Alexa Grasso isn’t playing around with her fight picks.
This week on The Ultimate Fighter 32, the UFC flyweight champion evens the score at 1-1 in her coaching matchup with rival Valentina Shevchenko, and does so handily. With her first fight selection of the season, Grasso sends out her top middleweight pick Robert Valentin (10-3) to face Shevchenko’s last pick Giannis Bachar (9-2), and the result is as expected.
Valentin, who has previously trained with Shevchenko at Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand, needs less than 30 seconds to connect with a counter elbow to Bachar’s head that causes the Greek fighter to crumble to the canvas. A few follow-up strikes follow, but the fight is essentially over as soon as Valentin’s elbow connects.
With the win, the 28-year-old Valentin becomes the first middleweight semifinalist of the season.
Episode 2 actually starts with a little drama as the originally scheduled middleweight matchup between Team Grasso’s Omran Chaaban and Team Shevchenko’s Shamidkhan Magomedov has to be postponed due to Chaaban having an infectious cold sore.
Though Shevchenko lost, her team continues to praise her for her limitless work ethic and for pushing them in training, which they compare to being in “boot camp.” Bachar jokes that the team should go to UFC CEO Dana White to protest Shevchenko’s intense training sessions.
Next week, featherweights are back in action as Team Grasso’s No. 2 pick Kaan Olfi fights Team Shevchenko’s No. 3 pick Nathan Fletcher.
The Ultimate Fighter 32 airs live every Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+.
Following the season finale, Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko are expected to face off in a flyweight championship trilogy bout at a date still to be determined.
The finalists of the TUF 32 middleweight and featherweight tournaments will also compete for a six-figure UFC contract at the show’s live finale. A date for that event is also yet to be announced.
Here are the TUF 32 rosters divided by team:
Team Grasso
Featherweights
- Guillermo Torres (Mexico) (7-1)
- Kaan Ofli (Australia) (10-2-1)
- Bekhzod Usmonov (Tajikistan) (11-4)
- Mairon Santos (Brazil) (13-1)
Middleweights
- Robert Valentin (Switzerland) (10-3)
- Paddy McCorry (Ireland) (4-1)
- Omran Chaaban (Finland) (6-1)
- Tom Theocharis (Canada) (9-5)
Team Shevchenko
Featherweights
- Roedie Roets (South Africa) (7-1)
- Zygimantas Ramaska (Lithuania) (9-2)
- Nathan Fletcher (England) (8-1)
- Edwin Cooper Jr. (USA) (6-1)
Middleweights
- Shamidkhan Magomedov (Russia) (7-1)
- Mark Hulme (South Africa) (12-3)
- Ryan Loder (USA) (6-1)
- Giannis Bachar (Greece) (9-2)
Here are the quarterfinal results so far:
Roedie Roets def. Guillermo Torres via decision
Robert Valentin def. Giannis Bachar via KO (strikes) (R1)
Advancing to semifinals: Roets, Valentin
Eliminated: Torres, Bachar
