Season 33 of The Ultimate Fighter officially concluded Saturday at Noche UFC with Daniil Donchenko stopping Rodrigo Sezinando to win the welterweight tournament.
Donchenko and Sezinando were originally scheduled to meet at UFC 319 in August, but the matchup was postponed due to an undisclosed injury to Sezinando the week of the event.
The pair of 170-pounders were teammates on Daniel Cormier’s team during TUF 33. Sezinando won decisions over Jeff Creighton and Diego Bianchini to advance to the finale, while Donchenko beat Richard Martins by decision in the quarterfinals then stopped Matt Dixon with strikes in the semifinals.
The two didn’t waste any time to open the preliminary card at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio on Saturday, trading strikes aggressively on the feet in the opening minute before Sezinando initiated a clinch after being cut open by a Donchenko elbow.
Ukraine’s Donchenko is known primarily as a striker, but he landed a takedown midway through the opening round and later dropped Sezinando with a left hand and followed up with unanswered ground and pound strikes at the end of Round 1 to earn the technical knockout victory.
Sezinando, 27, fell to 8-2 as a pro and had a six-fight winning streak snapped. He is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but has been living and training in Canada in recent years, training at Lions MMA in Vancouver.
Donchenko improved to 12-2 as a pro and has won seven in a row overall.
The flyweight tournament final for The Ultimate Fighter: Team Cormier vs. Team Sonnen opened the UFC 319 preliminary card last month, with Joseph Morales finishing Alibi Idiris in dominant fashion to earn a UFC contract.
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