Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier received’t be combating on the conclusion of The Final Fighter 33, however you possibly can wager they badly need bragging rights of their teaching matchup.
The season premiere of TUF 33 aired Tuesday and featured the acquainted components of two established stars—UFC Corridor of Famers Cormier and Sonnen this time round—main groups of octagon hopefuls. Comprising the 16-man solid this 12 months are eight welterweights and eight flyweights representing 10 international locations in whole.
After a brief analysis interval, Cormier received the coin toss to make the primary decide and he went with latest LFA flyweight champion Eduardo Henrique from Brazil. For his first welterweight decide, Cormier selected one other Brazilian, Rodrigo Sezinando, who at present fights out of Vancouver, Canada.
Sonnen’s first flyweight decide was former UFC fighter Joseph Morales (USA) and his first welterweight decide was Diego Bianchini (Brazil).
See how the group rosters ended up under.
Group Cormier
Flyweights
- Eduardo Henrique (13-2), Brazil
- Alibi Idiris (10-0), Kazakhstan
- Imanol Rodriguez (5-0), Mexico
- Tumelo Manyamala (6-1), South Africa
Welterweights
- Rodrigo Sezinando (8-1), Brazil
- Danil Donchenko (11-2), Ukraine
- Jeff Creighton (11-3-1), USA
- Alex Sanchez (15-3), Mexico
Group Sonnen
Flyweights
- Joseph Morales (12-2), USA
- Furkatbek Yokubov (13-4), Uzbekistan
- Roybert Echeverria (10-2), Venezuela
- Arshiyan Memon (7-0), India
Welterweights
- Diego Bianchini (9-1), Brazil
- Matt Dixon (11-1), USA
- Richard Martins (9-1), Brazil
- Andreeas Binder (10-1, 1 NC), Eire
Sonnen commented that he felt Cormier made a mistake not choosing Morales first general, and he backed up that discuss when it was his time to ebook the primary matchup of the season. Concentrating on Cormier’s high decide, Sonnen pitted Morales towards Henrique.
The transfer proved to be sensible as Morales’ UFC expertise and high-level grappling had been an excessive amount of for Henrique, a extra striking-minded competitor. Although Henrique landed a number of good photographs on the ft, Morales was in a position to take him down with over three minutes to work in Spherical 1. Morales aggressively took Henrique’s again and ultimately locked in a fight-ending rear-naked choke to advance to the flyweight semifinals and provides Coach Sonnen an early 1-0 lead over Cormier.
Morales wins in his first combat since February 2023. He beforehand competed within the UFC from 2017-2018, when he recorded a 1-2 file. In his UFC debut, he submitted Roberto Sanchez within a spherical, however then misplaced back-to-back fights to Deiveson Figueiredo and Eric Shelton. Previous to his latest hiatus, Morales was on a three-fight win streak.
With Cormier selecting to select the primary fighters over choosing the primary matchups, it was once more Sonnen’s flip to ebook the opening welterweight bout of the season and he selected Richard Martins (Brazil) to face Group Cormier’s Danil Donchenko (Ukraine) on subsequent week’s episode.
The Final Fighter 33 airs reside each Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
In contrast to most editions of TUF, coaches Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen won’t be combating on the conclusion of the season as each are lengthy retired.
The finalists of the TUF 33 welterweight and flyweight tournaments will compete for a six-figure UFC contract within the present’s reside finale fights. A date for these bouts is but to be introduced.
Listed below are the quarterfinal outcomes up to now:
Joseph Morales def. Eduardo Henrique through first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Advancing to semifinals: Morales
Eradicated: Henrique
