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Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Valentina Shevchenko has her first finalist on The Ultimate Fighter 32.
In the opening bout of this season’s middleweight semifinals, Ryan Loder (6-1) used old-fashioned American wrestling to grind out a win over Finland’s Omran Chaaban (6-1). It was a hard-fought win for the Team Bullet fighter who advances to the finals with a shot to win a six-figure UFC contract.
He awaits the winner of the second middleweight semifinal bout between Team Alexa Grasso’s Paddy McCorry and Robert Valentin.
Loder stuck to the gameplan to secure his victory, waiting for the right chance to use his wrestling and ground the more striking-minded Chaaban. After a slow start, Loder took Chaaban down at the end of Round 1 to edge out a close frame, then did the same halfway through Round 2 with plenty of more time to work. Loder’s standup was good enough to keep Chaaban honest as he mixed in stiff leg kicks and a timely counter right.
A Round 3 charge from Chaaban had Loder retreating for much of the final five minutes, but Chaaban needed a finish to steal the win after falling behind on the cards. Loder weathered the storm and is now one more strong performance away from landing a UFC deal.
This week’s episode featured little drama outside of the cage, with everyone getting along after the conclusion of the quarterfinals. Giannis Bachar cooked a traditional Greek dinner for the entire house, and Loder praised his castmates for embracing diversity on the show and respecting each other’s culture and religions.
Next week, we find out who the first TUF 32 featherweight finalist will be as Team Grasso’s Kaan Ofli takes on Team Bullet’s Roedie Roets.
Plus, Grasso and Shevchenko face off in the season’s Coaches Challenge, which sees them shoot some hoops in front of WNBA star Kelsey Plum.
The Ultimate Fighter 32 airs live every Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Following the season finale, Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are set to face off in a flyweight championship trilogy bout at UFC 306 on Sept. 14 at Sphere in Las Vegas.
The finalists of the TUF 32 middleweight and featherweight tournaments will also compete for a six-figure UFC contract at the show’s live finale. A date for that event is yet to be announced.
Here are the TUF 32 rosters divided by team:
Team Grasso
Featherweights
Guillermo Torres (Mexico) (7-1)
Kaan Ofli (Australia) (10-2-1)
Bekhzod Usmonov (Tajikistan) (11-4)
Mairon Santos (Brazil) (13-1)
Middleweights
Robert Valentin (Switzerland) (10-3)
Paddy McCorry (Ireland) (4-1)
Omran Chaaban (Finland) (6-1)
Tom Theocharis (Canada) (9-5)
Team Shevchenko
Featherweights
Roedie Roets (South Africa) (7-1)
Zygimantas Ramaska (Lithuania) (9-2)
Nathan Fletcher (England) (8-1)
Edwin Cooper Jr. (USA) (6-1)
Middleweights
Shamidkhan Magomedov (Russia) (7-1)
Mark Hulme (South Africa) (12-3)
Ryan Loder (USA) (6-1)
Giannis Bachar (Greece) (9-2)
See the semifinal results below:
Middleweight
Ryan Loder def. Omran Chaaban via decision
Paddy McCorry vs. Robert Valentin
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli vs. Roedie Roets
Zygimantas Ramaska vs. Mairon Santos
See quarterfinal results below:
Roedie Roets def. Guillermo Torres via decision
Robert Valentin def. Giannis Bachar via KO (strikes) (R1)
Umar Nurmagomedov will get a chance to prove how legit of a contender he is against Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi this weekend (Sat., Aug. 3, 2024).
The Bantamweight division has always been competitive and exciting. That hasn’t changed as we enter the second half of 2024 and contendership will be decided ahead of the upcoming title fight at Noche UFC on Sept. 14, 2024.
For Nurmagomedov, the No. 2-ranked Sandhagen will be his first-ranked opponent. Should he win, Nurmagomedov says he’s been promised a title opportunity against the winner of the champion, Sean O’Malley, vs. top contender, Merab Dvalishvili.
“I hope I will fight next, they said I will fight whoever will win [between O’Malley and Dvalishvili],” Nurmagomedov told MMA Junkie. “Yes, [they told me I will be next].”
Nurmagomedov, 28, has been flawless in his 17-fight career. The Sandhagen match up isn’t the first time the pair prepared to collide as they weren’t supposed to do so in Nashville, Tennessee last year (Aug. 5, 2023). Unfortunately, Nurmagomedov was injured out of the bout and replaced by Rob Font, who Sandhagen defeated via a unanimous decision.
Regarding the next title fight, Nurmagomedov isn’t sure who will get the job done, but he doesn’t think either O’Malley or Dvalishvili wants to fight him.
“I think they pray [they don’t fight me],” Nurmagomedov said. “They hope I will pull out and will not take this opportunity to fight for the title. They wish this. For me, it doesn’t matter who wins. It’s a very hard fight for both. One is a wrestling, one is a striker weight height. He is tall. Stylistically, for me, personally, it’s very difficult to say who is going to win. I don’t know.”
Herbert Burns | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Jack Jenkins now faces Herbert Burns at UFC 305 after Gavin Tucker withdrew from the featherweight bout due to undisclosed reasons. Multiple people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the news to MMA Fighting after Jenkins announced the change on social media.
The UFC officially announced the bout on Tuesday.
Tucker out, Burns in!
