Making the most of a second opportunity, Tecia “The Tiny Tornado” Torres picked up a hard-fought win during tonight’s eighth episode of The Ultimate Fighter 20: “A Champion Will Be Crowned.” Torres defeated former ally “Rowdy” Bec Rawlings by Unanimous Decision in a competitive matchup.
Torres and Rawlings began the competition together on Team Melendez, but Torres, who was upset in her initial qualifying bout, was brought back into contention and moved to Team Pettis when Justine Kish suffered an injury. With the win over Rawlings, she moves on to the quarterfinal round.
Torres (4-0-0 pro, ranked #3) looked to establish her jab early in the fight, but Rawlings (5-3-0 pro, ranked #8) closed the distance and landed a quick combination. The fighters exchanged more punches on the feet as the round progressed and Torres mixed in kicks to the lead leg and body. Rawlings had her best success when pressing forward and she was able to put Torres on the defensive with punching flurries. Torres escaped from a clinch by landing a series of punches over the top and she followed with knees to the body before the bell.
Rawlings took Torres down into side control in round two, but Torres scrambled back to full guard and kicked her off. The fight returned to the feet and Rawlings remained the aggressor. She pressed the action with punches and Torres countered with lead right hooks. Rawlings briefly held back control on the feet and the fighters battled for position against the cage. Torres fought through elbow strikes from Rawlings and took her down. She finished the round by landing punches to Rawlings’s head and body.
After two closely-contested rounds, the judges were united and all three scored the fight for Torres. Her Unanimous Decision win brought her back into contention to win the competition. Following tonight’s bout, the quarterfinal matchups were officially announced.
Felice “Lil’ Bulldog” Herrig (ranked #6) faces Randa Markos (ranked #14) in the first quarterfinal fight next week. Jessica Penne (ranked #4) battles Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly (ranked #5), Carla “Cookie Monster” Esparza (ranked #1) takes on tonight’s winner, Tecia “The Tiny Tornado” Torres (ranked #3), and Joanne “JoJo” Calderwood (ranked #2) squares off against Team Melendez’s lone remaining competitor, “Thug” Rose Namajunas (ranked #7).
The Ultimate Fighter 20: “A Champion Will Be Crowned” airs every Wednesday night on FOX Sports 1 and Sportsnet 360. The winner of the gruelling competition will become the inaugural UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion.
Very entertaining episode and very exciting fight. Torres deserved the win, but I have no doubt we will see Rowdy Bec back in the Octagon soon enough. With Torres back, the quarterfinal match ups are quite unbalanced. In fact, #1 Esparza vs. #3 Torres, which would have been Esparza’s very next defense of her Invicta 115lb title is now relegated to a Quarterfinal match! Then you have Randa Markos at #14 who may very well make it to the semi’s as Felice Herrig, in my opinion, is probably the easiest matchup for her. Regardless, I do believe this format will still result in the best woman winning the title. Great great stuff!
Carla, Randa, Ais, and Rose…I hope…in the semis
Rose and Carla…December 12 at the finale..
Rose has to be the one Dana claimed to be the next RR. This means she has beaten JoJo.
Hey mike – hope all’s well with you. I like Rose, and if she does beat Calderwood, she is almost certainly the “next RR” that DW spoke of. Clearly it wasn’t “Rowdy” Beck Hyatt, who, by the way, along with Magana, are two very nasty individuals. Normally I take everything shown on a reality show with a grain of salt, but in this case it looks like Bec and Managa really are as bad as they’re being depicted. Joanne Calderwood has recently said they’re both very bad people inside and out. Makes me very glad now they both lost their first round fights.
I like Bec. I think Magana is posturing most of the time for publicities sake…and Bec and Rose just follow along. Magana just really drove that “mean girls” routine into the dirt. Press is press…good or bad and I know Magana knows that…all you have to do is read her twitter timeline as of late. Everybody wants to be Chael but there can be only one Chael.
And…nobody knew who the f#@k Magana was prior to the show but everybody knows who she is now…win or lose!
Andy…I would love to see Aisling win the whole thing…as much as I am a fan of Rose, I love the crew from Straight Blast Gym!!!