Season 33 of “The Ultimate Fighter” premieres Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+ with 16 men’s flyweights and welterweights from all over the world vying for one UFC contract.

This season, the co-hosts of ESPN’s “Good Guy/Bad Guy,” UFC Hall of Famers Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen, will serve as coaches. Both have previously appeared on TUF as coaches, but unlike past seasons, both are now retired. They were able to spend the full season focused on the athletes without the pressure of training themselves. The coaches have traditionally fought following the conclusion of each season of TUF.

In advance of the show’s 20th year, Cormier and Sonnen sat down with ESPN.com to talk about the experience this time around and preview the storylines to watch.

Looking back at 20 years of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the best seasons have featured coaching rivalries. Should we expect any beef between you two?

Cormier: There is no rivalry, but neither of us wants to lose. Chael is a really good coach and you could see how locked in he and his entire team were. So it made for a really fun season.

Sonnen: I wouldn’t try to sell beef between Daniel and I, but there is a real competitiveness. I knew he was formidable as a coach, but I didn’t know he was this formidable. To see how many responsibilities Daniel juggled at one time was impressive. But was it enough to get over a guy who is willing to cheat?

You both have been coaches on the show before. Is the approach any different now that you aren’t active?

Cormier: Yes. It’s very easy to be locked in as a coach now and be a little more open to change. The last time I coached on TUF, I was 38 years old and still actively competing. I kept thinking to myself, “If I can do this, all of you kids should be able to do it, too.” And that led to me just running those guys into the ground.

As a retired guy, I can look at these guys and see that they’re tired. So I can pull back a little bit. Just having that experience allows me to be more open to allowing these guys to rest and recover. I think that helped our team this season.

Sonnen: Coaching is so much different since I stopped being an athlete. When I was an athlete, it was very selfish and I had to get my workout in first. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing; I thought I was just in there and running a good workout. You have to be very selfish as an athlete, and you have to be very selfless as a coach. I do feel that looking back on it, maybe being able to see things a little bit differently made us better at our job.

What is harder for TUF fighters: Being away from their real lives or the turnaround time between fights?

Cormier: The turnaround in the fight time. Man, it’s hard to be that tough, to get through that and to fight multiple times. You’ve got to think, we’re filming this season over a month. For the guys who made the finals, they fought twice in a month. And right after you fight, because we had some really good fights, you have to recover. You can’t kick, you can’t move, you can’t walk, you might be cut. And then two weeks later, you’ve got to get back in there and do it again.

Being separated from the family, that comes with fighting at times. Some guys go into camp being away from their families. It’s being able to fight that many times over a short period of time.

Sonnen: “The Ultimate Fighter” is the toughest tournament in all of sports. I watch our sport, and every single Saturday somebody misses weight. Somebody pulls out. Somebody doesn’t feel good. I see guys missing title shots. I’ve complained that we don’t have illness and injury issues — we’re plagued by a bunch of fake tough guys.

When you watch “The Ultimate Fighter,” you watch these guys fight in a tournament. They don’t know who their next opponent is going to be. They’ve got to weigh in multiple times. And they’ve got to make that walk multiple times, sometimes against friends. But none of them pull out, none of them miss weight. But as soon as they sign the contract and make it to the big time, all of a sudden they get these owies and boo-boos.

Dana White asked these guys one question on Season 1, which was simply, “Do you want to be a fighter?” It was a very fair question, and the guys that come through “The Ultimate Fighter” have all answered it, regardless of outcome. They’ve all answered it: “Yes.”

What is the toughest part about coaching a fighter who you haven’t worked with before and whose game you are just learning?

Cormier: Trying not to give them too much. Our job is not to remake these guys as athletes. Our job is to try to help them and mold what they already have while giving them some new things that they can either take or not. You don’t insist that a guy fights in the way that you do. Instead, you tell them: “I would encourage you to try what I’m trying to give you, because I know that it works.”

You’re not going to reinvent the wheel in a month. Right now, it’s about keeping them healthy. Get them in shape and make them ready to fight with the skills they already have while just sprinkling a little bit of coaching on what they do.

Sonnen: We had nearly 11 countries and seven different languages represented on the show this season. This roster was spread all over the world, and MMA has become such an international sport.

The toughest part was Daniel and I trying to speak to these fighters, because we don’t have coaches from all those different places. And so we speak a universal language of doing. You’re trying to show them what to do, and this guy’s trusting you. Somebody who you can’t even fully communicate with is completely trusting you in one of the most vulnerable moments of his entire life. That was a part of the story that was almost impossible for the producers to tell.

It was a part of the story that I wish we could have told, because it made the season very unique.

What’s the most rewarding part about coaching on the show?

Cormier: The lasting impact you make on these athletes. You try to help them prepare themselves for what they’re doing right now, and what they’re going to do down the line. The relationships are special, too. I’ve got three of the fighters that are now coming out to train with my team and me. They made a connection with me and my coaching staff, so they want to take that knowledge to the next level. That’s when you will see them make their true improvements.

Sonnen: Definitely the relationships. As close as I am with my friends in my community or from high school and college, there are no relationships like the ones that you form during “The Ultimate Fighter.” Some of these people truly don’t have anyone else. We must be there for them. As much as this ultimately is a celebration and there will be one person with this beautiful contract, there are 15 other fighters who are brokenhearted. They need someone, too. It’s their life’s dream, and sometimes your shoulder is the only one there.