Osmanli's buggy choke stuns TUF 34 finale as teammate rivalry sets up grudge final

Mehemmedeli Osmanli secured his place in the TUF 34 bantamweight final by putting Christian Strong to sleep with a second-round buggy choke submission during the season finale of The Ultimate Fighter 34, setting up an all-Team Bisping showdown against Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu at UFC Vegas 121 on September 26.

The finish was no accident. According to TUF 34 bantamweight contestant Xavier Franklin, Osmanli — known to his teammates as “Ali” — had already used the same choke to tap Strong twice during the tryout process. “He choked Christian in the tryouts with that same choke twice,” Franklin said. “He got him to tap.”

Franklin described watching the submission unfold from the stands alongside Akylbek Uulu, who offered a tactical read in real time. “Ilimbek was like, ‘All he has to do is frame. I don’t know why he’s trying to lift up and slam him. Because when you slam yourself, you’re putting yourself deeper into the choke.’” Strong’s instinct to make himself big and resist nearly worked — Franklin admitted he thought Strong might escape — but a final squeeze from Osmanli sealed it. “Then Ali squeezed again and then he got it. I was like, whoa, that was crazy.”

The TUF 34 finals card will also feature a strawweight tournament final between Team Cormier’s Tina Black and Melissa Amaya, with both matchups pitting housemates against one another.

The teammate dynamic between Osmanli and Akylbek Uulu carries more edge than a typical reality-show rivalry. Franklin revealed that tensions between the two boiled over during a training session before fight picks were even made, when Akylbek Uulu caught Osmanli with an elbow to the face on the mat. Osmanli took it as an unacceptably dangerous move for a gym setting and moved to escalate — with the coaches, Franklin noted, in no hurry to intervene.

“That happened before the fight picks and stuff happened,” Franklin said. “That’s why I still say it made no sense for me to fight Ilimbek. That’s how I knew this is somebody else’s hand in the pot — this has nothing to do with what should happen, it’s what they want to happen.”

The implication is that producers and coaches shaped the bracket to engineer the most combustible final possible. Whether or not that is the case, Osmanli and Akylbek Uulu will settle their differences inside the octagon at UFC Vegas 121.