Chicago — The Ultimate Fighter 33 wrapped just last night, in terms of its broadcast anyway, and Daniil Donchenko is now officially fighting at UFC 319 in the TUF 33 welterweight final.
Of course, the show actually filmed months ago. Ukraine’s Donchenko has had to keep the outcome a secret ever since.
“It was the hardest part for all these four months, because you should keep this a secret, and everyone asks you,” Donchenko (11-2) told media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s UFC 319 media day. “Actually after the show is the hardest part of keeping the secret.”
A couple of days out from UFC 319, Donchenko saw the outcome of the show spoiled, resulting in his Instagram DMs blowing up. “To be honest, I just, no reply, I don’t use Instagram, I was just like, spend time with my family and that’s it.”
“I gained just for eight hours, a thousand followers. Of course for UFC account, there is 40 million, so not a lot, but for me it’s a lot. It means I move in a good way.”
Donchenko will fight Rodrigo Sezinando in the TUF 33 welterweight final, part of the UFC 319 card. He plans on making the fight a memorable one.
“Every time that I step inside the octagon, I don’t want to just win a fight. I just want to show how I can fight. I just want to put some action in the cage,” he stated. “I want to show people how I can fight, and they will remember me every time.”
Daniil Donchenko also addressed what he took away from his time on The Ultimate Fighter 33.
“What I learned from the Ultimate Fighter [is that] I can compete with the best guys in this division, I can beat all of them. The big lesson from the Ultimate Fighter is just be confident and enjoy the process, enjoy the fight, enjoy the blood, and you will win.”
Donchenko hails from Ukraine, still embroiled in a vicious war with neighboring Russia, which invaded in 2022 and has committed atrocity after atrocity ever since. Having the support of his people in such dark times, “it’s given me some energy, a lot of energy, a lot of strength.”
“All my people, they hold it, they’re so tough. They try to live a normal life during the bomb attacks. They try to work, they try to enjoy their lives, help the army, in this dangerous situation,” Donchenko observed. “So for me, it’s like, I just fight. Nothing can happen. After, they bring us to the hospital. If I have some knockout, okay I sleep, I will wake up, nothing will happen [that’s] dangerous for myself. It’s like a big power inside.”
Touching on his relationship with UFC alum Robert Valentin, Donchenko told Cageside Press that “Robert’s really like my big brother. We train, we live together in Thailand. We spend out time together, and I was in his corner before UFC, in different organizations. He was in my corner too. We have this kind of feeling, between [us]. I know he wants the best for me, and I want the best for him. And we understand each other so simply, without words. Because maybe we have the same goals, same ideas. I can’t wait til he will come back and show how strong he is.”
Donchenko hopes to compete with Valentin and another teammate, Rafael Fiziev, on the same card some day. “This will be insane. And now we’ll start to compete, who will fight for the bonus. We will start to compete between each other. Just give us this chance, and that’s it.”
Watch the full UFC 319 media day appearance by TUF 33 welterweight finalist Daniil Donchenko above. The card takes place this Saturday, August 16, 2025 at the United Center in Chicago, IL.
