Episode 9 – 7/22/25
The episode opens with the coaches challenge and this year the challenge is pickleball. Both Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen admit neither man plays the game and Cormier mentions that he had a bad experience with the game the one time he tried to play.
Initially Dana White states that $10,000 is at stake, but after negotiating with the fighters, he agrees to upgrade it to $20,000.
Coaches Cormier and Sonnen are given crash courses in pickleball from the officials present from USA Pickleball Association. The match will be decided in a best two out of three match and it was notable that while Cormier was more athletically dressed, Chael played with cowboy boots on.
While is starts out rough for both men, Cormier gets into a rhythm and build a lead. While Dana points out that Cormier isn’t that good at the game, Chael is worse. Cormier is able to win the first match despite complaining that the official calling points against him was biased.
He was able to again get into a rhythm. Cormier is so unhappy with the official’s calls that he goes to the head official to call out the one constantly calling against him, but no changes are made. Ultimately, Cormier wins the second game, gaining the bonus for both himself and his fighters.
Due to their well-rounded similarities, the game plans for both Alibi Idiris of Team Cormier and Roybert Echeverria of Team Sonnen is to pressure each other and look for their openings to attack.
During training for Team Sonnen, Julianna Pena is brought in to help the fighters train. Dana mentions how she was the first women’s The Ultimate Fighter winner and would eventually go onto upset Amanda Nunes to become the UFC fighter and won the title a second time against her for former TUF castmate Raquel Pennington.
At another training session, Colby Covington isn’t happy with the lack of intensity in the training session of Team Sonnen, so he takes it over and has the fighters run sprint drills which motivates the fighters and impresses Chael.
Both fighters make weight and it’s noted how they are representing specific nations, Alibi for Kazakhstan and Roybert for Venezuela.
In the actual fight, while it goes back and forth, Alibi controls most of the fight and is eventually able to technically knockout Roybert with a knee to the head which rocks Roybert and follows up with punches on the ground.
This guarantees that Team Cormier has at least one fighter in the flyweight semifinals.
The next fight is the welterweight semifinal between Team Cormier teammates Jeff Creighton and Rodrigo Santiago.