TUF 34 cast member nearly lost in mountains during training run

A strawweight contestant on The Ultimate Fighter 34 briefly went missing during a team training run in the mountains outside Las Vegas.

Mackenzie Stiller, a member of Team Bisping, wandered off the designated path at Adrenaline Mountain while the cast was completing a run organized by coach Michael Bisping, according to TUF 34 guest blogger Xavier Franklin. Franklin and teammate Mehemmedeli Osmanli had already finished the course when Stiller disappeared, prompting an immediate search.

Search mounted after Stiller fails to return

"We ran back down and then Mackenzie had got lost in there," Franklin told MMA Fighting. "We're screaming, looking for her, so we had to go run back on the trail." Franklin noted the fighters were cutting weight with limited food intake, which may have affected decision-making. Several teammates and coaches went searching before Stiller reappeared. "She came around the corner and they were like, 'Oh yeah, there she is,'" Franklin said. Stiller reportedly thought she had been told to keep running straight rather than cutting across the trail.

The mountain excursion came during a week when much of the episode's drama centered on Team Cormier bantamweight Artem Belakh struggling with his weight cut ahead of his quarterfinal bout against Osmanli. Franklin said Belakh was cutting weight in a sauna suit daily even before the cast entered the TUF house, signaling he was carrying excessive mass. Osmanli submitted Belakh with a first-round rear-naked choke, evening the season series at 2-2.

Franklin also detailed escalating tensions between the teams, with Team Cormier repeatedly taunting Osmanli at weigh-ins and throughout filming. Osmanli responded by throwing water bottles and had to be calmed down by Bisping. "It was like that pretty much the whole season," Franklin said. The next TUF 34 episode streams Tuesday on Paramount Plus, featuring a strawweight bout between Team Cormier's Tina Black and Team Bisping's Natalia Alves.

Photo: Michael Bisping / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Original reporting:

• mmafighting.com — The Ultimate Insider: Behind the scenes of TUF 34, cast member nearly lost in mountains | MMA Fighting