Did you know that the 34th season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), coached by UFC Hall of Famers Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, is currently airing on Paramount+ every Tuesday?
Well, if not, I got you covered.
In the eighth episode, Bisping’s No. 1 overall men’s pick and former Contender Series veteran Xavier Franklin scored a brutal first-round knockout win over the Dominican Republic’s Micaias Urena in the final quarterfinal matchup inside Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
And for a few moments, it looked controversial … at least according to Cormier.
Urena actually started the fight perfectly. He stayed just out of range, chopped Franklin down with constant leg kicks, and cracked him with crisp boxing whenever Franklin overcommitted with power shots.
For most of the opening round, Urena looked like the cleaner fighter.
But then Franklin started digging to the body.
With roughly 45 seconds left in the round, Franklin began investing downstairs and landed several nasty body shots that visibly hurt Urena. That completely changed the fight.
With five seconds left, Franklin landed a beautiful combination that dropped Urena to his knee. Franklin then fired a knee to Urena’s chest before landing the final kill shot — a right hook against the fence as time expired.
At first, Cormier was furious with the referee because he thought Franklin had kneed a downed opponent in the head. However, after watching the replay — and after UFC CEO Dana White told him to calm down — Cormier saw that Franklin’s knee landed legally to the chest.
So, yeah, no foul, just a violent finish.
Funny enough, Franklin was supposed to fight Urena in the main event of LFA 230 before both fighters were called to TUF.
Urena (11-3), meanwhile, is riding a two-fight win streak outside the show, with his most recent win coming against former UFC fighter Vinicius Salvador.
Now, with all of the quarterfinal matchups complete, the fighters move into the semifinals. That means everyone left is just one win away from fighting for a UFC contract in the finals.
Here are the semifinal matchups:
Melissa Amaya vs. Gigi Canuto
Delphine Benouaich vs. Tina Black
Xavier Franklin vs. Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu
Christian Strong vs. Mehemmedeli Osmanli
To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.
