We’ll be recapping each episode of The Ultimate Fighter 32 this year, with episode 10 arriving on August 6, 2024. Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are your coaches, while featherweights and middleweights are featured.
The Ultimate Fighter 32 is slowly winding down, with the semifinal round kicking off last week, and the coaches’ fight between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko recently announced for UFC 306 at The Sphere in Las Vegas (a card otherwise known as Riyadh Season Noche UFC).
To start episode 10, Dana White appears on screen to talk about featherweight finalist Zygimantas Ramaska, who has been sent to a specialist following his fight with Bekhzod Usmonov. He’s suffered a minor facial fracture, though one that has not impacted the cheek bone, and that should heal up in about six weeks. The doctor also tells him, given the low-risk nature of the injury, that it shouldn’t prevent him from competing. Ramaska tells the camera that he’s going to trust the science.
Kaan Ofli, ahead of what he calls the biggest fight of his career, is facing Voldemort – actually Roedie Roets, but Ofli is giving him the Harry Potter nemesis’ moniker. Olfi later says he’s using the name “to get myself to hate him a little bit.”
He also says he doesn’t mind where ever Roets wants to take the fight. “I know he’s going to push the pace, but I’m no easy match-up.”
We get the coaches’ challenge, which has Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko shooting hoops. As Dana White points out, “a minute into round one, it becomes clear that neither of these coaches know their way around a basketball court.” Their teams seem entertained as much for their foibles as for their skill, but Shevchenko does manage to pull out to a 6-2 lead. Valentina figures out that she can just forgo shooting 3-pointers and hit the net from close up, which leads to an 18-12 score after the second.
The third round sees Grasso try to drain some higher-point shots (with 1, 2, and 3 points available depending on where the coaches shoot from). That allows Shevchenko to slowly build up her lead, and she comes away with the win. Everyone on Valentina’s team gets $2000 as a result.
That actually leads to a confrontation between teams (or certain members of them), but cooler heads prevail.
In the meantime, Zygimantas Ramaska is sent to one of the UFC’s doctors for a second opinion, though he says he hasn’t experienced any symptoms despite the facial fracture. “I feel very comfortable clearing you for this fight,” the doc says following his exam.
Ramaska admits he’s worried he won’t be allowed to fight despite the good news, and is trying not to think about it. In the meantime, he says he believes his semifinal fight will be the fight of the season.
Both Roets and Ofli get to call home and talk to their families. Weigh-ins go off without a hitch, and it’s off to the fight!
The Ultimate Fighter 32: Roedie Roets vs. Kaan Ofli
This fight lasts seconds, not minutes. Roets shoots in, takes Kaan down, and Ofli catches him in a guillotine in a scramble. He locks it up, and forces the tap. That’s all, folks!
Official Result: Kaan Ofli def. Roedie Roets by submission (guillotine choke), Round 1
Kaan Ofli says following the fight that he feels like he’s going to be both the Ultimate Fighter champion, and a future UFC champion. Roets, meanwhile, is heartbroken. “I cried my tears straight after the fight. It’s a hard pill to swallow,” he admits.
