RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesLAS VEGAS, NEVADA - APRIL 14: (L-R) Daniel Cormier, UFC President and CEO Dana White, and Michael Bisping speak to the fighters during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter at Meta APEX on April 14, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)
(We took a short vacation last week, but we’re back at it with your essential The Ultimate Fighter 34 coverage, so with the help of our guest-blogging contestant Xavier Franklin, let’s get caught up on the past two episodes!)
The coaching battle between Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping is going down to the wire.
Team Cormier holds a 4-3 lead over Team Bisping after splitting a pair of fights in the past two episodes, with Bisping’s Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu outworking rival Sean Mora, and Cormier’s Delphine Benouaich needing an extra round to earn a decision over Mackenzie Stiller.
Behind the scenes, Akylbek Uulu’s win might have been a foregone conclusion as his friend and teammate Xavier Franklin and the rest of the house noticed Mora and Micaias Urena slacking. A major storyline of Episode 6 saw the two Team Cormier fighters choosing to sleep in rather than attend a training session, and this wasn’t standard behavior, to say the least.
Xavier: That was just them. I noticed it instantly and then everybody else on our team was noticing it and then their team was like, “Yeah, they’re not coming to train and all this,” because obviously, me and Micaias got matched up and Sean and Ilimbek got matched up, we had fights, so everybody’s training and even me and Ilimbek were feeling the same way, just like trash, because coaches were pushing us. We’re winning, we’re losing some, emotions are going crazy, training is going crazy, so obviously we wanted rest days, but it was still like, “Bro, this is like the biggest fight of your life. You can’t really just be laying in bed, taking time off, especially if your opponent is seeing you do that. They’re picking up on all these things.”
So for me and Ilimbek, it was like a mental edge. While y’all are resting, we’re gonna be training. And then while you’re training, we’re still training, it didn’t make a difference. And they did take more than one day off, they took a few days off and we noticed that, so we’re like, “Oh, this is good for us. Don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s good for us.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Mora and Urena, as they had the chance to show off plenty of personality for the cameras. An impromptu musical performance had the house bumping and even though they were set to fight Akylbek Uulu and Franklin, it was mostly love and respect outside of the cage.
The boys have moves 🕺 Sean Mora & Micaias Urena show off their dance moves! STREAM #TUF34 NOW on @ParamountPlus ! pic.twitter.com/kN4rzMzYKv
— The Ultimate Fighter (@UltimateFighter) July 20, 2026
Xavier: To see that scene, it was amazing. Because I kept telling everybody, “Y’all need to stand out, y’all need to do something to make people want to watch you after this.” This is just one thing, but you need people to follow you after you’re out of the house. That’s what’s going to build who you are, your stardom, pretty much. So seeing that, I was like that’s good, and Micaias is just like that, he’s just a music guy, he can literally just play anything and just go off with it. I was laughing, I was dancing to it, it’s hilarious.
Despite the overall camaraderie, there was still an elephant in the room due to Mora and Akylbek Uulu previously clashing in the workouts prior entering the house. Following a clash of heads, Mora struck Akylbek Uulu with a punch that opened a cut on Akylbek Uulu’s head, and Mora was nearly kicked off the show.
When they ended up on opposite teams, it seemed they were destined to meet in the bantamweight quarterfinals, but before they battled in the cage, they competed in the house’s favorite past time: Pool. Franklin said the cast played pool for hours every day and eventually Mora and Akylbek Uulu faced off in a game that Franklin is shocked didn’t make it onto the episode.
Xavier: So when they’re playing, they’re not saying anything to each other, they’re not looking at each other or whatever, and they’re just like, boom, just playing. It’s insanity, mind you, right? We’re just like, “What the f*ck? This is eerie.” The cameraman’s there, everybody’s just looking, and Sean’s f*cking cold. He’s like a pool shark or something, not saying anything. He’ll make something, he’ll look at me and wink, and then Ilimbek will make something and smirk, and then Sean will make something and then Ilimbek will just look at him.
If I remember correct, Sean beat Ilimbek, and Ilimbek was mad. He was like, “Let’s play again.” Sean was like, “No, tomorrow, tomorrow. We play tomorrow.” And then he looked at me, “I told you, bro, I only played three or four times, three or four times.” I said, “He’s a f*cking liar.”
Akylbek Uulu got the last laugh in the cage, putting the pressure on Benouaich to keep Team Cormier in the series. Her strawweight quarterfinal matchup with Stiller was billed as striker vs. grappler and aside from a couple of Stiller takedowns, the contest took place primarily on the feet. Benouaich and Stiller were so evenly matched, the bout went to an extra third frame ( TUF fights are scheduled as two-round exhibitions), and Benouaich managed to edge out a victory.
Watching the episode, Franklin sees how the fight could have been scored for his teammate, but applauded both women for their performances.
Xavier: When I watched the fight this time, I’m not gonna lie, [Stiller] could have won at the same time. I don’t know. That was so hard to score because the third round, obviously Delphine really separated in the third round, but those first two rounds with the takedowns—MMA, people have got to understand, it’s not boxing. Boxing looks clean. It’s clean and effective. MMA is just efficiency, it’s just about being efficient. There’s a lot of people, their striking looks like shit,...
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