Friday night inside Pearl Theatre at Palms Casino Resort, two heavyweights and two featherweights will square off looking to add their names to the list of competitors who hold the distinction of being called Ultimate Fighter winners.
While the week’s first fight card also features a handful of promising new arrivals from the Contender Series, including Antonina Shevchenko, Roosevelt Roberts and unbeaten 21-year-old middleweight Edmen Shahbazyan, I thought it made much more sense to use this installment of On the Rise to turn the spotlight on the two heavyweights vying to become the 35th member of the TUF fraternity and the featherweight combatants seeking to join Julianna Pena, Carla Esparza, Tatiana Suarez and Nicco Montano as a member of the long-running reality television competition’s collection of female winners.