TUF 34 cast member nearly booted after tryout scrap
A bantamweight hopeful nearly got sent home before The Ultimate Fighter 34 even started after throwing a punch during tryouts at the UFC Apex.
Sean Mora and Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu clashed during the selection process in April, with Mora opening a cut above Akylbek Uulu's eye and prompting an intervention from coaches Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, according to contestant Xavier Franklin. Production staff told Mora he was finished and sat him away from the group, Franklin said on his episode recap for MMA Fighting.
"They literally were, like, '[Mora] is out.' They said, 'He's out. He's done,'" Franklin recalled. "For us as the fighters that are competing, we were like, well f*ck that's one person we don't have to worry about because he's good. Sean's good as hell."
Four fighters cut after tryouts in TUF first
Cormier ultimately selected Mora anyway with one of his four bantamweight picks, a reversal that caught the rest of the cast off guard. Franklin said the broadcast dialed down how intense the moment was in person, with Bisping demanding to know why Mora had thrown the punch. Akylbek Uulu, who landed on Team Bisping, told Franklin that Mora headbutted him first during a hard wrestling exchange before he returned fire and Mora landed the punch.
The 34th season, which premiered this week with back-to-back episodes, featured 20 fighters competing for 16 roster spots across bantamweight and strawweight divisions. Two fighters from each weight class were sent home immediately following tryouts, a format wrinkle Franklin said the cast only learned about after arriving at the Apex. Rodrigo Vera and Abdul Hussein were cut at bantamweight, while Wushamo Hailai and Camila Reynoso went home from the strawweight group. Vera has since made his UFC debut with a first-round knockout of Zhu Kangjie at UFC Macau in May; Hussein faces Muin Gafurov at UFC Abu Dhabi on July 25.
Bisping won the coin toss and took Franklin with the first overall pick. Franklin, who went 6-1-1 with one no contest before joining the show, said he expected to go first regardless of which coach chose. The season airs Tuesdays on ESPN Plus.
Photo: X2o / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Original reporting:
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