The Ultimate Fighter 20 makes its glorious debut on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday night, where the female strawweights compete to become the first ever UFC women’s 115-pound champion. Among the participants are Invicta, RFA and Bellator veterans.
The season p…
The Ultimate Fighter 20makes its glorious debut on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday night, where the female strawweights compete to become the first ever UFC women’s 115-pound champion. Among the participants are Invicta, RFA and Bellator veterans.
The season promises drama, great fights and big personalities. That’s why it will likely be a ratings success for both the UFC and parent company Fox.
Stay with Bleacher Report tonight as we update from the season premiere. Below are the contestants on this season’s show.
There are a lot of ways to describe the way Tecia Torres fights but the most prominent word that comes to mind is aggressive.
Coming in just north of the 5′ mark, the South Florida representative has one of the most fitting nicknames in mixed martial a…
There are a lot of ways to describe the way Tecia Torres fights but the most prominent word that comes to mind is aggressive.
Coming in just north of the 5′ mark, the South Florida representative has one of the most fitting nicknames in mixed martial arts as her fighting style certainly lives up to her “Tiny Tornado” moniker. The 25-year-old brings constant pressure from the opening bell until the last, and her brand of tenacity has served to overwhelm every opponent she’s faced inside the cage.
While her professional career began in October of 2012, Torres spent the previous year racking up victories on the amateur circuit. In just one year of work, the karate and taekwondo black belt notched seven consecutive wins and built solid momentum toward her professional debut. Her winning streak served to create some buzz and expectation, and she legitimized the hype by winning all four of her showings that would come under the Invicta FC banner.
In addition to putting on four consecutive outstanding performances, she also defeated a collection of top-ranked competition in the process. It didn’t take long before Torres became the most highly touted fighter in the women’s strawweight ranks—and when she was selected to participate in The Ultimate Fighter 20—her long sought-after dream suddenly came into focus.
A UFC championship is something she never thought she would ever have the chance to compete for, but with the historic installment of the reality-based fighting program producing the inaugural UFC strawweight champion, Torres could finally begin to envision making the impossible a reality. She doesn’t like to waste time getting to where she is heading, and TUF 20 provided the perfect avenue for her to make her dreams come true.
“When I found out that I was picked to be on The Ultimate Fighter my first thought is that my dream had come true,” Torres told Bleacher Report. “I started this martial arts journey 20 years ago with karate and I never imagined it would come to pass that I would be in the UFC. It was a dream come true. Being a part of the history of women’s MMA is amazing to me and I definitely jumped on the opportunity.
“I’m so young in my career and I’m just getting started. I went into the show 4-0 and there are a lot of things to come for ‘The Tiny Tornado’ inside the UFC. I can’t wait to have my first real UFC fight when there are actually fans around and my teammates and coaches are there. It is going to be amazing for everybody and I am really looking forward to it.”
When the organization made the announcement regarding the TUF 20 and the addition of the women’s strawweight division under the promotional banner, Torres knew the biggest chapter of her career was about to begin. That said, she was also aware of the pros and cons that would come from living with 15 of the world’s best female fighters at 115 pounds and did her best to prepare for everything that would come her way.
Having last competed in December, she was already in good physical shape coming into the show, but Torres knew there would be no way to control the drama that was sure to unfold once the cameras started rolling. Yet, even though her instincts would prove to be true on the drama front, Torres also reveled in the opportunity to train with top-ranked talent on a daily basis. And now that she can look back on the experience, Torres believes the positives far outweighed the negatives from competing on the show.
“It was exciting for me to be able to come to Las Vegas and train with the girls that were essentially my weight class and would be my competition in the UFC,” Torres said. “Going in there, I knew these were the girls I would be fighting in the future and some of them I had fought already. It was cool getting to train with the most talented girls around the world.
“As for being in a house with 15 other women for six weeks…that part wasn’t as cool. I knew that would lead to drama and issues and that definitely happen, but I did come out of the experience having made some great friends. It is going to be an exciting season and there is a lot to offer in each episode.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 premieres on Fox Sports 1 on Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. EST
Like many fighters competing in mixed martial arts, Carla Esparza is paradoxical.
The tenacious veteran is hell on wheels when the cage door closes, but her Southern California roots yield a laid-back chill outside of business hours. Throughout her car…
Like many fighters competing in mixed martial arts, Carla Esparza is paradoxical.
The tenacious veteran is hell on wheels when the cage door closes, but her Southern California roots yield a laid-back chill outside of business hours. Throughout her career, Cookie Monster has been able to turn on the ferocity when it’s time to do work but then keep those fires from overwhelming her by what she calls “girly-girl” activities with her friends and family.
The quest to be recognized as the top 115-pound female fighter in the world is what drives her, but it is the normal things in her life that keep her grounded. And while normalcy may seem to be a strange balancing tool, it would take Esparza a bit to realize the crucial role her process would play in what came to be the biggest opportunity of her career.
Along with 15 other women, Esparza was selected to compete on the 20th installment off the reality television staple The Ultimate Fighter. Whereas the introduction of the women’s strawweight division to the UFC fold would have grabbed a solid amount of spotlight on its a own, a history-making turn where the winner of the Season 20 tournament would become the inaugural women’s 115-pound champion amplified the upcoming season to megawatt status.
