The Ultimate Fighter 34 тэмцээний явц болон хагас шигшээгийн өмнөх үр дүн

(We took a short vacation last week, but we’re back at it with your essential The Ultimate Fighter 34 coverage, so with the help of our guest-blogging contestant Xavier Franklin, let’s get caught up on the past two episodes!)

The coaching battle between Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping is going down to the wire.

Team Cormier holds a 4-3 lead over Team Bisping after splitting a pair of fights in the past two episodes, with Bisping’s Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu outworking rival Sean Mora, and Cormier’s Delphine Benouaich needing an extra round to earn a decision over Mackenzie Stiller.

Behind the scenes, Akylbek Uulu’s win might have been a foregone conclusion as his friend and teammate Xavier Franklin and the rest of the house noticed Mora and Micaias Urena slacking. A major storyline of Episode 6 saw the two Team Cormier fighters choosing to sleep in rather than attend a training session, and this wasn’t standard behavior, to say the least.

Xavier: That was just them. I noticed it instantly and then everybody else on our team was noticing it and then their team was like, “Yeah, they’re not coming to train and all this,” because obviously, me and Micaias got matched up and Sean and Ilimbek got matched up, we had fights, so everybody’s training and even me and Ilimbek were feeling the same way, just like trash, because coaches were pushing us. We’re winning, we’re losing some, emotions are going crazy, training is going crazy, so obviously we wanted rest days, but it was still like, “Bro, this is like the biggest fight of your life. You can’t really just be laying in bed, taking time off, especially if your opponent is seeing you do that. They’re picking up on all these things.”

So for me and Ilimbek, it was like a mental edge. While y’all are resting, we’re gonna be training. And then while you’re training, we’re still training, it didn’t make a difference. And they did take more than one day off, they took a few days off and we noticed that, so we’re like, “Oh, this is good for us. Don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s good for us.”

It wasn’t all bad news for Mora and Urena, as they had the chance to show off plenty of personality for the cameras. An impromptu musical performance had the house bumping and even though they were set to fight Akylbek Uulu and Franklin, it was mostly love and respect outside of the cage.

Xavier: To see that scene, it was amazing. Because I kept telling everybody, “Y’all need to stand out, y’all need to do something to make people want to watch you after this.” This is just one thing, but you need people to follow you after you’re out of the house. That’s what’s going to build who you are, your stardom, pretty much. So seeing that, I was like that’s good, and Micaias is just like that, he’s just a music guy, he can literally just play anything and just go off with it. I was laughing, I was dancing to it, it’s hilarious.

Despite the overall camaraderie, there was still an elephant in the room due to Mora and Akylbek Uulu previously clashing in the workouts prior entering the house. Following a clash of heads, Mora struck Akylbek Uulu with a punch that opened a cut on Akylbek Uulu’s head, and Mora was nearly kicked off the show.

When they ended up on opposite teams, it seemed they were destined to meet in the bantamweight quarterfinals, but before they battled in the cage, they competed in the house’s favorite past time: Pool. Franklin said the cast played pool for hours every day and eventually Mora and Akylbek Uulu faced off in a game that Franklin is shocked didn’t make it onto the episode.

Xavier: So when they’re playing, they’re not saying anything to each other, they’re not looking at each other or whatever, and they’re just like, boom, just playing. It’s insanity, mind you, right? We’re just like, “What the f*ck? This is eerie.” The cameraman’s there, everybody’s just looking, and Sean’s f*cking cold. He’s like a pool shark or something, not saying anything. He’ll make something, he’ll look at me and wink, and then Ilimbek will make something and smirk, and then Sean will make something and then Ilimbek will just look at him.

If I remember correct, Sean beat Ilimbek, and Ilimbek was mad. He was like, “Let’s play again.” Sean was like, “No, tomorrow, tomorrow. We play tomorrow.” And then he looked at me, “I told you, bro, I only played three or four times, three or four times.” I said, “He’s a f*cking liar.”

Akylbek Uulu got the last laugh in the cage, putting the pressure on Benouaich to keep Team Cormier in the series. Her strawweight quarterfinal matchup with Stiller was billed as striker vs. grappler and aside from a couple of Stiller takedowns, the contest took place primarily on the feet. Benouaich and Stiller were so evenly matched, the bout went to an extra third frame (TUF fights are scheduled as two-round exhibitions), and Benouaich managed to edge out a victory.

Watching the episode, Franklin sees how the fight could have been scored for his teammate, but applauded both women for their performances.

