Daniel Cormier has his first finalist on The Final Fighter 33.
This week’s episode kicked off the flyweight semifinals and it was Group Cormier’s Alibi Idris (Kazakhstan) who continued to impress as he put away Group Chael Sonnen’s Roybert Echeverria (Venezuela) within the first spherical.
Idris introduced fixed strain to the pivotal contest, throwing large punches proper out of the gate. Cormier truly needed to inform Idris to decelerate, however ultimately Idris’ aggression paid off. After stuffing an Echeverria takedown try, Idris turned the tables by strolling him down after which scoring a takedown of his personal.
Echeverria fought laborious to get out from beneath Idris, however left himself weak as he tried to face. Idris threw out a lightning-fast flying knee that rocked Echeverria, permitting Idris to observe up with strikes for a technical knockout.
Idris is now the primary TUF 33 fighter to advance to this season’s finale. He awaits both teammate Imanol Rodriguez (Mexico) or Group Sonnen’s Joseph Morales (USA), who compete within the different flyweight semifinal.
Subsequent week’s episode sees two Group Cormier fighters compete within the first welterweight semifinal as Jeff Creighton (USA) fights Rodrigo Sezinando (Brazil).
The battle consequence was simply Cormier including insult to damage as he additionally defeated Sonnen on this season’s Coaches’ Problem. Cormier and Sonnen confronted off in a finest two-out-of-three match of pickleball, which turned out to be a one-sided contest.
Sonnen supplied little resistance as Cormier ran up the rating, solely managing factors himself when Cormier repeatedly foot faulted. Regardless of Cormier getting heated with the officers, he in management for almost all of the competition and simply gained two video games to defeat Sonnen and earn a $10,000 prize for himself and $2,500 for every of his staff members.
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 battle 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 here are the TUF 33 rosters divided by staff:
Group Cormier
- Eduardo Henrique (13-2), Brazil
- Alibi Idiris (10-0), Kazakhstan
- Imanol Rodriguez (5-0), Mexico
- Tumelo Manyamala (6-1), South Africa
- Rodrigo Sezinando (8-1), Brazil
- Daniil Donchenko (11-2), Ukraine
- Jeff Creighton (11-2-1), 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
Listed here are the semifinal outcomes and matchups:
Flyweight
Alibi Idris def. Roybert Echeverria through first-round TKO (strikes)
Imanol Rodriguez vs. Joseph Morales
Welterweight
Daniil Donchenko vs. Matt Dixon
Jeff Creighton vs. Rodrigo Sezinando
Listed here are the quarterfinal outcomes:
Joseph Morales def. Eduardo Henrique through first-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Daniil Donchenko def. Richard Martins through choice
Imanol Rodriguez def. Arshiyan Memon through first-round TKO (strikes)
Jeff Creighton def. Andreeas Binder through choice
Alibi Idiris def. Furkatbek Yokubov through choice
Matt Dixon def. Alex Sanchez through first-round TKO (strikes)
Roybert Echeverria def. Tumelo Manyamala through second-round submission (rear-naked choke)
Rodrigo Sezinando def. Diego Bianchini through choice
