Just a matter of months ahead of her own coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter, Ronda Rousey will once again be featured on the show.
As highlighted in the preview tag for Episode 10 of TUF 17, the UFC’s women’s bantamweight champion will make an appearance as a special guest of Team Sonnen on Tuesday, March 26.
This actually marks the second time that Rousey has been shown on the TUF set during her MMA career, but unlike last time, she’ll enter the show’s spotlight as a full-fledged member of the UFC.
Her visit was set with an early Team Sonnen victory by Kelvin Gastelum, the youngest competitor in TUF history.
As an added incentive for defeating then-opponent Robert “Bubba” McDaniel in an early bracket face-off, Rousey called Gastelum on behalf of Chael Sonnen, wishing Gastelum luck and promising that she would come to Las Vegas to train with him if he won.
With Rousey’s blessing, Gastelum cruised to victory in dominant fashion.
Despite his youth and a massive experience gap in contrast to McDaniel, the match ended with a rear-naked choke submission finish from Gastelum, which also netted him a $5,000 bonus.
Rousey will have the chance to coach her own team of TUF competitors to victory later this year, as UFC president Dana White recently announced that Rousey would headline Season 18 against the winner of the upcoming Miesha Tate vs. Cat Zigano bout.
Both seasoned veterans of women’s MMA, Tate and Zigano’s match will mark the second-ever female fight in UFC history, taking a main card slot during the TUF 17 Finale card on April 13.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist and tech writer. His work has appeared in GamePro, Macworld, PC World, 1UP, NVision, The Los Angeles Times, FightFans Radio, MMA Mania and Bleacher Report. Talk with him on Twitter.
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