It was a basic striker vs. grappler matchup on episode six of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Grasso vs. Team Shevchenko as Toronto’s Tom Theocharis took on Sacramento’s Ryan Loder in middleweight quarterfinal motion.
Loder, a Division 1 All-American wrestler, ended up making fast work of the Canadian knockout artist with a first-round submission.
Loder shot for a takedown inside the first 10 seconds of the 185-pound matchup, utilized heavy high stress and moved into mount inside the opening minute. He instantly locked in an arm-triangle choke, moved to facet management and Theocharis tapped out.
“It was a simple game plan but the simplest is the best,” Valentina Shevchenko mentioned of her fighter’s victory.
UFC president Dana White added: “I knew Ryan had a dominant ground game and he showed it in this fight.”
Loder, glad to advance to the following spherical unscathed, joins his Team Grasso teammates Robert Valentin and Omran Chaaban within the middleweight semifinals.
“I just didn’t put anything together,” a disenchanted Theocharis mentioned after the battle. “I was trying to stay patient. I didn’t want to rush at him because I knew he was going to try and take me down. He made me miss (a kick), went for the takedown, got me down. You guys have not seen the last of me. This is not the end of me. I will be back.”
NEXT UP
Alexa Grasso chosen 23-year-old Mairon Santos from Rio de Janeiro to face Team Shevchenko’s Edwin Cooper Jr., who’s 31 and combating out of Albuquerque, N.M., within the ultimate featherweight matchup of the quarterfinals.
PREVIOUSLY ON TUF 32
Episode 5: Team Shevchenko’s Zygimantas Ramaska of Lithuania and Tajikistan’s Bekhzod Usmonov of Team Grasso competed in top-of-the-line TUF fights in current reminiscence with Ramaska advancing through a two-round determination regardless of getting dropped early.
Episode 4: Omran Chaaban of Team Grasso earned a comeback win when he submitted Team Shevchenko’s Shamidkhan Magomedov and moved on within the 185-pound bracket.
Episode 3: Australia’s Kaan Ofli of Team Grasso defeated England’s Nathan Fletcher of Team Shevchenko through unanimous two-round determination to advance within the 145-pound event.
Episode 2: The middleweight event opened with Team Grasso’s Robert Valentin incomes an 18-second knockout win over Team Shevchenko’s Giannis Bachar.
Episode 1: Roedie Roets of Team Shevchenko defeated Guillermo Torres of Team Grasso through three-round determination within the first featherweight battle of the season.
