The first episode of the 30th season of The Ultimate Fighter went live on May 3rd, 2022 and will continue to release each Tuesday on ESPN+. The fighters will be undergoing a 6-week camp with no contact from the outside world under the coaching of either Julianna Peña or Amanda Nunes, depending on which team they are selected for. The fighters will be living together in the TUF Fight House for the full 6-weeks as they train for their fights. Each week, one coach will select a man and woman from their team to fight a man and woman from the other team.
This season, High Altitude Martial Arts and the Elevation Fight Team have sent three fighters to compete in TUF: Mohammed Usman, Zac Pauga, and Claire Guthrie. All three fighters got significant attention in the pre-team pick montage due to their impressive fighting records compared to other competitors. Team Nunes won the coin flip and selected Elevation Fight Team’s, Claire Guthrie, among all 8 men and 8 women, for the first overall pick of the season. Claire was undefeated in 2021 and her most recent fight was a unanimous decision against fellow season 30 TUF competitor, Julianna Miller, who was later picked for the opposing team. Mo Usman and Zac Pauga were the first and second male picks, respectively, for team Peña. Mo Usman also has a rival in the house in Mitchell Sipe. The two fighters were meant to fight over 3 years ago but unfortunately the fight fell through, but since they are on opposing teams on this season of TUF they may find an opportunity to settle it on the mats.
As Team Nunes got first picks for fighters, Team Peña makes the first fight matchup. After watching the fighters train for several days, Peña went with Elevation Fight Team’s Zac Pauga to go up against Nyle Bartling from Team Nunes. Nyle is a fighter out of rural Nebraska whose background is primarily in wrestling while Zac’s is mostly in Muay Thai. Both fighters are 6’2” and over 240 pounds, but Zac has an almost 4.5 inch longer reach over Nyle which will favor Zac’s striking.
We got a short life summary from Zac about his career in professional football and rugby before eventually becoming a cop in the Denver police department. He got into Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at High Altitude Martial Arts and was quickly recruited by the Elevation Fight Team and began training with Curtis Blade and Alistar Overeem. After being undefeated as an amateur MMA fighter, he became a full-time fighter with the support of his wife and two kids. Zac is now 10-0, with 5 amateur fights and 5 professional fights before joining season 30 of TUF. While Zac is used to fighting at light heavyweight, he says his “speed and conditioning” will give him an advantage in the heavyweight division on TUF.
The fight consists of two rounds which are scored by judges. If there is no stoppage at the end of the two rounds, they will be scored to determine a winner. In the case of a split decision where each fighter wins one round, a third round of “sudden-victory” will take place where whoever wins that round wins the fight.
The first round mostly took place on the feet with Zac dominating the striking and taking a few significant strikes. It was clear that Nyle’s game plan was to go for takedowns given his wrestling ability and was constantly throwing wild overhand rights into single leg takedowns. For the most part, Zac stuffed these takedowns or escaped the clinch, but he was taken down late into the first round. Nyle attempted to take his back, but Zac slowly used the fence to stand up and turn around to escape. After a few more strikes standing, both fighters threw a kick at the same time which caused Zac to slip backwards and allowed Nyle to take top position. Zac defended the ground and pound while Nyle slowly moved into an attempted head-and-arm choke. Zac was able to use his underhooks and legs to turn his body and escape, bringing the fight back to their feet. At this point both fighters were visibly exhausted, and the round ended without much more action. It was clear that Zac won that round despite the short time he spent in bottom position.
The second round was much like the first, with Zac using his reach advantage to maintain space and avoid the wild strikes coming from Nyle. Nyle continued to throw wild overhand rights and follow with single leg takedowns but as his cardio wore out, they were coming from further and further away, making it easy for Zac to land shots and shake him off. In the final minute of the round, Nyle took a single leg shot and held on for the remainder of the fight as Zac pounded away, landing many significant strikes but unable to finish the Nebraska farmer. The judges came back with a unanimous decision in favor of Zac for both rounds, giving him and Team Peña the first win of TUF30. Zac perfectly followed the game plan of his coaches and did exactly as they said during his fight. He works very well with Julianna Peña and is certainly one of the strongest competitors in this season of TUF.
The next episode of TUF will be on May 10th where we will see the first fight of the women’s division.
