The Ultimate Insider: Behind the scenes of The Ultimate Fighter 34’s wild celebration, contestant’s drunken antics
The Ultimate Fighter 34 strawweight final is set following another episode featuring friends facing off, as well as some classic reality television shenanigans of which the viewers only got a glimpse of.
Before we discuss how Michael Bisping treating his team to a night out devolved into chaos, let’s look at this week’s fight, which saw Tina Black earn a hard-fought decision win over fellow Team Daniel Cormier fighter Delphine Benouaich to book her spot at the finale against Melissa Amaya at UFC Vegas 121 on Sept. 26.
Black out-struck Benouaich for three rounds, surviving a few hairy exchanges and Benouaich taking her back in Round 1, en route to a convincing decision win. Beyond the obvious stakes, the matchup was an emotional one due to the close relationship Benouaich and Black formed in the house.
Benouaich was shown not only wishing Black a happy birthday in the house, but also arranging a Team Cormier surprise for the former Invicta FC star.
According to bantamweight contestant Xavier Franklin, MMA Fighting’s guest blogger this season, as friendly as Benouaich and Black were, it didn’t look like Black held back when it came time to throw down.
Xavier: They got more in-depth with them, which was nice, you know, but Tina, it’s like Tina and Melissa [Amaya], like they were friends, but both of them, you could just tell they’re just like, “I’m going to kill this b*tch.” I could just tell, and then when they were fighting, I’m like, Tina was punching her like they weren’t friends.
When I was fighting Ilimbek [Akylbek Uulu], I was just fighting him for sport. It wasn’t like I was trying to genuinely hurt Ilimbek because like I was fighting him, and he leaned over after I hit him with that right hand, I was gonna throw a head kick, but I was like, he’s my friend. I’m not gonna do that to my friend. I said, it’s just a fight, that’s it. Anybody else, I would have head kicked him right there in that moment, I wouldn’t have waited for Herb Dean. It literally crossed my mind, but I’m like, I’m not doing that. It’s my friend. No, I’m not doing that.
F*cking Tina. F*cking elbows, knees. I’m like, “Holy shit.” I said, yeah, I don’t know if that’s friends or not.
There was tension on Team Bisping as well heading into the semifinal fights. According to Franklin, a rift had developed between the bantamweights and strawweights on his team, but everything was patched up when Bisping took them out for a ritzy steak dinner in Las Vegas.
Franklin said the steak lived up to the hype, but because the dinner happened just days before his fight with Akylbek Uulu, he had to resist overindulging. Bisping was not helpful in this regard.
Xavier: I’m going to go. I’m not going to just sit in the house and be miserable. I might as well just go out. I’m not going to eat anything crazy. I’m pretty disciplined. That was bullshit.
I was out there smelling the food. I didn’t eat too crazy. I was just eating some and then everybody started getting drunk and then Bisping was like ordering desserts and all this. I can’t have desserts. So he ordered some Oreo ice cream and he was like, “Xavier, you have to try.”
I said, “I can’t.”
He said, “Mate, you’re going to f*cking make weight, just try it.” So he grabs the spoon, he puts it in my face. I eat it and I’m like, “Oh, this is amazing.” And then we just start going crazy.
In the end, it wasn’t Franklin the crew needed to worry about. Teammate Marlon Jones lost to Christian Strong in the first bantamweight bout of the season, giving the Englishman plenty of idle time, and on the night of the dinner, he decided to let out plenty of pent-up energy.
Xavier: Marlon ended up double-legging Bisping in the restaurant and picked him up. Marlon got so drunk, it was so crazy. He made friends with our waiter, gave the waiter his Instagram, was like, “You’re my f*cking lad,” just going crazy.
So then we leave the restaurant—Everybody’s hammered, by the way. Everybody’s hammered.—We can’t listen to music, anything, whatever, so we get on the bus and everybody’s like, “Just play some music.” Bisping’s like, “Play some f*cking music for him on the way home,” all this shit, “ They’ve been working their ass off.” So they play music, we’re all just on the bus dancing, going crazy, everybody’s yelling. We’re like, “Team Bisping Bus!” Then we carry this all the way to the house. We get out the van screaming all this.
We literally kick the door down in the house and we’re like, “Team Bisping’s back. F*ck DC!” All this shit.
Back at home, several fighters jumped in the pool, clothes and all, giving the production team plenty of work to do on one of the final nights of filming. No one caused more of a commotion than Jones, though.
Xavier: The producers are going crazy, like, “Oh my God, Marlon’s drunk. He’s diving headfirst into the pool. He like hops out of the pool, he’s like, “Tina, I f*cking love you.” Tina’s laughing, we’re all laughing. Anna [Melisano’s] getting out of the pool, Gigi [Canuto] puts clothes on her, she gets dry again, Marlon runs by and throws her back in the pool.
