The Ultimate Fighter: Team Grasso vs. Team Shevchenko premiered Tuesday night with the debut episode of Season 32 of the UFC’s long-running reality competition series.
UFC CEO Dana White began the episode by speaking with the eight featherweights and eight middleweights set to compete in the elimination-style tournament, highlighting the history of the show and the opportunity for two of them to earn a UFC contract.
Current women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and former champ Valentina Shevchenko will serve as coaches before completing their trilogy later this year.
The first task for Grasso and Shevchenko was to assess the talent and select their teams.
Spoilers below for TUF 32, Episode 1:
TEAM SELECTIONS
Following a brief workout and assessment from both coaches and their team of assistants, White flipped a coin to see which team would select first.
Grasso won the toss and she went with a fellow Mexican with the first-overall selection then unknowingly selected one of Shevchenko’s Tiger Muay Thai teammates with her second pick.
Below is the full selection order with each fighter’s weight class, age, record and country listed.
Team Grasso
1. Guillermo Torres | FW | 37 | 7-1 | Guadalajara, Mexico
3. Robert Valentin | MW | 28 | 10-3 | Switzerland
5. Kaan Ofli | FW | 30 | 11-2-1 | Melbourne, Australia
7. Paddy McCorry | MW | 26 | 4-1 | West Belfast, Ireland
9. Bekhzod Usmonov | FW | 28 | 12-4 | Tajikistan
11. Omran Chaaban | MW | 23 | 6-1 | Finland
13. Mairon Santos | FW | 23 | 13-1 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
15. Thomas Theocharis | MW | 30 | 9-5 | Toronto, Canada
Team Shevchenko
2. Roedie Roets | FW | 27 | 7-1 | Polokwane, South Africa
4. Shamidkhan Magomedov | MW | 29 | 8-1 | Gubkinsky, Russia
6. Zygimantas Ramaska | FW | 27 | 9-2 | Ukmergė, Lithuania
8. Mark Hulme | MW | 29 | 12-3 | Johannesburg, South Africa
10. Nathan Fletcher | FW | 26 | 8-1 | Liverpool, England
12. Ryan Loder | MW | 31 | 6-1 | Sacramento, Calif., U.S.A.
14. Edwin Cooper Jr. | FW | 31 | 6-1 | Albuquerque, N.M., U.S.A.
16. Giannis Bachar | MW | 33 | 9-2 | Athens, Greece
The fighters were shown getting settled into the mansion at which they lived during the course of filming, and during training sessions, Team Shevchenko members learned their coach does not allow them to drink water.
FEATHERWEIGHTS UP FIRST
Since Grasso had the first pick during fighter selection, it meant Shevchenko got to pick the first matchup of the tournament.
Shevchenko chose the most high-profile matchup possible, at least according to how the draft went earlier, and selected her top pick Roedie Roets to face Grasso’s top fighter Guillermo Torres.
Roets entered TUF 32 as a veteran of South Africa’s EFC Worldwide organization. Only one of Roets’s eight pro bouts have gone the distance, while Torres was a former Olympic-level freestyle wrestler who represented Mexico at London 2012.
Both weighed in at an even 145 pounds the day before their bout.
THE FIGHT
Roets, the younger and taller fighter, landed a takedown on the 2011 Pan American Games silver medallist within the opening minute of the first round and was able to impose his will in clinch situations along the fence. When in the centre of the cage, Torres looked to work low kicks from a southpaw stance.
The Team Grasso corner wanted more feints from Torres and early in Round 2 he used some to create an opening for a hard body kick and followed it with an emphatic toss to the mat where he assumed a half-mount position. Roets stood up and reversed position midway through the round. He briefly mounted Torres before getting reversed and controlled for the majority of the final 90 seconds.
Round 3 began with some striking exchanges before Roets began aggressively pursuing a takedown. Roets had Torres on the defensive for most of the third round and it proved to ultimately be the difference.
Herb Dean was the referee for the fight. He also announced the judges’ decision that saw Roets advance in the featherweight bracket.
NEXT UP
The episode concluded with another fight selection plus a tease of what fans can expect to see this season.
Since Grasso also selected the first middleweight, Shevchenko was given the chance to select the first 185-pound matchup of the season.
Shevchenko chose Russia’s Shamidkhan Magomedov from her team to face Team Grasso’s Omran Chaaban of Finland.