UFC light-heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and "The Ultimate Fighter 1" winner Forrest Griffin will be the opposing coaches on Spike TV's reality series "The Ultimate Fighter 7."

UFC president Dana White announced Griffin would be one of the coaches on "The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale" on Saturday, and he announced Jackson would be the other coach the following night on Spike TV's "Video Game Awards."

White said they will tinker with the format and there would be a lot of changes to Season 7 of TUF.

"With two coaches whose personalities are as strong as their fighting skills, this season of 'The Ultimate Fighter' promises to be the most explosive yet," White said.

Jackson and Griffin will coach 16 middleweights, who will be vying for a UFC contract. Production of TUF 7 begins in January and will last six weeks. TUF 7 will premier in April on Spike TV.

Jackson will defend his title against Griffin sometime this spring.

Jackson won the UFC title with a first-round TKO over Chuck Liddell at UFC 71. He unified the UFC and PRIDE 205-pound titles with a five-round unanimous decision over Dan Henderson at UFC 75.

Griffin is coming off a third-round submission victory over Chute Boxe's Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, which moved the former police officer to the top of the UFC's 205-pound rankings.

CARLOS ARIAS/The Register

carias@ocregister.com

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