For the first time in a long while, the UFC has given us a reason to look forward to a new season of The Ultimate Fighter. Recent seasons have been anything but great, with the exception of TUF 17 (the Uriah Hall/Kelvin Gastelum season), which took everyone by surprise, and the women's bantamweight half of TUF 18. Everything else from, say, TUF 15 to TUF 19 was abysmal, especially TUF Live (season 15), TUF 16 (the Colton Smith season), and TUF 19 (the forgettable recent season that even Dana White panned, though it did wind up producing a couple of good fights at the finale). Well, now we can look forward to TUF again, because The Ultimate Fighter 20 will feature a brand new division, and serve as a tournament to declare the first ever UFC women's strawweight champion - something that should breathe new life into the reality series, which was quickly going stale. To bring about this feat - starting up a new division is never really simple - the UFC has acquired a large portion of Invicta FC's strawweight division. The UFC's close working relationship with Invicta has been well-documented (Invicta events will now be shown on UFC Fight Pass), and this is a major coup for the world's top MMA promotion, while at the same time bringing more eyeballs to Invicta, because even though it's the UFC's show, Invicta will continually be linked as the feeder promotion sending top fighters into the UFC's ranks. This is good news for women's MMA all around, but most importantly, it's great news for fans - for the first time in a long while, you'll be seeing top-tier talent on TUF, and not just fighters who weren't quite good enough to make the UFC on their own. With that in mind, lets take a look at where the sixteen women competing in the Ultimate Fighter 20 under coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez stand.
16. Angela Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1yO6MkDofg Record: (1-0) Age: 29 From: Brooklyn, N.Y. With just one fight on her professional record, don't expect Angela Hill to dominate in the TUF strawweight tournament. However, Hill does have a decent striking resume, as she's 2-0 in Muay Thai competition as a pro and 14-0 as an amateur. "Overkill" also doesn't mind promoting herself a little, and tweeted Dana White back in December about TUF, saying "@danawhite@ufc you haven't filled your #TUF20 black girl quota yet. Let me be your token!" And that was before her first pro MMA fight. She picked up her lone win this past April, over Stephanie Skinner via TKO. We look forward to seeing her on TUF, but she definitely needs more fights under her belt.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
