Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 - Episode 6 Recap
July 9, 2024
The episode starts off with both fighters from last week, Zygimantas Ramaska and Bekhzod Usmonov, returning from the hospital together. They get a standing ovation when they walk in the door. It really was a good fight! If you didn’t watch it, I highly suggest checking it out. Bekhzod feels proud despite the loss. Zygimantas feels good about getting the respect of the house. They roll the highlights of the fight with the house members talking about how good it was. They aren’t lying!
Zygimantas was told at the hospital that all is good with him, which is important because he has to move on in the season.
Dana lets both teams take a break from training and they watch a UFC Fight Night. Edwin Cooper Jr. doesn’t stop talking during the show. A lot of the fighters talk about how he’s been drinking a lot. They all talk about how it’s worrisome - both because of behavior and because of his career. Even the producer brings it up in an interview with Edwin, but he brushes it off.
We go to a training session for Team Valentina. Ryan Loder gets elbowed in the face by Edwin Cooper Jr. Not only is this not good for regular training, but Ryan Loder is set to fight next on this episode. Loder is understandably upset and doesn’t let it go right away. He has words with Cooper Jr.
Valentina stops the training session and does a really nice job of re-focusing the fighters. Loder and Cooper Jr. shake hands and put the issue behind them. Awesome coaching by Valentina here. Dana talks about how this happens a lot on The Ultimate Fighter and gives a lot of credit to Valentina’s coaching. Well deserved.
Back at the house, the fighters talk to Cooper Jr. again about his drinking, but he brushes it off again. We find out that Bekhzod is Cooper Jr.’s real life teammate and he decides to check in on Cooper Jr. Edwin appreciates the check in and says that he’s OK. They are spending a lot of time on the drinking that Edwin does, so we shall see where it goes this season.
We switch over to Team Alexa’s training with Tom Theocharis getting ready for his fight. Tom wants to keep the fight standing against Ryan Loder since Loder is such a good wrestler. We get some highlights of Theocharis’ previous fights and it looks like he does have some power in his punches, so staying standing is a good idea.
Both Alexa and Robert Valentin point out that Tom has to have faith in his hands. They say that he sometimes is hesitant to throw, so they are trying to push him with his standup game as much as possible.
We switch back to Ryan Loder, who is at the house explaining to a teammate that he didn’t start MMA until he was 29. He strictly focused on wrestling until then. We get to see some of his home life, where his family is close and Ryan uses snowboarding to relax. He talks about how he had a teacher in middle school who didn’t believe in him being able to go to college in the future. However, another teacher did believe in him and happened to also be a wrestling coach. Ryan is dyslexic and was able to push hard on the mat and in the classroom to make it to college. As a teacher myself, I both hate and love this story. All kids have potential! That first teacher is a fucking idiot. I’m so glad that second teacher entered Ryan’s life and helped him out.
We see that Ryan Loder trains at Team Alpha Male, which is a hell of a gym. He started off teaching wrestling there, but transitioned to fighting MMA. Ryan gets emotional about helping others who have struggles like he had.
Valentina takes her team to the lake for some downtime. They see the Hoover Dam and get to relax a little bit on a boat. Ryan Loder talks about how this trip reminds him of some things he does back at home, which is motivating him to get back to training for his fight.
Back at the house, Tom Theocharis is asked about a tattoo that he has. It’s a photo of his girlfriend who passed away, which is so sad to hear. This transitions the episode to his background information - growing up in Canada and playing hockey. His family is a really close, big Greek family. We learn that his girlfriend, Sam, was in a serious accident (a fall, but he doesn't go into too much detail) while on a trip to Greece.
After her death, he reached out to Elias Theodorou (the winner of The Ultimate Fighter: Nations). Elias was headed to Las Vegas for a fight and Tom joined him. Unfortunately, Elias passed away shortly after that due to cancer. Tom opens up about having depression and anxiety over his losses. He says that it was tough, but he has been working on the things that make him feel good - which is MMA. He says that there’s always hope, you just have to find it - and it might take some time, but it’s worth it.
We head back to Ryan Loder training for his fight. He’s working on defending the standup game. If he can do that and take Theocharis down, the fight will be in his wheelhouse.
Both men make weight and it looks like they are evenly matched physically during the face off. The Tale of the Tape reveals a slight reach advantage for Ryan Loder.
The fight gets started. Ryan Loder rushes in and gets Tom Theocharis down. Loder holds Tom down and just rains down punches. Tom is able to defend the punches after a little while, so Loder switches to a choke, which Tom taps to. This was a dominant win for Ryan Loder. Very impressive!
Next week, we will get the Featherweight matchup of Mairon Santos from Team Alexa vs. Edwin Cooper Jr. from Team Valentina. I guess we’ll get to see if Edwin Cooper Jr.’s drinking has any impact on his fighting. See you next week!
