Ultimate Fighter veteran shot with real bullets at TV audition

Old school MMA fans will remember Alex Schoenauer from season one of The Ultimate Fighter. He lost to eventual winner Forrest Griffin on the show, and then Mike Swick at the finals, and has since become a successful stuntman in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, a recent audition nearly took his life.

According to a report from TMZ, Alex Schoenauer was auditioning for a show by JMP Productions called SEAL Team, when he was shot in the back with real bullets in a truly unbelievable incident. He’s now suing pretty much everybody involved in the audition — which is understandable.

According to the lawsuit, which was reviewed by TMZ, Schoenauer was asked to burst through a door with a stuntwoman. Both were armed with automatic weapons that were inexplicably loaded with live ammo. The stuntwoman reportedly fired her gun as called for, and inadvertently shot Schoenauer, leaving him with nerve damage and an injured arm— but thankfully no life-threatening injuries.

As TMZ points out, the truly baffling part of all this is that Schoenauer claims the stunt coordinator wanted the scene done with real bullets.

After his time on The Ultimate Fighter, Alex Schoenauer embarked on a long, hot-and-cold run as a professional fighter, competing for a number of promotions including the defunct IFL. During that stretch, he fought notables like Shannon Ritch, Lodune Sincaid, Travis Wiuff, Brian Ebersole, Vladimir Matyushenko, and Paulo Filho, beating several of them.

Here’s hoping his future as a stuntman is not affected by this bizarre incident.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/30/2019.