The semifinals got underway on episode nine of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Grasso vs. Team Shevchenko with American Ryan Loder becoming the first fighter to advance to the finale.
Loder of Team Shevchenko won a unanimous decision over Finland’s Omran Chaaban of Team Grasso.
Chaaban, a well-rounded young fighter with slick chokes in his arsenal, overcame a rough start to submit Shamidkhan Magomedov in the quarterfinals. Loder, a Division 1 All-American wrestler, earned a quick submission win over Tom Theocharis in his first fight.
The pair were tentative to begin with Loder looking to time a takedown and land long body kicks from his southpaw stance, while Chaaban looked to find a home for his long punches. Loder secured a takedown late in the mostly uneventful opening round.
Loder, 32, was more aggressive striking in the second round and always had Chabaan on the defensive. Ultimately the wrestling control was too much for the 23-year-old Chaaban who finished the round on bottom.
The semifinal fights were scheduled for three rounds, opposed to the quarterfinal matchups where a third round was only required if the fight was tied after 10 minutes.
With Loder up two rounds, Chabaan needed to empty his tank trying for the finish and he managed to knock Loder off-balance late in the final round with a big right hand, but it was too little too late as the fight went the distance.
Loder will face the winner of Robert Valentin vs. Paddy McCorry in the middleweight finals
NEXT UP
The first featherweight semifinal goes down when Austrailian jiu-jitsu ace Kaan Ofli of Team Grasso faces South African wrestling standout Roedie Roets of Team Shevchenko.
PREVIOUSLY ON TUF 32
Episode 8: Team Grasso’s Paddy McCorry submitted Mark Hulme of Team Shevchenko to advance in the 185-pound bracket in the final middleweight bout of the quarterfinals.
Episode 7: The featherweight quarterfinals wrapped up on episode seven of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Grasso vs. Team Shevchenko with Grasso’s Mairon Santos edging out Shevchenko’s Edwin Cooper Jr.
Episode 6: Ryan Loder of Team Shevchenko made quick work of Team Grasso’s Tom Theocharis with a first-round submission victory in middleweight quarterfinal action.
Episode 5: Team Shevchenko’s Zygimantas Ramaska of Lithuania and Tajikistan’s Bekhzod Usmonov of Team Grasso competed in one of the best TUF fights in recent memory with Ramaska advancing via a two-round decision despite getting dropped early.
Episode 4: Omran Chaaban of Team Grasso earned a comeback win when he submitted Team Shevchenko’s Shamidkhan Magomedov and moved on in the 185-pound bracket.
Episode 3: Australia’s Kaan Ofli of Team Grasso defeated England’s Nathan Fletcher of Team Shevchenko via unanimous two-round decision to advance in the 145-pound tournament.
Episode 2: The middleweight tournament opened with Team Grasso’s Robert Valentin earning an 18-second knockout win over Team Shevchenko’s Giannis Bachar.
Episode 1: Roedie Roets of Team Shevchenko defeated Guillermo Torres of Team Grasso via three-round decision in the first featherweight fight of the season.
12:52
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.