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.

The post The Ultimate Fighter 32 Ep. 12: Season Wraps, Finals Set appeared first on Cageside Press.

After taking 2019 and 2020 off, the UFC‘s once-flagship reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter, returned in 2021, and has churned out one season each year since. And while it has since been surpassed by Dana White’s Contender Series in terms of relevance and as a feeder system for the UFC, it’s still fun to watch a tournament format where there’s only one (well two, with two weight classes featured per season) true winner.

Maybe it’s because the UFC was founded with the tournament format. Maybe it’s because DWCS has Dana White all too often playing Oprah, giving everyone a contract- it’s rather surprising an audience member hasn’t been signed to the company yet.

In any case, The Ultimate Fighter 32 debuted on Tuesday night, with flyweight rivals Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko serving as coaches on this year’s installment, with a coaches’ fight likely for the Sphere in September.

TUF 32: Episode 1 Recap

The episode starts with an intro, then pivots to Grasso saying it was once her dream to coach TUF. Shevchenko says she’s happy to be “leading this season,” and both coaches then take a look at this season’s crop of fighters in an open workout. A coin flip follows to determine the first flip, and women’s flyweight champ Grasso wins it, picking Guillermo Torres, a fellow Mexican. Giannis Bachar of Greece is last, going to Team Shevchenko.

UFC President and CEO Dana White then gives a pep speech, telling the group “this is the biggest opportunity you’ve ever had,” before welcoming them to The Ultimate Fighter. Then it’s off to the TUF house!

Since Grasso took the first pick, Valentina Shevchenko picks the first fight. She opts to go to the featherweight division, pairing up her own Roedie Roets with Team Grasso’s #1 pick, Guillermo Torres.

Like all recent seasons, TUF 32 seems to stray from the early-season standard of highlighting bad behaviour, instead giving a glimpse into the personal life of the fighters competing each week. In episode one, we learn the Roets, representing South Africa, was at one point pursuing the Olympics, but put that aside to focus on MMA.

We also get some interesting training quirks from Valentina Shevchenko. Well one anyway.

Valentina Shevchenko has a “no water” policy during training 🚫💧 #TUF32 pic.twitter.com/j7Ks84tE26

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 5, 2024

Like Roets, who has fellow South African Dricus Du Plessis to look up to, Torres has a fellow Mexican fighter holding gold in the UFC— in this case his coach, Grasso. He’s been living in Arizona and training with Fight Ready, working to support his daughter, who stays with his ex-wife back home in Mexico.

Both fighters make weight on weigh-in day, and then it’s off to the races! The first fight of The Ultimate Fighter 32 goes the distance.

The Ultimate Fighter 32: Roets vs. Torres

Round 1:

Round one starts and inside of a minute, they’re grappling, but when a takedown doesn’t materialize, Roets winds up pressing Torres into the fence. They come off the fence, clinch up again, and wind up in a scramble before Roets again takes the fight back to the fence, looking for a body lock and firing knees. Despite Torres being unable to free himself, Roets doesn’t do much with the position and the ref urges him to work. Instead, they come off the fence, at least for a moment, before heading back there with all of 90 seconds on the clock. More knees from Roets, who can’t land much but was still in control until the final 40 seconds, when Torres reverses.

Round 2:

Torres’ brother tells him they need “lots of feints” in round two. Really, when they need is lots of offense. He finds that early in the frame, landing a kick to the body, then a takedown that sees him on top, in half guard, with over four minutes on the clock. Coach Shevchenko tells her fighter to “get up” but he’s well away from the fence and can’t seem to make a scramble happen initially. Grasso meanwhile likes the pressure she sees, telling her fighter just that: “good pressure, good pressure” she calls out. Torres is active enough to prevent a standup, even when not landing a ton. But when he tries to pass to mount, Roets nearly escapes and soon enough, he’s free, reverses and gets on top. Shevchenko tells him to finish the round there. “Don’t let him get out!” He moves to mount, but Torres reverses! There’s still over a minute on the clock and the second has been Torres’ round.

Round 3

It felt like round three would be needed, and it was. A Torres leg kick tripped up Roets early. Roets went to the body with a kick, and a moment later changed levels, grabbed a leg, and went after a takedown, staying on it and chaining his attempts together. Torres stayed upright, made it to the fence, and grabbed underhooks, though he couldn’t turn Roets/reverse the position. Soon it was  Roets with underhooks, the pair battling for head position. Roets then dove on a leg and nearly gave up position; Torres took the opportunity to scramble free. They’d clinch up at center with half a round remaining, but eventually, Roets grabbed a body lock and dragged things down. Torres nearly reversed, but Roets was able to control from the back, though unable to get hooks in. Torres posted up by the fence, but that allowed Roets to land a knee to the face once he was up. Ten seconds, and they trade a little more before the final horn.

Official Result: Roedie Roets def. Guillermo Torres by unanimous decision

While Torres may have had the most dominant round, the second, Roets took the first and third, relying on control time and wrestling and bouncing back from a rough second frame. That gave him the win in a performance Dana White called “very impressive.”

“I knew it was going to be a scrap in the wrestling department, a scrap on the feet, a scrap in the grappling exchanges,” Roets said afterwards. “And to have the better of that, it’s absolutely amazing. I’m just happy I had my hand raised at the end of the day.”

Shevchenko next picks the first middleweight fight, Finland vs. Russia, which will come next week: Omran Chaaban vs. Shamidkhan Magomedov.

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Featherweights

Edwin Cooper Jr.
6-1
Albuquerque, N.M.
Six-foot-one
31-years-old
Jackson Wink MMA
Combined opponent’s record (at the time they fought): 19-7-1

Boxing: C+
Kickboxing: C
Knockout power: D
Explosiveness: B
Footwork: C+
Clinch: B
Wrestling: A+
Grappling: B
Ground and Pound: A+
Submission threat: D
Striking defense: C-
Takedown defense: Unknown
Grappling defense: C+
Cardio: B
Fight IQ: A

Cooper is a three-time Illinois high school state champ, an NJCAA National Champ, a D2 finalist, and he was a national qualifier at the University of Iowa. From bell to bell his full intention is to wrestle. He’s super aggressive with his wrestling always putting everything into his takedowns. Cooper puts in a lot of energy and while he does slow it’s not as bad as you would expect watching him.

Along with high-level wrestling, Cooper actively rains down ground and pound. He has control but lacks jiu-jitsu. He hardly ever takes dominant positions as he just worries about inflicting damage. On the feet, he has a good jab but is stiff. He’ll struggle on the feet if he can’t get the takedown especially later in the fight. Not many guys will get that chance because Cooper is such a top-notch wrestler. His timing, speed, control, and drive on his takedowns are all hard to prepare for. His only loss is by an armbar which he didn’t even tap from. Cooper in just two-round exhibition fights is going to be a problem.

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