The remaining spot in the welterweight tournament final was determined on the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Cormier vs. Team Sonnen.
Daniil Donchenko took on Matt Dixon with the winner going on to face Team Cormier’s Rodrigo Sezinando in the 170-pound tournament championship bout.
Team Cormier’s Donchenko earned a two-round unanimous decision over Team Sonnen’s Richard Martins to advance through the quarterfinals, while Team Sonnen’s Dixon beat Alex Sanchez with a first-round technical knockout to earn a spot in the semifinals.
Spoilers below for TUF 33, Episode 12:
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With Donchenko considered the most dynamic striker among this season’s cast and Dixon one of the lone fighters to earn a TKO win in the opening round, the final fight of the season was expected to be an action-packed striking match.
That’s exactly how it turned out as both fighters came out aggressively, firing off stiff punches and elbows from the clinch.
Dixon was split open as he pressed forward and was caught by a counter elbow from Donchenko. Moments later, as Dixon shot for a takedown along the fence, Donchenko landed multiple punches to the back of Dixon’s head.
The referee paused the action to warn Donchenko about the illegal strikes, although there was no point deduction and Dixon chose to continue fighting.
The action resumed and the pair began trading in the pocket. Dixon briefly knocked Donchenko to the canvas, but Donchenko’s hand speed advantage was apparent.
Donchenko overwhelmed Dixon with rapid punches and eventually earned a first-round technical knockout win to advance to the final where he’ll face Team Cormier teammate Rodrigo Sezinando.
“Matt looked a bit out of it coming back from that timeout,” UFC president Dana White said after the fight. “After that stoppage, Matt had a chance to end the fight and get the win (via disqualification) but he kept going. The guy is tough as hell and I respect that, but in the end Daniil was just too much for him. But what a way to end the semifinal round. That was a great fight.”
It was revealed at the end of the episode that Donchenko vs. Sezinando and the flyweight final between Joseph Morales and Alibi Idiris will be on the UFC 319 preliminary card.
