It’s somewhat hilarious to see TUF 31 coach Conor McGregor in the opening credits for The Ultimate Fighter 33, which debuted on Tuesday, given his coach’s fight with Michael Chandler never did materialize.
Yet here we are, another season of TUF launching, this time Team Cormier vs. Team Sonnen. At least in this case, there’s no fight between coaches expected, given both popular fighters and current analysts have long since hung up the gloves.
Instead, Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier will look to guide another class of fighters into the UFC, with flyweights and welterweights taking part.
TUF 33 marks the 20th anniversary of the original Ultimate Fighter, something UFC CEO and President Dana White noted early and often during Tuesday’s season debut.
“Once you get inside here, this competition is an absolute pressure cooker,” noted White, reminding the TUF 33 fighters to remember why they’d come there. White also promised that they would bring in former TUF winners who went on to be champs, to help inspire the fighters. Speaking of, Forrest Griffin was on hand for episode one.
If there was any surprise in the TUF 33 season opener – let’s be honest, the format hasn’t changed much in recent years, though the antics have been mercifully toned down in most season – it’s that Colby Covington turned up as one of Sonnen’s coaches.
As usual, episode one saw coaches pick their teams, with Cormier winning a coin toss and claiming first pick (in both weight classes). Eduardo Henrique went first, with Sonnen picking Joseph Morales, already a UFC vet, second at flyweight. The last picks, meanwhile, get a speech from DC about Brandon Moreno being the last fighter picked during his season – as Sonnen made snoring noises throughout.
Forrest Griffin tells the fighters that after he won TUF all of 20 years ago, he hasn’t worked a job since. Technically, he’s currently the Vice President of Athlete Development at the UFC Performance Institute, but he clearly loves what he does, so point taken.
The first fight of the season is selected by Chael Sonnen, who lines up his own Joseph Morales against Eduardo Henrique – the first overall picks. Henrique is the reigning LFA flyweight champ; Morales went 1-2 through three UFC fights in 2017-18.
Weigh-ins for the bout get a little heated, with DC’s team chanting “you’re gonna die” in Portuguese, which Sonnen takes offense to.
The Ultimate Fighter 33: Eduardo Henrique vs. Joseph Morales
The first fight of the season opens competitively, and Henrique holds his own on the feet as expected. When Morales gets the fight down, however, he quickly gets the back, locks up a body triangle, and gets to work, putting the fight away with a rear-naked choke all of halfway through the opening round.
Morales says following the fight that he feels like “some of the weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” and he’s not wrong. After a brief stint in the UFC that was cut short, he’s taken the first steps towards a return.
That’s a wrap on the debut episode of TUF 33. We’ll recap each episode from the season as the show unfolds.
