We’ll be recapping each episode of The Ultimate Fighter 32 this year, with episode 4 arriving on June 25, 2024. Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are your coaches, while featherweights and middleweights are featured.
Kicking off episode four of TUF 32, Kaan Olfi, last week’s featherweight winner, and opponent Nathan Fletcher have a little heart-to-heart, paying their respects and showing there’s no hard feelings between them. Both men suggest they felt the other was perhaps the man to beat this season. With Olfi coming away with the win, he’ll be one to watch moving forward.
Then it’s on to this week’s middleweight match-up. Shamidkhan Magomedov makes it simple. “I want to kick lots of ass, and become champion,” he exclaims. He’ll be fighting Omran Chaaban, a fight that should have happened a couple of episodes back, but was postponed due to a medical issue with Chaaban. While that plays out over weeks in terms of airdate, since more than one fight is filmed at a time, it actually wasn’t as much of a delay as it seems.
Chaaban then tells a tragic story of when he was ten years old, and his father went to sleep in a chair in front of him. Chaaban was overcome with fear, afraid to go upstairs- his brother then checked on his father, who was ice cold. He had died in front of them. Their mother was taken to a psychiatric hospital; the kids didn’t go to school for a year. At the time, the family was living in Helsinki, Finland; Chaaban would later make his way to Dublin, Ireland.
After some more training footage, both fighters weigh in successfully. Then it’s off to the fight, which Dana White breaks down, noting Omran’s massive size and reach advantage.
The Ultimate Fighter 32: Chaaban vs. Magomedov
Round 1:
Finland’s Chaaban fired his jab early, then moved to the outside, but it was Magomedov quickly closing the distance and scaling the back to start the fourth fight of The Ultimate Fighter 32. Chaaban managed to dump him over the top, but Magomedov went right back in on a takedown. Chaaban got back to his feet in an instant, but Magomedov still had a bodylock in place, and looked for a trip and to scale the back again. Chaaban’s corner, including teammate Robert Valentin, walked him through defending, including fighting hands and trying to fire elbows back at Magomedov. Still, the Russian climbed up the back, with hooks in, but he was high up. Chaaban finally turned on the cage, getting his back to the fence; Magomedov was warned by the ref to get busy, and did just enough to prevent losing the position. Late in the round, Chaaban locked up a guillotine, and Magomedov slammed him to escape it.
Round 2:
Grasso tells Chaaban that he needs to be more active in the second round, and that it needs to be his, with Shevchenko’s fighter clearly winning the first frame. Chaaban is a little more active to start the second, but ended up cornered, and instead of circling out, fired a knee as Magomedov shoots. It connected, at least partially, and Chaaban added some elbows, but Magomedov was still on him, and later used a bodylock to drag the Finish fighter down. This time, Chaaban was able to reverse, but wound up caught in a kneebar. That became a heel hook in time but either way, Chaaban survived, got dominant position again, and landed some ground n’ pound. Moments later, he locked up an anaconda choke, and Magomedov went out!
Official Result: Omran Chaaban def. Shamidkhan Magomedov by technical submission (anaconda choke), Round 2
After the win, the former UAE Warriors champ Chaaban pointed out that he’s the youngest man in the competition. “If you are scrambling with me, you’d better hide your neck and your limbs,” he exclaims. Magomedov believes he pushed a little too hard, and didn’t expect the submission. “Maybe that’s why I paid the price.”
