Michael Bisping’s fury paid off on The Ultimate Fighter 34.
The former middleweight champion coached strawweight GiGi Canuto to his team’s first victory as she needed less than 30 seconds to finish Team Daniel Cormier’s Anita Karim. In actuality, it didn’t look like Bisping had to do much cornering as Canuto ran through the overmatched Karim, stunning her with a teep kick to the body and then landing another hard body kick that forced referee Mike Beltran to step in.
With Cormier having won the first bantamweight and strawweight fights of the season, the win provided some excitement—and much-needed relief—for Team Bisping. TUF 34 cast member and guest blogger Xavier Franklin told MMA Fighting that “The Count” was on the warpath after going 0-2 to start the season, to the point that the team was ordered to hard spar despite possibly having to compete soon.
Xavier: They went on, like, hour rants. Coach [Jason] Parillo was getting on our ass. ‘I’ve had world champions and world champions spar all the time hard, you all should have no trouble sparring.’ We were all just looking at each other. But Bisping made a good point, I will not lie. We all told him we never spar on fight week, but he said, ‘Yes, OK. But you’ve also never been on The Ultimate Fighter. So then we were like, ‘Fair.’ Still, you’re hard sparring and you fight literally in a few days.
The intensity, they showed a little bit [on the episode], but it was hard sparring. They were like, ‘Everybody go light,’ but no, it was hard sparring. They were pushing us super hard, everybody’s getting banged up. I’m pretty sure some stuff happened where people got hurt and stuff, so then they realized, ‘Oh shit, maybe we need to tone back on the hard sparring.’ I mean, we could have avoided this if you just kind of listened to us, but I understand. We’re his team, we’re f*cking down 0-2. Bisping, he’s super competitive, which I love for him, but at the same time he’s taking it out on us. So he’s like, ‘F*ck it, we’re hard sparring. We’re training hard all the time.’ We’re going to get a win somewhere. It doesn’t matter where we get the win, we’re going to get a win somewhere.
Fortunately for Team Bisping, Canuto made short work of Karim; in fact, the fight was over so quickly that Xavier and the rest of the squad barely knew how to react at first.
Xavier: The craziest, weirdest performance ever. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ Everybody’s in the crowd like, ‘What just happened?’ It was so fast. She kicked her, she punched her a little bit and then kicked her again. We were like, ‘Yes, yes!’ We got back in the locker room, everybody was like, ‘Aaaaaah!’ We were going crazy, we were so happy. Finally, we’re on the board.
If GiGi would have lost, I can only imagine how bad it would have been. The vibe would have been down, team chemistry would have been off. After going down 0-2, it was already bad. So GiGi had a lot of pressure on her shoulders, but she loves pressure. Her nickname’s ‘Diamond,’ so she loves it.”
Making Canuto’s win even sweeter was that she made a pre-match bet with Cormier that she would win by knockout to the tune of $500. Cormier immediately showed up, cash in hand, following Canuto’s victory, but the wager wasn’t without controversy. Prior to Canuto making her knockout call—she revealed that Cormier asked her off-camera not to use her championship-level grappling to defeat Karim—Bisping suggested that the losing coach pay for the other team’s dinner.
According to Xavier, their understanding was that Cormier would pay for their dinner and give Canuto her $500, but “DC” later told them it was one or the other.
Xavier: You’ve got to read between the lines with DC. First off, if you go back and listen to what he said, it wasn’t no ‘this or that.’ They shook first. It’s on camera, him and Bisping shook, dinner for whoever wins, and then GiGi said, ‘I’ll do another bet. $500 if I knock her out.’ And DC said, ‘Deal.’ So really he shook on two deals. That’s why Bisping said, ‘No, you’ve got to pay for my team,’ and DC said, ‘No. It’s either $500 or dinner for your team. That was the deal. I chose to give it to the athlete.’
