The OFFICIAL
#TUF33 teams :boom: pic.twitter.com/wyRS2YXguH— The Ultimate Fighter (@UltimateFighter)
May 28, 2025
Season 33 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series lifted off with
Episode 1 on Tuesday, as 16 participants—eight flyweights and eight
welterweights—from 10 different countries set out in search of an
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract. Daniel
Cormier and Chael Sonnen
will serve as coaches for the 12-week season.
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“Both of these guys are very competitive and they both want to
win,” UFC CEO Dana
White said, “so this should be a very entertaining season.”
Evaluations led into team selections. Cormier won a coinflip
between the coaches, elected to draft first in each weight class
and chose reigning
Legacy Fighting Alliance champion Eduardo
Henrique as the No. 1 overall flyweight. Sonnen countered by
selecting
Team Alpha Male’s Joseph
Morales, a man who already has three UFC appearances under his
belt. Attention then turned to the 170-pound competitors. Cormier
picked Rodrigo
Sezinando as the No. 1 overall welterweight. Sonnnen went with
Diego
Bianchini.
Cormier rounded out his squad with flyweights Idiris
Alibi, Imanol
Rodriguez and Tumelo
Manyamala, alongside welterweights Daniel
Donchenko, Jefferson
Creighton and Alejandro
Sanchez. Sonnen, meanwhile, filled out his roster with
flyweights Furkatbek
Yokubov, Roybert
Echeverria and Arshiyan
Memon, alongside welterweights Matt Dixon,
Richard
Martins and Andreeas
Binder.
Because Cormier was afforded the first pick, Sonnen earned the
right to choose the participants for the first fight. He
immediately went for the jugular, pitting Morales against Henrique
in a showdown between the top flyweight picks on each side. Both
men met their contracted weight requirements—Morales at 126 pounds
and Henrique at 125.5 pounds—at the weigh-in, where chippiness
between the two teams began to brew.
The fight did not last long. Morales lured the Brazilian into false
sense of security on the feet, obliging him with a few standup
exchanges. Once the opportunity presented itself, he swooped in for
a clean double-leg takedown and forced Enrique into a scramble.
Morales advanced to the back, secured his position with a body
triangle, freed his hands and cinched a rear-naked choke for the
tapout inside the first round. It was a clinical performance.
“Joseph’s UFC experience showed,” White said. “He was smart,
patient, and when the fight went to the ground, he was just too
much for Eduardo. That was an impressive finish.”
The win moves Morales into the flyweight semifinals.
“I feel great,” he said. “I feel like some of the weight has been
lifted off my shoulders. I’m ready to move on to the next fight. It
felt good to shut them up for a little bit. Their team was yappin’,
yappin’ and yappin’, but all of a sudden, it got real quiet. I
couldn’t hear anything. I feel like I proved that I’m one of the
top flyweights here. I feel like the pressure’s on me to win the
show, but I thrive under the pressure.”
It was a quick exit for Henrique.
“I’m feeling a heavy tightness in my chest because, whether I like
it or not, I made mistakes,” he said through a translator. “I know
every champion make mistakes. Every champion has ups and
downs.”
To conclude the episode Sonnen announced the first welterweight
fight. It will feature Team Sonnen’s Martins in a showdown with
Team Cormier’s Donchenko.
“Two strikers going head-to-head,” White said. “This is going to be
a fun one.”