Everybody goes inside, Marlon’s running around the house, f*cking wet, just running around. They’re like, “Get him,” because me and Marlon were together a lot, so they’re just like, “You’re pretty much watching him.” So he’s running around the house and I’m trying to grab him.
Mind you, Marlon’s out of the tournament. He’s been out of the tournament for a while, so he’s weighing like 170. He’s, like, 175. He’s f*cking huge and he’s strong, but he’s also drunk. So I’m trying to grab him and then he starts wrestling me. He’s like, “Get off me. Get off me, mate.” He’s running and I’m like, “I’m not f*cking chasing you, bro.”
With his semifinal fight looming, Franklin had enough of being Jones’s handler. Or so he thought.
Xavier: I’m like, “Marlon, I’m f*cking going to bed,” because I literally had to fight Ilimbek in, like, two days or something like that. I was cutting and I was like, “I’m going to bed, bro.” I have to sleep. I have to fight my friend. This is all f*cked up. I can’t deal with another friend being drunk.
So then he’s downstairs for a little bit. I go lay down, but I’m kind of listening out for him just in case he does something too crazy and I have to go down there and grab him. And then he’s running, coming up the stairs, and he’s being so loud, it’s so funny. And he goes in the closet, he’s trying to get in the closet, he’s trying to change. I don’t know what he does, he’s taking his pants off and he spinning kicks the closet door, and the closet door falls. It’s like a closet mirror door. It falls in the middle of the night.
Mind you, Delphine, Melissa, Christian, [Mehemmedeli Osmanli], they’re all trying to sleep, this is like, 12 in the morning. I’m just crying, laughing in my bed, and he just starts crying, laughing, and it all gets settled and then he finally went to bed, but that shit was crazy.
Given how out-of-control Jones was, it’s understandable viewers got the most PG-version of what sounded like a wild night. Still, Franklin is surprised that so much of Team Bisping’s last hurrah was left on the cutting room floor.
Last week, much of the episode’s airtime was taken up by the events surrounding Franklin’s controversial loss to his friend and teammate Akylbek Uulu. In the closing seconds of a tense contest, referee Herb Dean controversially paused the contest when Akylbek Uulu complained of an eye poke, with Franklin seemingly winning the fight via stoppage, only for Dean to call for a replay and subsequent restart to the action. Akylbek Uulu went on to win a decision.
In the aftermath of the controversy, Franklin has seen plenty of support—and shared frustration.
Xavier: Dude, so many people, yesterday, one of my teammates fought and I was at one of the local shows, people were coming up to me like, “You got f*cked so bad. That shit’s so crazy.” Everybody was like, “I was literally screaming at my TV.” One dude said, “Yeah, I literally broke my TV because I threw the remote at it.
My dad was f*cking pissed. He was pissed. Everybody’s pretty pissed, to be honest.”
Franklin’s team has gone as far as to speak to the commission, but he doesn’t expect anything to come of the complaint.
Xavier: My manager is talking to the Nevada athletic commission, so it’s weird because they’re saying like, it wasn’t like a traditional hand wave-off, but he did say that, but then at the same time, it’s like, why were the stools and doctors in there? They were just like, “Well, that’s the UFC’s fault.”
I think it’s just one of those situations where it’s like, he f*cked up so bad, everybody’s just like, “We’re not taking the blame for it, we’re just going to point to everybody else.” It’s shitty.
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, which are set to take place at UFC Vegas 121 on Sept. 26.
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 finals matchups:
Strawweight
Melissa Amaya vs. Tina Black
Bantamweight
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu vs. TBD
Here are the semifinal results and pending matchups:
Melissa Amaya def. GiGi Canuto via TKO (strikes) (R2)
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu def. Xavier Franklin via decision
Tina Black def. Delphine Benouaich via decision
Mehemmedeli Osmanli vs. Christian Strong
Here are the quarterfinal results:
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)
Mehemmedeli Osmanli def. Artem Belakh via submission (rear-naked choke) (R1)
Tina Black def. Natalia Alves via TKO (strikes) (R2)
Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu def. Sean Mora via decision
Delphine Benouaich def. Mackenzie Stiller via decision
Xavier Franklin def. Micaias Urena via TKO (strikes) (R1)
Advancing to finals: Amaya, Akylbek Uulu, Black
Advancing to semifinals: Amaya, Strong, Canuto, Osmanli, Black, Akylbek Uulu, Benouaich, Franklin
Eliminated: Melisano, Jones, Karim, Belakh, Alves, Mora, Stiller, Urena
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.
