No no true champion. But competitive with other people in the middle and top? Definitely. Many don't deserve staying or getting a second chance even after being on a losing streak. But there are many of them that deserve to be there more then people that have worked their way up. And i used to watch Pride and a little K1 back in the day, and i ahve watched a few Strikeforce. But lately i haven't watched anything other then UFC because i usually find it boring with the other shows. Much because you don't feel that their level is as high, and also because i don't like the ring and rather want the cage. So for someone like me to be able to see someone truly progress as a fighter, TUF is ideal. Here i can see people that often only know one aspect of MMA and they first develop on the show and get to prove themself against others. And sometimes people that truly suck and will disappear after a few fights in UFC advance because their style was a good match against someone else that might have been better and a much better learner. That's the way it is when a lot of them only know one aspect. But some of them are better learners then others, and are really strong in one aspect and they actually start improving other aspect once they get picked up by real camps. Can make a list.

Season 1: Koscheck, Diego and KenFlo. All of them where great in with their ground game. And once they got camps they started to improve their standup. Today they are all competitive fighters and truly deserve to be in the UFC IMO. They are above a lot of other fighters in their class. Even though Forrest won and even became a champion for 1 fight i always felt he was in the UFC because of the entertainment value (when he goes all out and is reckless), and not a top contender so don't count him..

Season 2: Only one i feel have made something of himself is Rashad. After all he has improved a lot and he has only lost once and that was against Machida. Joe Stevenson is a great example of someone that where extremly stong in one aspect for a TUFer and doesn't seem to learn anything new.

Season 3: Michael Bisping. He is right there on the edge of top contender and only being a competitive fighter.

Well this post is gonna get really really long if i ahve to list every season, but you get my point. Many of them are strong enough to face the lower tier of they class. And those that improve by the time they have enough wins for the middle tier usually win more then they lose and by my standards deserve their spot. Those that don't improve start falling out and eventually disappear. Some get way to many chances. But it's not only a sport but also a show and some get to stay because of the entertainment value. Another good thing about TUF is that you get more invested emotionally. You start to like some, and start to hate some. But is a good thing. Because you feel more invested in their fights. Just as you would with hockey, soccer, football, basketball and baseball. You have your favorites that you love watching. Like Machida and Rua. I felt nothing for either fighter so i didn't really care who won. I wanted Rua to win in the end because it feels like he has a more aggressive and violent style, and his coming fights would be more entertaining then Machida. But emotionally i felt nothing and therefore looked forward to Koscheck vs. Paul Daley more since i love to hate Koscheck.

I see your side of it too if you watch more then just UFC. That you want to see people that dominate a "lesser show" move up since you might have followed their progression for a long time. But for me that only watch UFC nowadays, love TUFers.