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"A CHAMPION WILL BE CROWNED" AND OTHER FICTION STORIES

I'll admit that I was one of the people who thought Felice Herrig would smoke Paige VanZant. I mean, Felice seemed physically stronger, had more MMA experience, and taking into account her dozens of kickboxing and Muay Thai fights, she had way more experience overall.

In her UFC debut, Felice submitted Lisa Ellis, who was also a veteran of the game and had faced some of the greatest strawweights of all time (namely, Aguilar and Fujii). Felice had also faced her own share of great fighters in Carla Esparza, Tecia Torres and Barb Honchack. All of those were losses, but it goes to show that she had a lot of experience at the highest level. Or... was that actually the highest level?

In the weeks leading up to the season debut of TUF 20, we were told that "the best strawweights in the world" would fight in a tournament, and that "a champion would be crowned at the end". Carla Esparza, the clear favorite, did what was expected of her and won the tournament, submitting Rose Namajunas (2-1 at the time) to become the first UFC strawweight champion.

But then, just one day after the TUF 20 Finale, we witnessed a very intense and very techincal war between two foreign strawweights who had not competed in the TUF tournament: Claudia Gadelha and Joanna Jedrzejczyk. And then we realised that, of course, the TUF 20 house weren't necessarily the best strawweights in the world. Not at all. And what has happened since is a testament to that. Let's see how some TUF 20 veterans have done so far against non-TUF competition.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk def. Carla Esparza via demolition.

Maryna Moroz def. Joanne Calderwood via 1st round armbar.

Paige VanZant def. Felice Herrig via OMG 30-26.

Also, remember that many of the best strawweights in the world aren't even in the UFC! Jessica Aguilar, Alexa Grasso, Katja Kankaanpa, Mizuki Inoue... and god knows how many great female fighters are still hiding in eastern Europe like Moroz and Jedrzejczyk. If all these women got into the UFC... whatever would happen to the TUF generation?