Correction, 12 September 2026: The earlier article wrongly described Diego Sanchez's tournament final as a preliminary bout and gave an incorrect stoppage time. It also attached unsupported pay-per-view figures to the event's impact. This replacement focuses on the two tournament finals and their significance, rather than claiming to provide every result on the card.
The first season of The Ultimate Fighter ended with a live event at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas on 9 April 2005. It produced two tournament winners: Forrest Griffin at light heavyweight and Diego Sanchez at middleweight. The Nevada commission's event record, updated 13 April 2005, explicitly identifies both winners. Remembering Griffin's fight should not erase the other final.
Two finals, two different outcomes
| Division | Winner | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light heavyweight | Forrest Griffin | Stephan Bonnar | Unanimous decision: 29–28 on all three cards |
| Middleweight | Diego Sanchez | Kenny Florian | TKO, round 1, 2:49 |
Sanchez's bout was the middleweight tournament final. The official UFC history for Sanchez also records the first-round stoppage at 2:49 and his middleweight tournament win. These were tournament honours; the table does not identify winners of UFC's divisional championship belts.
Why Bonnar receiving a contract did not make the fight a draw
Griffin won the decision. Both Griffin and Bonnar subsequently received UFC contracts. Thomas Gerbasi's 2013 UFC retrospective records those separate outcomes and describes their three-round contest through the fighters' recollections. A contract awarded after a bout is a promotional decision; it does not change the judges' verdict.
This distinction makes the story easier to follow. Ask who won the contest, who won the tournament and who obtained a contract as separate questions. In the light-heavyweight final, the answers do not all describe the same group of people. Calling both fighters winners in a celebratory sense should not become a draw in a results table.
What the historical evidence supports
UFC's 30th-anniversary history presents the broadcast as a turning point and records Spike TV committing to another season. That is the promotion's retrospective assessment, not a measurement of how many later purchases this one bout caused. The commission record answers the narrower questions of date, venue and results.
Use both kinds of source for the question each can answer. A later recollection can explain how participants remember the occasion. A contemporary results sheet can settle a winner or stopping time. Neither alone demonstrates a precise commercial effect. The earlier article's unsupported pay-per-view conversion claim has therefore been removed.
A replay note for new viewers
Watch the two finals as distinct contests, then compare how each ended. For Griffin–Bonnar, keep observations for each round before reading the final totals. For Sanchez–Florian, distinguish the referee ending the action from a judge scoring a completed fight. Our referee-decision guide explains those categories; its modern rule examples should not be applied retrospectively without checking the event's rules.
Prepared with AI assistance using the primary records linked above, checked 12 September 2026. This is a sourced historical explanation with editorial reading suggestions, not a claim of firsthand attendance. The original publication date and URL are retained.