(PRESS RELEASE) -- Twenty-eight of the best up-and-coming middleweight mixed martial artists from around the world have convened in Las Vegas in pursuit of one goal, to claim the title of the "ULTIMATE FIGHTER" and the guaranteed six-figure contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship® that comes with it.

The 11th season of Spike TV’s most popular original series ever, “The Ultimate Fighter,” boasts a new format, which will be introduced to viewers in the show’s premiere episode. The smash hit will also feature two coaches who need no introduction to mixed martial arts fans. UFC legends Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and Tito “The Huntington Beach Badboy” Ortiz will continue their storied rivalry with a return to the reality show that helped launch them into the American mainstream. The new season premieres Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 10:00 PM ET/PT featuring some of the world’s best unsigned fighters in the middleweight (185 lbs) division. Liddell appeared as coach for the first season in January 2005 and Ortiz was a coach for season three in January 2006.

During the 6-week Ultimate Fighter competition, the competitors will endure a grueling regimen of jiu-jitsu, judo, muy thai, karate, boxing and wrestling. The intense competition between the fighters continues after they leave the gym – at The Ultimate Fighter House. These warriors are forced to live with each other, knowing that any day they could be forced to fight each other in the famed UFC Octagon™.

In each episode, opponents from each team will be selected to square off in battle, officially weighed in and then, in front of their teammates, coaches, and the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the two combatants face off in two five-minute rounds.

Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc.