For the first time on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Cormier vs. Team Sonnen, there was a fight between two teammates.

The welterweight semifinals began with Rodrigo Sezinando taking on fellow Team Cormier member Jeff Creighton with a spot in the finals on the line.

Creighton defeated Team Sonnen’s Andreeas Binder in a strong showing in a two-round majority decision in the quarterfinals, while Sezinando advanced thanks to a two-round unanimous decision over Brazilian rival Diego Bianchini.

Spoilers below for TUF 33, Episode 10: 

As a way to stay impartial, Daniel Cormier did not help either fighter game plan ahead of the matchup and was not in either fighter’s corner during the fight.

“This is a tough one for me because they’ve both been very close to me from the start of this process,” Cormier said of the matchup. “They’ve worked very closely with us to try and get better and improve and they’ve accepted everything we’ve tried to teach them on the way to getting (to the semifinals).”

Team Cormier assistant coaches were split with Michael Chiesa, Bob Cook and Tiago Beowulf cornering Sezinando with Rosendo Sanchez, John Wood and Jacob Kasper (better known as Julius Creed from the WWE) going with Creighton.

Unlike the quarterfinals, which were scheduled for two rounds with a third round only necessary if it was tied on the scorecards after 10 minutes, the semifinals were scheduled as regular three-round bouts.

Creighton predicted that if Sezinando didn’t come out aggressively from the start, he’d be able to have his way in the matchup. But Sezinando connected early with a hard right hand and worked hard to take Creighton down along the cage despite Creighton being the more credentialled wrestler.

Cormier, who was mic’d up cageside, commented quietly he thought Sezinando was wasting a lot of energy with the takedown attempt and that it would result in him getting fatigued as the fight progressed.

Sezinando eventually gained top position on the ground after reversing a Creighton takedown attempt and worked for an arm-triangle choke at the end of the round.

In Round 2, Creighton came out as the aggressor and secured a takedown within the first minute. Sezinando was able to reverse positions thanks to a leg lock attempt. Once back on the feet, Sezinando landed a big slam takedown and moved to mount, but rushed a submission attempt and Creighton scrambled back to his feet where he began throwing kicks and knees to the body before being taken down yet again near the end of a competitive round.

Both 170-pounders looked tired heading into the final round and Creighton’s corner told him he likely needed to finish the fight in the third if he wanted to win, but he found himself on the ground in a defensive posture yet again and Sezinando took his back, locking in a body triangle.

Creighton worked back to his feet one last time and ended the fight throwing aggressive strikes, but he was unable to hurt Sezinando enough to finish the fight.

It went to the scorecards and Sezinando got his hand raised via split decision, meaning one of the three judges had Creighton winning at least two rounds.

Sezinando, a Brazilian who has been living and training in Canada in recent years, secured a spot in the welterweight tournament final. He will face the winner of Team Cormier’s Daniil Donchenko vs. Team Sonnen’s Matt Dixon.

Next week, the flyweight semifinals wrap up with Team Cormier’s Imanol Rodriguez taking on Team Sonnen’s Joseph Morales to see who will face Team Cormier’s Alibi Idiris in the 125-pound tournament finale.