Ultimate Fighter 32 The fans were treated to one of the best matches of the year.
In a bout that took another five minutes, featherweight Zygimantas Lamasca (9-2) of Valentina Shevchenko’s team defeated Behzod Usmonov (11-4) of Alexa Grasso’s team to win by decision in the latest exciting two-round bout. About TUF32 episode.
Shevchenko outlasted her flyweight rival, scoring her second win of the season to cut Grasso's lead to 3-2. Lamasca will now play in the semifinals of this season's 145-pound tournament with teammate Roddy Loetz.
In this week's bout, the tall Lamasca was on the offensive from the start. He used his impressive reach to take down Usmonov and land strikes. Lamasca didn't hesitate to land multiple head kicks as Usmonov tried to keep his distance. Lamasca picked up the pace in the middle of the round, and Usmonov took him down with a powerful right punch. He attacked with ground-and-pound, but Lamasca recovered and somehow found the strength to fight back with kicks and clinch knees. A sharp move had Usmonov's nose bleeding at the end of the first round.
Seemingly fully recovered, Lamasca showed no signs of slowing in the second round. He continued to score in the clinch, hitting Usmonov with hard knee strikes and even landing takedowns. Usmonov continued to fight back with heavy punches, but Lamasca had a clear volume advantage. Somehow, neither fighter was knocked down in the second round, and both men landed some clean punches.
Despite Usmonov scoring a knockdown in the first round, all three judges gave Lamasca the second-round victory, after which UFC CEO Dana White entered the cage to personally praise both fighters for their stellar efforts.
In a strange turn of events, Lamasca and Usmonov both came into the bout at slightly too heavy a weight, so rather than forcing them to lose any more weight, their coaches agreed to let them fight at their new weights, and the bout ended up being a catchweight at 146.5 pounds.
The middleweight tournament continues next week with a matchup between Team Grasso’s #4 ranked Tom Theocharis and Team Barrett’s #3 ranked Ryan Roeder.
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 About TUF32 Roster by team:
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)
Here are the quarterfinal results so far:
Rowdy Roetz wins. Guillermo Torres wins by decision.
Robert Valentin wins. Yanis Bashar wins by KO (strikes) (R1)
Khan Ofri wins. Nathan Fletcher wins by decision.
Omran Chaaban defeats Shamidkhan Magomedov by technical submission (anaconda choke) (2nd round)
Szygimantas Lamaska wins. Behzod Usmonov
Semi-finalists: Loots, Valentin, Ofri, Chaaban, Lamasca
Eliminated: Torres, Bachar, Fletcher, Magomedov, Usmonov
