Through the initial grappling, standup, interview and medical evaluations, O'Connell showed enough to survive and make the cut for the last 32 fighters. Then began the final round of cuts, the filmed round when those last 32 fighters faced off against each other to earn a spot in the TUF house.

Unfortunately for O'Connell, his luck ran out.

His fight will air at 8 p.m. Wednesday on Spike TV. The defeat spelled the end of his quest to become The Ultimate Fighter, but for someone who has only been training MMA since January, there were many positives.

"It was an awesome experience, but obviously disappointing that I lost that fight and didn't get into the house," he said. "I think just being on the show and having them consider me in the first place is going to lead to big things in the future. Hopefully they'll take into consideration the fact that I'm pretty inexperienced in the grand scheme of things and another year or two down the road they'll give me another shot."

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the biggest promotion in MMA, and many of the show's alumni have gone on to be big names in the sport, including Salt Lake City's Josh Burkman. Bountiful's Brandon Melendez did well on the show several seasons ago but opted to put his fighting career on hold after his loss during the show's live finale.

The show may breed opportunity, but that doesn't mean the UFC has suggested it will be knocking down O'Connell's door just because he made it to the taping round.

"They don't really make any promises like that, which I think is good because it would be stupid to give guys a bunch of false hopes."

O'Connell hasn't seen the episode and hopes the editing treated him kindly, though either way there won't be anyone around to rib him should he come off looking foolish.

"I can't stand watching myself lose, so I'm going to be watching it alone by myself," he said. "I'll evaluate the tapes and just move on. I don't ever want to see a replay. I'll see the fight one time, and I don't want to talk to anybody about it."

O'Connell is the second Elite Performance fighter to hit the national airwaves in a week. Last Wednesday, Travis Marx was featured on the Versus show "Tapout." The show followed Marx around in his job as a Highway Patrol officer and aired his April fight at Jeremy Horn's Elite Fight Night held at The Salt Palace.

Marx was the victim of a well-timed triangle choke by Steve Siler, and the Tapout crew was especially hard on Jeremy Horn, O'Connell's and Marx's trainer and the owner of the Sandy gym.

"I was extremely disappointed with the way that they portrayed Jeremy, in particular," O'Connell said. "They didn't do anything to make Travis look bad; they did, it seemed like, go out of their way to make Jeremy look bad when anyone who knows the guy understands that that portrayal was totally inaccurate."

Horn was in Illinois with some of the top names in MMA training for his own UFC fight against Dean Lister and didn't make it back to Utah until just before the event, giving him little time to work with Marx while the TV show was being filmed.

"Jeremy, the guy that he is, didn't make a big fuss about it. He realizes the whole team is behind him like he's behind us," O'Connell said. "For us, who know him and train under him, what Tapout says about him is irrelevant."

O'Connell suffered an arm injury the first day back at training after leaving "The Ultimate Fighter," which has kept him on ice, but he'll return Oct. 10 in Denver looking to get back in the win column. He's 7-2, but both losses have come this year.

While healing, he's been staying active in the fight community as a co-host on The Cage radio show, which airs every Thursday night.

"I'm looking forward to that kind of being a joint career for me. I think one benefits the other," he said. "I'm trying to do sort of a Frank Trigg or Frank Mir sort of thing, where I'm seen as an authority in a broadcast about MMA and still be active in the fight community."