DC’s really good with his words. If you pay attention to that, he knows Bisping and fighters with money, so he’s like, ‘I chose to give it to the athlete,’ like, ‘Are you going to take this money away from GiGi? This is her money, Bisping.’ You’ve got to read between the lines. I know what DC was doing. He still owed us dinner, but he also owed GiGi money at the same time.
Also on this episode, we had our first TUF prank of the season. Once a show staple, with housemates often pulling off gags ranging from disgusting to truly disgusting, the antics have died down in recent years (probably for the better). However, that didn’t stop Team Bisping from poking fun at Cormier, using a printed screenshot from his classic All About That Cake skit to brighten up the house.
Asked if there were more elaborate ideas that were left on the cutting room floor or if there were more pranks to come, Xavier said both teams knew better than to get carried away.
Xavier: You would have to be in the house to understand the personalities in that house. A prank would have started a fight. It would have started a fight between everybody in there.
Don’t get me wrong, everybody was a nice person, but everybody had a limit that you could just tell, nobody was willing to cross that boundary too much. Maybe the coach could have crossed that boundary, but it was literally you cross that boundary, you’re going to fight in the house and you’re probably getting kicked out.
In a rare move for the show, the contestants were actually treated to a field trip for a break from the TUF house, with the fighters getting to watch a Power Slap event in Las Vegas, where Bisping was part of the commentary team. Xavier admitted he had his reservations about the competition, but by the end, he was hooting and hollering with the rest of the crowd.
So would he try Power Slap himself?
Xavier: F*ck no. That shit is insane.
If not him, then which member of the TUF 34 cast would be the best slapper?
Xavier: I think the person that would be the best at it would be Mackenzie [Stiller].
MMAF: Why Mackenzie?
Xavier: She’s an animal. She is a ‘Wild Thornberry.’ I can’t wait for her episode to air and you all get to see who she is. She’s insane. She has silver or gold in her front tooth. She’s perfect for Power Slap. That’s right up her alley. She’s hard-nosed, just perfect for it. She’s the only one I think would be crazy enough to do it.
Everybody else is not doing it. F*ck no. But her? She would do it. She’s an animal. And I believe she would be successful.
On next week’s episode, Team Cormier’s No. 1 bantamweight pick Artem Belakh fights Team Bisping’s Mehemmedeli Osmanli.
The Ultimate Fighter 34 streams exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes every Tuesday.
Unlike most editions of TUF, coaches Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier will not fight at the conclusion of the season, as both are long retired.
The finalists of the TUF 34 bantamweight and strawweight tournaments will compete for a six-figure UFC contract in the show’s live finale fights. A date for those bouts is yet to be announced.
See The Ultimate Fighter 34 teams below.
Team Bisping
Bantamweights
- Xavier Franklin (6-1-1, 1 NC), U.S.
- Mehemmedeli Osmanli (11-1), Azerbaijan
- Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu (9-3), Kyrgyzstan
- Marlon Jones (5-0), U.K.
Strawweights
- Anna Melisano (6-1), U.S.
- GiGi Canuto (7-1), Brazil
- Mackenzie Stiller (6-1), U.S.
- Natalia Alves (8-0), Brazil
Team Cormier
Bantamweights
- Artem Belakh (11-2), Kazakhstan
- Micaias Urena (12-4), Dominican Republic
- Sean Mora (7-1), Cuba
- Christian Strong (9-1), U.S.
Strawweights
- Tina Black (15-4, 1 NC), Brazil
- Delphine Benouaich (7-2), France
- Melissa Amaya (8-0), U.S.
- Anita Karim (6-2), Pakistan
Here are the quarterfinal results so far:
Melissa Amaya def. Anna Melisano via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)
Christian Strong def. Marlon Jones via decision
GiGi Canuto def. Anita Karim via TKO (strikes) (R1)
Advancing to semifinals: Amaya, Strong, Canuto
Eliminated: Melisano, Jones, Karim
Xavier Franklin is a cast member on The Ultimate Fighter 34 and a guest contributor to MMA Fighting. He also served as Michael Bisping’s unofficial English accent translator on the show.
