As The Ultimate Fighter season 32 continues its broadcast, Valentina Shevchenko has been forced to play peacemaker between her team.
Mess with the Bull, you get the horns. Mess with Valentina Shevchenko, and you’ll quickly realize why the former UFC champion is called ‘Bullet’ – as she shoots down her TUF teammates over a rather ridiculous training room incident that somehow almost came to physical blows.
Valentina Shevchenko plays peacemaker as TUF team almost come to blows
The Ultimate Fighter season 32 has been surprisingly entertaining so far, with coaches Valentina Shevchenko and UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso certainly putting their teams through the paces.
Yet with such an outstanding prize on the line, a place in the UFC roster, the tension between the fighters is understandably reaching boiling point – even between those on the same team.
During last night’s broadcast of episode 6, middleweight Ryan Loder was filmed doing some ‘light sparring’ with featherweight hopeful Edwin Cooper Jr when the 145lber threw an elbow.
Whilst the elbow itself wasn’t thrown with full force, Cooper Jr wasn’t wearing an protection pad and risked cutting Loder only a few days before his next bout in the show’s running.
“You have no elbow pads on, why the f*** are you elbowing me?! yelled Cooper, unhappy that his training partner would potentially endanger his fight as one of the coaches can be heard shouting, “Careful, careful, careful, careful,” in the background.
“No f*** off dude, piece of s***,” berated Loder, with Cooper Jr defending the shot as “It was very light, stop crying” – the middleweight responded in turn: “You don’t have f***** elbow pads on dumbs***!
“I don’t care how light it is, it’s a f***** elbow… I was very pissed [speaking after the incident], at first, I thought that he had cut me, we’re really close to the fight right now three days out so one little cut on your face is a big deal.”
It was at this point where viewers could hear the incoming Shevchenko crying out “You have to be careful” as the two contestants appeared to start walking towards each other – another coach can be heard stating to both fighters “You got to respect your coach.”
Yet Shevchenko wasn’t having any of it, acting as a peacemaker between the two fighters and giving them a well-deserved ‘dressing down’ in front of the still-rolling TUF cameras.
“I am trying for you guys to get you everything that you need, to help you for your fight and what you are doing here – you are fighting each other… You are fighting each other for what?!
“Keep your energy inside, you will fight over there but not here- this is not your fight, be Martial Artists; what are you doing in the training?!”
Shevchenko, who is certainly no stranger to such an intense training environment, explained to her inexperienced team members that whilst it’s good to show a bit of personality; there’s a line that must not be crossed when it comes to endangering Loder’s fight.
“You want to make a show? Good, you’re going to have your show. You’re going to have your battle; it’s good for the show but not good for your fight!”
The response from fans has predominantly one of support for Shevchenko’s reaction to the “soft” elbow, as one viewer described, with one of the top comments reading “Watching Valentina put them in check was hilarious” and another adding “Bullet for a reason.”
UFC rival doubts Shevchenko will fight Alexa Grasso at The Sphere
The Ultimate Fighter season 32 will hopefully end with both coaches settling the score at UFC 306 in The Sphere; a reminder that Grasso won the title from Shevchenko at UFC 285, before a split draw saw her retain the title at UFC Noche 1.
However, not everyone is convinced that this fight will actually be put together, with contender Tracy Cortez recently revealing on The MMA Hour that she doesn’t believe Shevchenko actually wants to fight at The Sphere.
“I would say I will be next. I heard that Valentina [Shevchenko] doesn’t want to fight Alexa at the Sphere so after this fight, whether it’s for the women’s badest female fighter or just to put on a great show for Mexican Independence Day, I would love to fight Alexa [Grasso].
“There’s nothing more honorable for me to want to fight and put on a show for my people,” said Cortez, who is set to face former champion Rose Namajunas in the main event of this weekend’s UFC Fight Night card.
That fight goes down live from the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Saturday, July 13.