This past Wednesday night, UFC president Dana White announced that the organization had picked up the contracts of 11 strawweights from Invicta FC.
The eleven 115-pounders will be featured on season #20 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ which is set to start filming in May 2014. “TUF 20” will be the first season to feature an exclusively female cast.
Following the original announcement, more information surfaced when Ariel Helwani took to twitter yesterday evening:
As reported on @foxsportslive, DW told me all the new 115ers got pay raises. 10 of em will get $8k/8k 2x before stepping foot in TUF house.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
The Invicta 115 champ Carla Esparza will get $10k/10k TWICE before TUF 20, too. So 40k before ever fighting in the UFC.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani)
This is great news for the UFC’s new Strawweight acquisitions, who otherwise would have been on the shelf and uncompensated until the conclusion of TUF 20 late next fall.
The 5 remaining tournament spots will be filled by an open-tryout, which is expected to be held early in the new year.
Stay tuned to bjpenn.com for further updates.