Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen will be serving as head coaches for the upcoming Season 33 of The Ultimate Fighter and the pair of popular former UFC stars and current pundits announced the full cast of participating fighters at a press conference Wednesday.
TUF 33 will feature 16 fighters — an eight-man tournament in the welterweight division and an eight-man tournament in the flyweight division.
This season marks the 20-year anniversary of the UFC’s tournament-style reality series.
TUF 33 will debut later this year on May 27. Fans will be able to watch new episodes weekly on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet+.
TUF 33 FLYWEIGHT FIGHTERS
-- Alibi Idiris (10-0) from Kazakhstan
-- Arshiyan Memon (7-0) from India
-- Eduardo Chapolin (13-2) from Brazil
-- Furkatbek Yokubov (15-4) from Uzbekistan
-- Imanol Rodriguez (5-0) from Mexico
-- Joseph Morales (12-2) from the United States
-- Roybert Echeverria (10-2) from Venezuela
-- Tumelo Manyamala (6-1) from South Africa
TUF 33 WELTERWEIGHT FIGHTERS
-- Alex Sanchez (15-3) from Mexico
-- Andreeas Binder (10-2) from Ireland
-- Daniil Donchenko (11-2) from Ukraine
-- Diego Bianchini (9-1) from Brazil
-- Jeff Creighton (11-2) from the United States
-- Richard Martins (9-1) from Brazil
-- Rodrigo Sezinando (8-1) from Brazil
-- Matt Dixon (11-1) from the United States
Season 32 was coached by women’s flyweight champions Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso and featured athletes in the middleweight and featherweight divisions.
Shevchenko and Grasso concluded their trilogy at UFC 306 after serving as coaches. Cormier and Sonnen are both retired so they will not fight one another after the season — typically that is a tradition on the show — but they will likely butt heads when discussing TUF on their Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast that they co-host.
Cormier previously coached opposite Stipe Miocic on Season 27 of TUF, while Sonnen is returning for his third time.
Sonnen coached opposite Jon Jones on TUF 17 and opposite Wanderlei Silva on TUF: Brazil 3.
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