With The Ultimate Fighter 20 scheduled to premiere Sept. 10 on Fox Sports 1, the media obligations and appearances have been coming in a fast-and-furious fashion for the cast members. While that means Esparza’s schedule is currently at a unique level of hectic, she’s taking everything in and making sure she enjoys the experience.
“It has been supercrazy,” Esparza told Bleacher Report. “Everyone is hyped up about the show on social media, and we are doing a lot of media leading up to the premiere. I have really enjoyed it, and it just shows you how the show is being promoted and how excited everyone is for it. That makes me happy because it not only means the girls on the show are going to do well from an individual standpoint, but this is also going to make sure women’s MMA stays on the rise.
“I knew it was going to be crazy. I didn’t expect to live in a house with 15 other women and have it not be crazy. I was hyping myself before I went in there like there was going to be drama and all this craziness. There was drama, but it wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed the experience. I probably wouldn’t do it again, but I really enjoyed it.”
In fighting her way to an Invicta FC strawweight title back in January, Esparza proved to herself she was ready to battle for UFC gold, and maintaining her surfer-girl routine outside of the cage prepared the 26-year-old Torrance native for the situation she was about to enter for a six-week stretch. That balance would come in handy when entering The Ultimate Fighter house, where a fighter trains and interacts on a daily basis with the very people she could and probably will end up fighting.
That said, Esparza knew competing on TUF 20 had the potential to be a career-defining opportunity. She came to the sport as an accomplished collegiate wrestler just five years prior, and entering the TUF house meant she was going to have the opportunity to become the inaugural strawweight champion in UFC history.
That is a pretty drastic turn for any athlete, yet an achievement of that magnitude is precisely the type of lofty goal the SoCal representative gets fired up to chase.
“Everyone knew going in this was going to be a history-making experience,” Esparza said. “It’s hard to really think about those things when you are in the middle of it and living in it. That can make it difficult to see the magnitude of what is going on, but we all had the feeling this was going to be huge. Then once we got in the house and saw what was going on and the amazing fights that were happening, we knew it was going to make a big impact on this sport. It’s exciting, and it is like we are living history. That’s pretty cool.
“It has been a long road,” she added. “I came into this sport five years ago ,and there are girls who have been fighting even longer than I have. Even in the amount of time I’ve been in MMA, I’ve had to struggle and fight for no money. I’ve had to fight to get recognition, and with this show we are getting a lot of support from the promotion and the fans as well. It’s a great feeling to be at this point and be on a huge platform like the UFC.”
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
The premiere of The Ultimate Fighter season 20 is upon us, and it will introduce the UFC audience to the female strawweight division.
The 115-pound division has long been MMA’s most talent-rich women’s division. For years, it was dominated by Japanese …
The premiere of The Ultimate Fighter season 20 is upon us, and it will introduce the UFC audience to the female strawweight division.
The 115-pound division has long been MMA‘s most talent-rich women’s division. For years, it was dominated by Japanese legend Megumi Fujii, but Fujii has since hung up her gloves. Current No. 1-ranked fighter Jessica Aguilar competes in the WSOF.
Earlier this year, the UFC opened up the strawweight division with two bouts featuring two of the most exciting fighters in the division—Claudia Gadelha and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. For the purpose of this slideshow I will leave them out, as the UFC has already given them a platform to shine. We will focus on others who have yet to make the jump.
Here are five names you will want to keep your eye on as the 115-pound division comes to the UFC and grows into one of the best divisions in the organization.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 hasn’t even aired yet but there’s already plenty of lofty expectations for the women competing. The bar just got raised again thanks to UFC president Dana White.
White spoke to members of the media following UFC 177 and cou…
The Ultimate Fighter 20hasn’t even aired yet but there’s already plenty of lofty expectations for the women competing. The bar just got raised again thanks to UFC president Dana White.
White spoke to members of the media following UFC 177 and couldn’t hold back about how excited he was for this upcoming season of TUF, per MMA Mania.
I love this season of The Ultimate Fighter, it’s way better than the last season of The Ultimate Fighter. The reality is great, but the fights are fucking awesome, and that’s all I really care about. Everybody is going to be happy. You guys are going to be blown away. There’s a Ronda Rousey on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, absolutely.
To be honest, saying this upcoming season will be better than the previous season isn’t saying much.
But despite the obvious hyperbole displayed by White (as if that’s anything new), there are some strong candidates to become a star in the UFC.
Felice Herrig is among one of the most popular (or notorious, depending on your viewpoint) women competitors in MMA. Her ability to use her good looks combined with an outgoing personality have created a considerable amount of buzz, despite the fact she sports a 9-5 overall record.
It’s pretty telling of the dislike for Herrig that an “incident” occurred on just the first day of filming.
Of course, there are plenty of other talented women competing this season as well. Carla Esparza comes in with the Invicta FC strawweight title while Tecia Torres can lay claim to victories over a pair of fellow TUF 20 competitors.
