9 Lessons Learned From The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Premiere

3. The Ranking System Is A Welcome Change

A big change took place in TUF 20, and it was a surprise to even the coaches: The fighters have been ranked for the tournament, and the matches are pre-determined in the preliminary round. The top seed fighters the sixteenth seed, the second seed fights the fifteenth seed, and so on. A typical tournament bracket. It's an interesting change, and one that took the coaches by surprise. Even once they were informed, they were not told what the rankings would be. They had to pick based on their own evaluation of the fighters, which led Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez to conduct interviews and brief training sessions with all the fighters. Pettis had first pick, and took Carla Esparza, former Invicta strawweight champion, who turned out to be the number one ranked fighter, but some of the other picks went out of order. Some of the seedings were curious as well - Bec Rawlings was ranked eighth, which seems low for a fighter who was recently a title challenger - but overall the system was a welcome change. Fighters can prepare for their bouts. They can gameplan. They know who they are fighting - but not when. The coaches still dictate which fight comes next. The official rankings are: 1. Carla Esparza 2. Joanne Calderwood 3. Tecia Torres 4. Jessica Penne 5. Aisling Daly 6. Felice Herrig 7. Rose Namajunas 8. Bec Rawlings 9. Justine Kish 10. Alex Chambers 11. Heather Jo Clark 12. Angela Magana 13. Lisa Ellis 14. Randa Markos 15. Emily Kagan 16. Angela Hill