Phar Jack will face a new opponent at #UFC305! pic.twitter.com/1SZYUqSpjH
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) July 30, 2024
UFC 305 takes place Aug. 17 in Perth, Australia, and features a middleweight showdown between champion Dricus du Plessis and two-time champion Israel Adesanya in the main event.
Jenkins (12-3), a native Australian, attempts to get back in the winning column after suffering a gruesome arm injury fighting Chepe Mariscal in September 2023. Jenkins was 2-0 in the UFC going into the Sydney card with victories over Don Shainis and Jamall Emmers.
Burns (11-5) has his back against the wall after dropping three in a row in the UFC, suffering TKO defeats to Daniel Pineda, Bill Algeo and Julio Arce. The ONE Championship veteran and brother of one-time UFC contender Gilbert Burns now holds a UFC record of 2-3 with wins over Nate Landwehr and Evan Dunham.
See the updated UFC 305 lineup revealed recently by the promotion.
Mike Perry may have been unsuccessful in his fight with Jake Paul but he still received praise for his toughness.
“Platinum” may not be an experienced boxer or someone that can match Paul for size but he was always going to be a tough opponent to get out of there.
He did eventually get stopped in the sixth round but as expected with someone like Perry, many would have crumbled much earlier on.
What makes this even more impressive, and something that Perry is able to take out of this fight, is that he was compromised from the very first punch that his opponent landed.
Mike Perry Reveals That Jake Paul Broke His Rib With The First Punch That He Landed
Perry appeared on BS w/ Jake Paul where they spoke about the fight and revealed new details about how it all went down.
During the podcast, the former UFC fighter said that he is going to take some time off for his rib to recover after it was broken in the opening 10 seconds of the fight.
He said that he was so focused on keeping his hands up that it left an opening for Paul which he successfully took advantage of from the opening bell.
With his body badly injured, Perry was forced to drop his guard which left him more susceptible to head strikes which eventually closed the show on him.
“First 10 seconds, that first punch you hit me with, you popped me. Because look, I knew people were going to be like, ‘Put your hands up,’ Right, so I come out and I’m like this with my hands up and my rib was wide open. You hit me in the rib and I was like, ‘F*** that’s it, I’m putting my hands down.’ You popped it right away and I fought through it I mean there’s something, there’s pieces I can take that I can be proud of but you know, I think it was fair and square.”
Read also: Jake Paul Reveals Verbal Agreement With Mike Perry To Rematch In PFL, Dirty Boxing Down The Line
Continue Reading Mike Perry Tells Jake Paul Injury Sustained 10 Seconds Into Fight Affected Performance: ‘You Popped It Right Away!’ at MMA News.
Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov | Photo by Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing/Getty Images
Terence Crawford chases a fourth title this weekend.
The pound-for-pound great moves up to 154 pounds to take on WBA super welterweight champion Israil Madrimov in the main event of a loaded boxing card at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Friday. Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) looks to add Madrimov’s belt to a list of achievements that includes title reigns at lightweight, light welterweight, and welterweight.
Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) seeks the biggest win of his career. The experienced amateur standout is undefeated since turning pro in 2018.
Backing up Crawford and Madrimov is a lineup with several notable names, including former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) taking on Jarrell Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs), and Isaac Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) defending his WBA super lightweight title against Jose Venezuela (13-2, 9 KOs).
The Crawford vs. Madrimov fight card airs live on DAZN, ESPN+, and PPV.com starting at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall continued to make his case for being the best heavyweight in the world this past Saturday by taking out Curtis Blaydes in 60 seconds in the UFC 304 co-main event.
The last time Aspinall legitimately tasted defeat was in 2015. He lost to Blaydes in their meeting after suffering a knee injury 15 seconds into the first fight in July 2022. He lost by disqualification in 2016 for illegal elbows but that rule was recently lifted.
Heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones is expected to face former two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic later this year. Jones last fought in March 2023. He tore a pectoral muscle while training to defend the title against Miocic at UFC 295. While Jones has been sidelined recovering from the injury, Aspinall has been finishing all of his opponents in the first round. The Brit hasn’t seen the second round since February 2021.
Aspinall has been on a collision course with Jones. A title unification bout between Aspinall and the winner of the upcoming Jones versus Miocic match seems inevitable. UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley believes a fight between Jones and Aspinall ‘has to happen.’
“Tom Aspinall versus Jon Jones, that’s a fight that needs to happen,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel. “Who would you rather see, Tom Aspinall versus Jon Jones, Alex Pereira versus Tom, Pereira versus Jon Jones? Who would you guys rather see?”
According to O’Malley, a fight between Jones and Aspinall would be ‘interesting,’ but perhaps a match between light heavyweight titleholder Pereira and Jones would be a bigger fight.
“Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall is f***ing interesting,” O’Malley said. “I think as far as entertainment, fun aspect of it, the bigger fight would be Jon versus Alex Pereira. I don’t know how close that would be.
“Alex can knock anyone out. Jon could probably win that I’d guess. Alex versus Tom? Alex can knock anybody the f**k out, but I think Tom’s just too big. Tom is 260,” O’Malley continued.
O’Malley headlines the UFC 306 “Noche” fight card at the Sphere in Las Vegas on Sept. 14 in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. He’ll face top contender Merab Dvalishvili.
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