Raquel Pennington and Jessamyn Duke among ‘TUF 18′ season bonus winners
Despite a coed cast, the women pulled off a clean sweep of the season bonuses for “The Ultimate Fighter 18.”
UFC officials announced the winners during tonight’s broadcast of the show’s live finale, which aired on FOX Sports 1 from Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
The winners, as determined by a fan vote, included Raquel Pennington, Jessamyn Duke, Jessica Rakoczy and Sarah Moras.
“TUF 18,” which was the first season of the long-running reality series to include female cast members, featured men’s and women’s bantamweight tournaments. However, of the 16 official cast members, six women received fights at the live finale, but just the two male finalists were booked for the card.
One of the two females who didn’t get a fight was Moras, but that’s only because she was injured and unavailable for tonight’s event. However, she earned a $25,000 “Submission of the Season” bonus for her quarterfinal-round win over Peggy Morgan, which came via first-round submission. She’s expected to make her official UFC debut in 2014.
“TUF 18″ finalist and former pro boxer Rakoczy picked up the “KO of the Season” for her second-round TKO of Roxanne Modafferi in the quarterfinals. She learned of the bonus just prior to her “TUF 18″ tourney final against Julianna Pena.
Pennington and Duke, meanwhile, received the “Fight of the Season” for their three-round quarterfinal-round fight, which Pennington won via unanimous decision. Many of the fighters’ castmates immediately dubbed the fight a likely bonus winner.
