UFC MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION ROBERT WHITTAKER AND NO. 4 CONTENDER KELVIN GASTELUM TO COACH ‘THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER: HEAVY HITTERS’

Las Vegas – The highly anticipated 28th season of The Ultimate Fighter® will see UFC® middleweight champion Robert Whittaker coach opposite No. 4 ranked contender Kelvin Gastelum. Following the series, which debuts Wednesday, August 29 on FS1, the two will clash for the middleweight title at a date that will be determined in the near future.

The Ultimate Fighter: Heavy Hitters will also feature a dynamic cast of men’s heavyweights and women’s featherweights. Each tournament winner will receive a six-figure UFC contract. Following the series, the live finale will take place on Friday, November 30 at The Pearl at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV.

Whittaker (21-4) won The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes as a welterweight and has gone on to become one of the most successful TUF winners in the UFC. He is the reigning UFC middleweight champion and has claimed five post-fight bonus awards in his last four fights.

Gastelum (16-3, 1 NC) also won The Ultimate Fighter, claiming the middleweight trophy during the 17th season of the show. He has been dominant at 185 pounds, taking out former champions and superstars such as Michael Bisping, Jacare Souza and Tim Kennedy.

Below is a full list of competitors (name, age, professional record and fighting out of):

FEMALE FEATHERWEIGHTS

Leah Letson | 25 | 4-1 | Milwaukee, WI

Larissa Pacheco | 23 | 11-2 | Belem, Brazil

Marciea Allen | 36 | 7-2 | Wood Dale, IL

Pannie Kianzad | 26 | 9-3 | Copenhagen, Denmark

Bea Malecki | 26 | 2-0 | Stockholm, Sweden

Julija Stoliarenko | 25 | 4-2-1 | Kaunas, Lithuania

Katharina Lehner | 28 | 7-1 | Cologne, Germany

Macy Chiasson | 26 | 2-0 | New Orleans, LA

MALE HEAVYWEIGHTS

Ben Sosoli | 28 | 6-2 | Melbourne, Australia

Maurice Greene | 31 | 5-2 | St. Cloud, MN

Michel Batista | 34 | 4-0 | Miami, FL

Juan Francisco Espino Diepa | 37 | 8-1 | Las Palmas, Spain

Justin Frazier | 28 | 10-2 | Cave City, AR

Anderson Da Silva | 31 | 3-0-1 | Sao Paulo, Brazil

Przemyslaw Mysiala | 35 | 22-9-1 | Maidenhead, England

Josh Parisian | 28 | 7-2 | Brighton, MI

For more information or current fight news, visit www.ufc.com. All bouts live and subject to change.

Visit the UFC® Press Portal for information and content to support your UFC coverage.

About UFC®

UFC® is a premium global sports brand and the largest Pay-Per-View event provider in the world. Celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2018, UFC boasts more than 284 million fans worldwide and has produced over 400 events in 21 countries since its inception in 1993. Acquired in 2016 by global sports, entertainment and fashion leader Endeavor (formerly WME | IMG), together with strategic partners Silver Lake Partners and KKR, UFC is headquartered in Las Vegas with a network of employees around the world. UFC produces more than 40 live events annually that consistently sell out some of the most prestigious arenas around the globe, while programming is broadcast in over 165 countries and territories to more than 1.1 billion TV households worldwide in 40 different languages. UFC FIGHT PASS®, a digital subscription service, delivers exclusive live events, thousands of fights on-demand and original content to fans around the world. For more information, visit UFC.com and follow UFC at Facebook.com/UFC, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram: @UFC.

About Pilgrim Media Group
Pilgrim Media Group, a Lionsgate company, produces a wide variety of unscripted and scripted content for television and digital platforms, as well as feature films. The company’s series include Discovery’s Street Outlaws (and spinoffs Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings and Street Outlaws: Memphis), Fast N’ Loud, Misfit Garage, Garage Rehab and Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman; My Big Fat Fabulous Life for TLC; two-time NAACP Award-winner Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s for OWN; Two time MMA Award-winner The Ultimate Fighter for FS1, in its 27th season; Wicked Tuna and Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks for National Geographic; and Bring It! and Love at First Flight for Lifetime. Pilgrim also produced the scripted series Recovery Road for Freeform, multiple original movies for Lifetime, and is in development on numerous other scripted projects for TV, film and streaming outlets. Pilgrim’s feature documentary, Soufra (which won two awards at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival), premiered in North America at DOC NYC, with theatrical runs in New York and Los Angeles, and invitations to screen at international film festivals, including Cannes. The company also continues to produce award-winning content via its digital studio, 1620 Media.