Ricky Turcios is again just a win away from becoming a UFC fighter.
Team Volkanovski’s No. 3 bantamweight pick became the first fighter to advance to The Ultimate Fighter 29 finals, taking a convincing decision in an action-packed scrap with Team Ortega’s Liudvik Sholinian (9-1-1)*.
As he did in his semifinal thriller opposite Dan Argueta, Turcios set the tone early with his aggressive standup style and didn’t let up for three rounds. Sholinian had some good moments, landing sharp counters and out-wrestling Turcios at points, but as the bout progressed Turcios was consistently the more accurate striker and he pushed the pace to a level that Sholinian couldn’t match.