Jessamyn Duke and Peggy Morgan aren’t the only ladies who lost on The Ultimate Fighter Season 18 who will still get some time in the spotlight at the Finale this Saturday. Fan favorite Roxanne Modafferi and semifinalist Raquel Pennington will square off in the main card’s first fight.
B/R’s own Jeremy Botter broke the story on Twitter:
Roxanne Modafferi faces Raquel Pennington in the first main card fight. That’s a good one.
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) November 28, 2013
That translates to all eight ladies who made it to the house this season getting an official fight in the UFC.
Raquel Pennington faced off with Jessamyn Duke to advance to the semifinals with a unanimous-decision victory. The fight was heralded as one of the best bouts in the history of the long-running reality series. However, she would go on to drop a unanimous decision to Jessica Rakoczy, who will face off with Julianna Pena in the finals.
Modafferi lost in her first bout in the house to Rakoczy, who knocked her out in the second round. However, “The Happy Warrior” is a true pioneer in women’s MMA who has fought many of the best women in the sport and previously challenged Sarah Kaufman for the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight belt.
The fight is an intriguing stylistic matchup. Modafferi is a strong Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner and has years of experience against high-level competition. Pennington, meanwhile, owns potent hands and a solid ground game of her own.
Just two women don’t have a bout lined up in the Finale, Shayna Baszler and Sarah Moras. Both ladies are currently nursing injuries that made them unavailable (though Baszler will be cornering Duke in her fight). However, they will likely face off with each other at some point in the future.
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