Ultimate Fighter Rivals are gearing up for a new season of the drama, with Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko at the helm.
Tuesday's premiere not only marks the 32nd season of the long-running reality show; TUFbegan taping in 2004 (with the first episode airing in January 2005), and to commemorate the occasion and UFC's global expansion, About TUF32 The tournament will feature 16 fighters representing 14 countries as well as two star coaches born outside the U.S.: Mexico's Grasso and Kyrgyzstan's Shevchenko.
Episode 1 begins with the coaching staff evaluating the middleweight and featherweight rosters before selecting their teams, with Grasso winning the coin toss and earning the first pick (meaning Shevchenko gets to pick the first two bouts) and choosing compatriot Guillermo Torres as his first choice at featherweight.
For his middleweight opener, Grasso has picked Robert Valentin of Switzerland. Shevchenko joked that Grasso stole one of his fighters, as he has trained with Valentin at Tiger Muay Thai. Shevchenko's picks for the opener are South African Roddy Roets and Russia's Chamidkhan Magomedov.
See below how the team roster looks like.
Team Grasso
Featherweight
- Guillermo Torres (Mexico) (7-1)
- Kahn Ofri (Australia) (10-2-1)
- Behzod Usmonov (Tajikistan) (11-4)
- Myron Santos (Brazil) (13-1)
Middleweight
- Robert Valentin (Switzerland) (10-3)
- Paddy McAuley (Ireland) (4-1)
- Omran Chaaban (Finland) (6-1)
- Tom Theocharis (Canada) (9-5)
Team Shevchenko
Featherweight
- Roddy Roetz (South Africa) (7-1)
- Zygimantas Lamaska (Lithuania) (9-2)
- Nathan Fletcher (England) (8-1)
- Edwin Cooper Jr. (USA) (6-1)
Middleweight
- Shamidkhan Magomedov (Russia) (7-1)
- Mark Hulme (South Africa) (12-3)
- Ryan Roeder (USA) (6-1)
- Yanis Bashar (Greece) (9-2)
After selecting the teams, Shevchenko named the group “Team Bullet” and handed each fighter and UFC CEO Dana White a bullet.
The first bout of the season will be in Shevchenko's hands as she pits No. 1 ranked featherweight Roddy Loets against Grasso's No. 1 pick Guillermo Torres. With Loets being a grappling pro and Torres having competed at the 2012 London Olympics, it's sure to be a battle of wrestlers.
After two hard-fought rounds in which both fighters had chances to attack from top position, a tense third round saw the bigger Loets land the better punches in the stand-up and on the ground to decide the fight. Torres, 37 and 10 years older than Loets, looked exhausted in the final round, giving Loets the chance to take the lead on the scorecards.
With this win, Shevchenko extended her lead to 1-0. About TUF32 The coach faces off against current UFC flyweight champion Grasso, who has dominated her two fights against Shevchenko, winning by submission at UFC 285 and then barely holding the opponent to a split draw in the rematch at UFC Noche.
Shevchenko will also be competing in the middleweight opener next week, when her No. 1 pick, Shamidkhan Magomedov, takes on Grasso’s No. 3 pick, Omran Chaaban.
Ultimate Fighter 32 It airs live on ESPN+ every Tuesday at 10pm ET.
Following the season finale, Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are scheduled to face off in a flyweight championship three-parter, with a date yet to be determined.
The finalists are About TUF32 The show's final episode will also feature a middleweight and featherweight tournament with a six-figure UFC contract up for grabs, with the date for that event also yet to be announced.
Here are the quarterfinal results so far:
Roddy Roetz defeats Guillermo Torres by decision
Semi-finalist: Roetz
Eliminated: Torres
