We’ll be recapping each episode of The Ultimate Fighter 32 this year, with episode 12 arriving on August 20, 2024. Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are your coaches, while featherweights and middleweights are featured.
Zygimantas Ramaska and Mairon Santos are set to face off in the final fight of The Ultimate Fighter 32 season, in the second featherweight semifinal. That is, if Ramaska is cleared from an injury incurred earlier in the season.
As it turns out, that minor facial fracture isn’t the only hurdle. It’s Santos’ weight. He’s about 151 heading into weigh-in day. “Alexa, my beloved coach, don’t worry. I’ll make it, and we’ll celebrate,” he says on camera.
He doesn’t make it. Santos hits the scale at 148, and is given another hour to cut the weight. Two pounds have to come off, but when he weighs in again, he’s 146.5. Despite offering to shave his head, coach Valentina Shevchenko and Ramaska agree to move forward in spite of the half pound overage.
That’s good news for Santos, who is upset with the miss nonetheless, taking it almost like a loss.
Ramaska and Shevchenko, meanwhile, are called before the athletic commission – and told he will not be cleared to fight. This, despite a doctor previously suggesting he would be able to compete. “We don’t take chances on fighter health,” a commission rep states.
“They just cancelled my fight, and they just made my dream, in one minute, gone,” Ramaska says, saying his journey is “finished. It’s not an easy time right now.”
That means Alexa Grasso has another fighter stepping in, Guillermo Torres. It also means she’ll have to step back as a coach, with two of her team members facing off.
The Ultimate Fighter 32: Guillermo Torres vs. Mairon Santos
Round 1:
Santos holds center to start the fight, walking Torres down. Mexico’s Torres fights on the outside, looking to counter and mixing in kicks as he circles the cage. It’s mostly single strikes and the odd combo, and once or twice, Santos lands a solid shot, drawing an ‘ooohh’ from his corner in an otherwise silent UFC Apex. Santos comes close again with his right hand, and fires a low kick. He closes the distance, gets off a few more punches, but is thrown to the ground by Torres, who clinches up when the Brazilian regains his feet. Torres stays on him, driving Santos into the fence, thinking about a takedown – but Santos pushes him off. Back at center, he fires a head kick which Torres blocks. Torres shoots late in the round, landing a takedown and taking the back, but he’s out of time.
Round 2:
Torres fires a lot kick early, and Santos continues to walk his opponent down. Out of nowhere, he launches a flying knee, but Torres avoids it then goes in on a single leg takedown attempt. Santos shows some solid balance fending that off. Still a lot of single strikes traded back and forth when Santos closes the distance, and a bit of clinching. When Torres lands a low kick, Santos fires one back. After the head kick attempt in the first and flying knee in the second, it feels like Santos might have something explosive in him. He fires another head kick with just over a minute on the clock, but Torres blocks it. In the final minute, Torres pursues a takedown, but then end up clinching with Santos reversing.
Round 3:
The chess match continues in the third, but a Santos jab backs Torres up/he drops to his backside about two minutes in. Might have been partially a slip, but he’s starting to show some damage. Perhaps sensing that his opponent is waning, Santos turns up the heat a bit, gets a couple of combos off. Torres covers up, and returns fire when he can. This one looks like it’s going to go the distance, and it does, though Santos again turns up the heat at the end of the round. He even gets close to a takedown before all is said and done, but they end the round swinging.
Official Result: Mairon Santos def. Guillermo Torres by unanimous decision
TUF 32 Finals:
- Middleweight – Ryan Loder vs. Robert Valentin
- Featherweight – Kaan Olfi vs. Mairon Santos
The finals will take place at this Saturday’s UFC Vegas 96.
