Alexa Grasso misplaced a head-to-head matchup with Valentina Shevchenko, however her workforce got here out on prime on this week’s episode of The Final Fighter 32.
Shevchenko handily beat Grasso on this season’s Coaches Problem, this time comprised of a basketball taking pictures contest, solely to see her lone featherweight semifinalist fall in disappointing trend. Group Grasso’s Kaan Ofli (10-2-1) barely wanted a minute to safe a guillotine choke on Group Bullet’s Roedie Roets (7-1) and advance to the TUF 32 finals.
Australia’s Ofli was well-prepared for Roets’ wrestling, which was on full show simply seconds in as Roets instantly tackled Ofli to the mat. Ofli scrambled to his ft, solely to be taken down once more, however he was fast to note Roets in a weak place. he wrapped the South African fighter in a good guillotine to earn the tap-out victory in Spherical 1.
Ofli now awaits the winner of the opposite featherweight semifinal between his teammate Mairon Santos and Group Bullet’s Zygimantas Ramaska.
Within the Coaches Problem, Grasso and Shevchenko had been challenged to see who may rating extra in a basketball competitors, with the rivals taking pictures on the identical time and incomes factors from totally different spots on the courtroom based mostly on distance. Readily available to supervise the competition was Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum.
The coaches had been competing for a $10,000 prize, plus $2,000 for every of their eight fighters.
The competition bought ugly quick because it grew to become clear that neither fighter had a lot familiarity with taking pictures a basketball, although Shevchenko and her workforce ultimately realized her finest technique was to easily pile up factors from the shortest-distance shot. By the point Grasso tried to attain from the spots that had been price extra, Shevchenko was already constructing an insurmountable lead. The previous champion even capped her win off with an extended shot to just about double up Grasso 33-17 after 4 quick quarters of motion.
In different drama, semifinalist Ramaska is worried that he gained’t have the ability to compete resulting from a facial fracture from his first struggle. After seeing two docs, he was advised there’s a powerful likelihood that he can struggle, however viewers gained’t know for positive till struggle night time rolls round.
Subsequent week, Group Grasso teammates Paddy McCorry and Robert Valentin face off for a spot within the middleweight finals.
The Final Fighter 32 airs dwell each 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 may also compete for a six-figure UFC contract on the present’s dwell finale. A date for that occasion is but to be introduced.
Listed here are the TUF 32 rosters divided by workforce:
Group 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 (Eire) (4-1)
Omran Chaaban (Finland) (6-1)
Tom Theocharis (Canada) (9-5)
Group 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 outcomes under:
Middleweight
Ryan Loder def. Omran Chaaban by way of resolution
Paddy McCorry vs. Robert Valentin
Featherweight
Kaan Ofli def. Roedie Roets by way of submission (guillotine choke) (R1)
Zygimantas Ramaska vs. Mairon Santos
See quarterfinal outcomes under:
Roedie Roets def. Guillermo Torres by way of resolution
Robert Valentin def. Giannis Bachar by way of KO (strikes) (R1)
Kaan Ofli def. Nathan Fletcher by way of resolution
Omran Chaaban def. Shamidkhan Magomedov by way of technical submission (anaconda choke) (R2)
Zygimantas Ramaska def. Bekhzod Usmonov
Ryan Loder def. Tom Theocharis by way of submission (arm-triangle choke)
Mairon Santos def. Edwin Cooper Jr. by way of break up resolution
Paddy McCorry def. Mark Hulme by way of submission (guillotine choke) (R1)