Regardless of the improved talent level, the ladies of TUF 20 are going to have a tough task ahead of them if they’re trying to become the next Rousey. The current UFC women’s bantamweight champion has not only enjoyed success in MMA (none of her fights have gone the distance), but she’s also racked up a number of accolades outside of it.
The Ultimate Fighter 20 is set to debut on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. ET. The season will feature UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis and former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez as coaches and will crown the first ever UFC women’s strawweight champion
For Gilbert Melendez, the ultimate prize may be off in the distance, but he has never taken his mind off the UFC lightweight title. He will have his shot against Anthony Pettis at the UFC’s 2014 year-end event in December.
The UFC contender and fo…
For Gilbert Melendez, the ultimate prize may be off in the distance, but he has never taken his mind off the UFC lightweight title. He will have his shot against Anthony Pettis at the UFC’s 2014 year-end event in December.
The UFC contender and former longtime Strikeforce champion has been out of action since defeating Diego Sanchez in an instant classic at UFC 166 in October, but the motivation for the Skrap Pack representative’s hiatus has been just.
His next bout will be for the lightweight strap, and that is all the reason El Nino needed for the decision.
While the Santa Ana, California, native will be out of the Octagon for more than a year by the time he faces Pettis, a title shot was simply not something he was going to pass up. Whether that opportunity came in three months or 14, Melendez was willing to do whatever it took to get another crack at championship gold.
There may be a lot of miles to cover before his tilt with Pettis materializes, but Melendez has adjusted to the circumstances at hand and believes he’ll be ready when it is time to handle business.
As Melendez told Bleacher Report at The Ultimate Fighter 20‘s media day July 3 in Las Vegas:
I’m getting the itch already. I would have loved to fight sooner, but it is what it is. This fight is for the strap and it all makes sense. It just gives me time to get better. I feel I’m a mentally strong person and I’ll roll with the punches just fine. But I’m looking forward to it and I think I have what it takes to win that belt.
The fight is still a long way out but there are peak-out moments for me. I try to hit certain moments where I get some great training and have some good sparring sessions, but then I take a week and try to enjoy life a little bit. I try to have some fun and relax over that time and then I’ll jump into another six-week camp. I have little peak-outs and little waves because I don’t want to just keep going up then flatline out. I am making sure I maintain, and I have a strategy behind it.
As it turns out, landing his showdown with Showtime came as a package deal, as the two top-ranked lightweights were also tapped to coach the 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter.
While the reality-based fighting series has experienced a lull in popularity in recent years, the 20th installment has legitimate buzz surrounding it.
It will not only introduce the major players in the UFC’s newly added women’s strawweight division, but it will also mark the first time TUF has determined a divisional champion. A cast of seasoned veterans will step in to chase the 115-pound crown, and one will claim her place in UFC history at tournament’s end.
The opportunity to be at the helm of one of the teams was certainly appealing to Melendez, and it is a position the San Francisco-based fighter isn’t taking lightly.
With the action officially underway, Melendez believes the strawweight fighters are going to deliver:
These women are all talented and they follow direction very well. I’ve seen The Ultimate Fighter before, and I didn’t feel some of the men really came to the show prepared for what was ahead of them. These ladies are very prepared. I’ve only had one full day to really work with them all, but it has been a good experience so far.
The fact these fighters are competing for a championship is a crucial factor. People ask me what it is like coaching these women, but these aren’t just women, they are top fighters. I feel bad for some of the guys from previous seasons who had fighters who weren’t even really that into it, because these women are serious. They are here to win it all, and that is going to make for a great season.
Someone in that house is going to be a UFC champion before I am.
With the inaugural strawweight tournament underway, the expectation for an action-packed season will increase steadily in the buildup to the premiere.
In addition to the hype around TUF 20, there is an added element of pressure, as the once megapopular series has been on a downturn in recent years. While there have been a handful of memorable fights over the past few seasons, the overall appeal of the show has waned.
These circumstances have put TUF 20 in a position to resurrect the franchise.
While the program’s pulse is still faint, a talented cast filled with experienced competitors has the potential to pump new blood into what was once one of the brightest spots in the UFC stable.
The past few seasons have relied on drunken blowups and shenanigans in the fighters’house, but Melendez believes great fights will be enough to make sure TUF 20 lives up to expectations:
All you need are great fights and I think we’ll have a lot of them this season. If you have a crappy build up and a great fight: awesome. A great buildup and a crappy fight: horrible. But a great buildup and a great fight is exciting. These girls are ready. I’ve seen them fight, and they have already had some amazing fights, so it should be good.
I believe this could be a big year for the show. The pressure is going to be on it, but I’m not really worried about it. The talent is going to speak for itself. You get nervous when you are hoping and gambling, but that isn’t the case here.
I know there are going to be great matchups. These ladies are here to win, and it’s more about them than us. I’ve watched the show in the past, and I’m here to give them as much advice as possible, but they are prepared. I’m not here to change the way they fight or outshine them in anyway. I’m here to help my team succeed and win. I think it will be a great season, and it can’t get worse.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand via TUF 20 media day unless noted otherwise.
There are a lot of ways to describe the way