The Ultimate Fighter 3 was the third season of the mixed martial arts reality television series The Ultimate Fighter. It premiered on April 6, 2006, immediately after the conclusion of Ultimate Fight Night 4. The season featured sixteen fighters 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.
The poster for The Ultimate Fighter: Team Ortiz vs. Team Shamrock Finale
The Ultimate Fighter is an American reality television series and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Pilgrim Media Group currently airing on ESPN+. It previously aired for fourteen seasons on Spike TV. The show features professional MMA fighters living together in Las Vegas, Nevada, and follows them as they train and compete against each other for a prized six-figure contract with the UFC. The series debuted on January 17, 2004, with its first episode, "The Quest Begins". To date, there have been thirty one seasons of the show, two per calendar year, some years having only one season. Each season features either one or two weight classes in the tournament.
The Ultimate Fighter uses an elimination tournament format, as highlighted by the season ten bracket.