On Wednesday, the UFC sent out a press release stating their next season of The Ultimate Fighter would feature women fighting at 125 pounds.
However, UFC President Dana White has since come out and said the press release was sent out by mistake and the UFC has yet to decide if they are going to bring in a fourth women’s division.
Female UFC fighters from both the strawweight and bantamweight division have shared their interest in wanting the UFC to hold fights in the flyweight division.
UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk has made it clear she would like to go up a weight class and fight flyweight. Other strawweight fighters, such as Joanne Calderwood, have said the same.
If the UFC does decide to do as the press release stated, the UFC will crown their first women’s flyweight champion during the next season of TUF. The winner of the tournament will become the first champion. The same way Carla Esparza became the first-ever UFC women’s strawweight champion.
However, it is unknown whether or not the UFC would allow fighters on their current roster to compete on TUF. The list of female flyweight fighters outside of the UFC is slim, and the top talent in that division would likely come from current UFC fighters changing weight classes.
We should know more in the coming days, I’m told. UFC president Dana White also confirmed this to @KevinI this evening.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 4, 2017
