The winner takes home R$45,000 (approximately $22,000). The winning team's fighters will each score R$2,000 (approximately $980). White admits he knows nothing about soccer, so he brings in a few experts to help coach the coaches: Santos' Paulo Henrique "Ganso" de Lima and former Palmeiras goalkeeper Marcos Roberto Silveira Reis.
As the 12th episode of "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" begins, there is little drama in terms of matchups. Team Vitor's Hugo "Wolverine" Viana and Team Wanderlei's first 145-pounder picked, Rony "Jason" Mariano Bezerra, are the last two featherweights eligible for a spot in the finale, and it's time for them to fight.
Cezar "Mutante" Ferreira faces Thiago "Bodao" de Oliveira Perpetuo in the middleweight semifinals. Plus, we'll learn who has picked up the season's knockout, submission and fight bonuses.
The finals in the featherweight and middleweight tournaments of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil were held on this card. Daniel Sarafian was originally scheduled to compete in the Middleweight finals, but pulled out due to injury. He was replaced by semifinalist Sergio Moraes. Renee Forte, a Middleweight for Team Wanderlei, was scheduled to fight Moraes, but was removed from the card when Moraes was enlisted to fill in for Sarafian. UFC Officials have promised Forte a fight on a future UFC card
The main event was a heavyweight rematch between The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil season two coaches, and perennial contenders Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fabricio Werdum. It is a rematch of the first fight, in Pride, in which Nogueria won by unanimous decision back in 2006. Also featured on the card was the welterweight finals of season two of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil. The finals were originally scheduled to be Santiago Ponzinibbio versus William Macario. However, Ponzinibbio broke his hand during his semifinal fight and was replaced by semifinalist Leonardo Santos.
The head coaches for the season are Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen. Their rivalry has been the driving force behind the anticipation of the season, and it has been featured prominently in the UFC's video packages for this season of TUF.
The 16 preliminary fights continued
Wanderlei returns to the training center opposed to his will of waiting for an apology and flips a coin to decide who would chose the first fighter. He wins it and opts to choose the first fight. Sonnen chooses the first middleweight and Wanderlei the first heavyweight.
Wanderlei announces the first heavyweight fight: Antônio Carlos Junior vs. Edgard Castaldelli.