Saturday’s TUF 18 Finale to feature all female cast members except Baszler and Moras
Only two of the eight female cast members from “The Ultimate Fighter 18″ won’t compete at Saturday’s live finale.
UFC officials today confirmed that six of the UFC’s first-ever female “TUF†cast members, including finalist Julianna Pena (4-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC), will be part of The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale this weekend. The event takes place Saturday at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, and aside from one online prelim that streams on MMAjunkie, the entire card airs on FOX Sports 1.
The plan was for the UFC to feature all eight of the female bantamweight cast members, though semifinalist Sarah Moras (3-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and quarterfinalist Shayna Baszler (15-8) were ruled out due to injuries. They’re expected to make their official UFC debuts in 2014.
Pena will fight in the show’s tournament final on Saturday. She’ll meet either Raquel Pennington (3-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) or Jessica Rakoczy (1-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC), whose semifinal-round bout airs on Wednesday’s final regular-season episode.
The loser of that bout is likely to meet Roxanne Modafferi (15-10 MMA, 0-0 UFC) since Jessamyn Duke (2-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) vs. Peggy Morgan (2-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was announced earlier today.
“TUF 18″ featured the first coed cast in the show’s history. However, with two fighters (Anthony Guttierez and Cody Bollinger) failing to make weight during the show, bantamweight finalists Chris Holdsworth (4-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and Davey Grant (8-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) are likely to be the only male cast members to compete on Saturday’s card.
Officials said the full card for the TUF 18 Finale will be unveiled after Wednesday’s episode.
The latest TUF 18 Finale card includes:
Nate Diaz vs. Gray Maynard
Julianna Pena vs. TBA – “TUF 18″ women’s tournament final
Davey Grant vs. Chris Holdsworth – “TUF 18″ men’s tournament final
Jessamyn Duke vs. Peggy Morgan
Roxanne Modafferi vs. TBA
Maximo Blanco vs. Akira Corassani
Tom Niinimaki vs. Rani Yahya
Walter Harris vs. Jared Rosholt
Drew Dober vs. Sean Spencer
Ryan Benoit vs. Joshua Sampo
