We’re already on to episode three of The Ultimate Fighter 34, which arrived on Tuesday with another women’s strawweight match-up, featuring GiGi Canuto taking on Anita Karim, a Pakistani grappling champion.
To kick off this latest installment, Dana White addresses the state of Team Bisping, being down 0-2 between the men’s bantamweights and women’s strawweights, but also noted that “at the end of the day, this is an individual sport.”
Bisping decides to get his team into sparring close to fight day. “Nothing gets you ready for a fight better than sparring,” says “The Count.” Bisping also sings the praises of Canuto, calling her a “really nice person” who listens to everything she’s told in the gym. As a multi-time BJJ champ, the game plan is to take Karim to the ground.
“I don’t think she has much to threaten me with,” Canuto says of her opponent.
Bisping’s team later prints out a shot of Daniel Cormier from his infamous cake video to hang in the house as a prank. Tina Black doesn’t enjoy the rib, and says she thinks people are “jelly” of her coach. Canuto, meanwhile, tells the camera that the other girls don’t like Black. They give her the nickname “Baba Ovo,” which apparently means ass-kisser.
In Team Cormier’s training session, Anita Karim vomits doing sprints, but pushes past it. That earns Cormier’s respect, and he notes that she’s “not going to quit on herself.”
Karim is the first Pakistani female fighter to represent her country on the international stage. Canuto, meanwhile, has an interesting backstory as well: she met her husband in the gym, in a kids class. Not as teachers, as students. They would fall in love, grow up, get married, and he now serves as her full-time coach. “We’re literally the same person and we’re still in the honeymoon phase basically,” she says.
Canuto has appeared as part of the UFC BJJ Invitational, and uses target practice to help with her accuracy and staying calm.
At weigh-ins ahead of the fight, Karim needs the barrier, but hits the mark. The coaches bet on the fight, the loser buying dinner for the winner’s team. Canuto makes a side bet with Cormier: if she knocks out Karim, he has to pay out $500. Canuto also needs the barrier. She makes weight as well.
Before we get to the fight, Tina Black and Canuto squabble at the house. “She’s lucky she got the other girl. I wanted her to fight me,” Black says.
Gigi Canuto vs. Anita Karim
Coach Bisping tells Gigi Canuto that she’s better than Karim in every area. “You’re going to show the world who you are.” Canuto opens with a kick, and Bisping tells her not to do that. She then gets her hands going, lands a kick to the body, and Karim folds in half. She’s doubled over, holding her stomach, but the fight isn’t over. Canuto moves in, and the finish comes seconds later. A couple of punches, and a second kick to the stomach, and it’s done.
Michael Bisping later reveals that Gigi had scouted Karim and found her to be soft in the midsection, and planned to go for teep kicks. While he was worried about her kicks being caught, the student knew better than the teacher in this case.
Daniel Cormier says he’s disappointed, saying he thought Karim had more grit to her than that.
Canuto’s first-round TKO gets Team Bisping on the board. Cormier pays Canuto her $500, but won’t buy Team Bisping dinner, because he says the bet was one or the other.
Next on TUF 34
It’s back to the bantamweight division, with Michael Bisping making the pick. Mehemmedeli Osmanli will represent Team Bisping, against the #1 pick of Team Cormier, Artem Belakh.
