Valentina Shevchenko evened the score with Alexa Grasso.
The Ultimate Fighter 32 coaching matchup is now tied at three wins apiece after Team Bullet’s Ryan Loder (6-1) defeated Team Grasso’s Tom Theocharis (9-5) in this week’s middleweight matchup. It was a standout performance for Loder, who needed a little over a minute to ground Theocharis and submit him with an arm-triangle choke.
Loder vs. Theocharis was a classic wrestler vs. striker matchup, and it was Division-1 All-American Loder that came out on top. Right out of the gate, Loder went for a takedown and it didn’t take him long to push Theocharis to the fence and put him on his back. Loder followed with ground-and-pound to open up a transition to mount and then slapped on the fight-ending submission.
That’s back-to-back wins now for Shevchenko, who sees Loder join Team Bullet featherweights Roedie Roets and Zygimantas Ramaska in the semifinals. Loder is Shevchenko’s first middleweight to advance in the competition.
Loder’s fight wasn’t the only drama he was caught up in on this week’s episode as he had an argument with teammate Edwin Cooper Jr. in training. Cooper infuriated Loder after catching him with an un-padded elbow while sparring. Despite Cooper’s attempts to brush off the accident, coach Shevchenko had to step in to get her fighters back on track.
The episode also showed Cooper’s housemates complaining about his verbose persona in the house, to the point that Bekhzod Usmonov—Cooper’s teammate at Jackson MMA outside of the show—took him aside to talk to him about his drinking.
Next week, Cooper gets to show what he can do as he faces Mairon Santos in the final featherweight matchup of the quarterfinals.
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)
Kaan Ofli def. Nathan Fletcher via decision
Omran Chaaban def. Shamidkhan Magomedov via technical submission (anaconda choke) (R2)
Zygimantas Ramaska def. Bekhzod Usmonov
Ryan Loder def. Tom Theocharis via submission (arm-triangle choke)
Advancing to semifinals: Roets, Valentin, Ofli, Chaaban, Ramaska, Loder
Eliminated: Torres, Bachar, Fletcher, Magomedov, Usmonov, Theocharis