Xavier: When I watched the fight this time, I’m not gonna lie, [Stiller] could have won at the same time. I don’t know. That was so hard to score because the third round, obviously Delphine really separated in the third round, but those first two rounds with the takedowns—MMA, people have got to understand, it’s not boxing. Boxing looks clean. It’s clean and effective. MMA is just efficiency, it’s just about being efficient. There’s a lot of people, their striking looks like shit, but they’re efficient. Look at Dricus [du Plessis], his striking is not the best, but he’s super efficient at what he does, and he fights really good that way, and he throws people off with that awkward timing and stuff. I feel like that’s kind of what Mackenzie has. She’s not a striker, she’s a judo wrestler, you know, jitz background.

So when I’m watching it, people are looking at Delphine looked cleaner, but I’m like, she looked cleaner, but she’s getting hit. Mackenzie looks nasty and she’s landing, so it depends what you’re looking for, I guess. The fight was really good. I feel like it could have went either way, it maybe could have went to Mackenzie, maybe they should have done a fourth round, I don’t know. It was that close to me. I don’t know. It was pretty good. When I saw both of them, their faces banged up, I’m like damn. I mean, this just looks like the fight was a draw. It was a good fight, though, super entertaining.

I actually spoke to Benouaich following her fight airing and asked if there was anything she wished they’d included in the episode that didn’t make the cut, and she mentioned that Marlon Jones became infamous in the house for his snoring. Franklin agreed, adding that Christian Strong was also a perpetrator.

Xavier: Christian and Marlon are f*cking snorers. They had mouth tape on and they would snore through the mouth tape. It was so f*cking funny. I remember one night, it was like they were having a conversation of snores. I was like, “Oh my God. What’s going on?”

I remember one night, because a day before that, we were talking about they’re snoring, somebody’s farting in their sleep, and we’re hearing it. So that night, it was me, Ali [Mehemmedeli Osmanli], and Marlon, we’re all laughing already, so we’re trying to go to sleep, and then somebody just rips one, somebody starts snoring, and me and Ali just start dying laughing in the middle of the night. We’re half asleep, we just start crying laughing. Our room was a jungle. It was insane.

Next week, Franklin finally gets to fight as he faces Team Cormier’s Urena to close out the quarterfinals. Before they were cast for TUF 34, Franklin and Urena were actually supposed to meet in an LFA title fight in April, so he looked forward to them finally sharing the cage.

Xavier: There was no way me and Micaias weren’t going to fight each other, because if we didn’t, you’re going to risk us not fighting, you know what I mean? You’re gonna risk losing the story. So you had to make us fight each other. We were supposed to fight for the LFA belt before this, then we get in the house, we see each other, obviously, first round we’ve got to fight.

The Ultimate Fighter 34 streams exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes every Tuesday.

Unlike most editions of TUF, coaches Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier will not fight at the conclusion of the season, as both are long retired.

The finalists of the TUF 34 bantamweight and strawweight tournaments will compete for a six-figure UFC contract in the show’s live finale fights. A date for those bouts is yet to be announced.

See The Ultimate Fighter 34 teams below.

Team Bisping

Bantamweights

1. Xavier Franklin (6-1-1, 1 NC), U.S.
2. Mehemmedeli Osmanli (11-1), Azerbaijan
3. Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu (9-3), Kyrgyzstan
4. Marlon Jones (5-0), U.K.

Strawweights

1. Anna Melisano (6-1), U.S.
2. GiGi Canuto (7-1), Brazil
3. Mackenzie Stiller (6-1), U.S.
4. Natalia Alves (8-0), Brazil

Team Cormier

Bantamweights

1. Artem Belakh (11-2), Kazakhstan
2. Micaias Urena (12-4), Dominican Republic
3. Sean Mora (7-1), Cuba
4. Christian Strong (9-1), U.S.

Strawweights

1. Tina Black (15-4, 1 NC), Brazil
2. Delphine Benouaich (7-2), France
3. Melissa Amaya (8-0), U.S.
4. Anita Karim (6-2), Pakistan

Here are the quarterfinal results so far:

Melissa Amaya def. Anna Melisano via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)

Christian Strong def. Marlon Jones via decision

GiGi Canuto def. Anita Karim via TKO (strikes) (R1)

Mehemmedeli Osmanli def. Artem Belakh via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)

Tina Black def. Natalia Alves via TKO (strikes) (R2)

Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu def. Sean Mora via decision

Delphine Benouaich def. Mackenzie Stiller via decision

Advancing to semifinals: Amaya, Strong, Canuto, Osmani, Black, Akylbek Uulu, Benouaich

Eliminated: Melisano, Jones, Karim, Belakh, Alves, Mora, Stiller

Xavier Franklin is a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter 34 and a guest contributor to MMA Fighting. He also served as Michael Bisping’s unofficial English accent translator on the show.