TUF 20 - Pettis, Melendez, Aisling Daly **SPOILERS** **See Mod Note OP**

Joanne Calderwood is one of the favourites to win the latest series of The Ultimate Fighter The Ultimate Fighter enters its twentieth season with a new weight class and a world championship on the line.
Under the guidance of star coaches Anthony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez, sixteen of the top 115lbs female fighters on the planet will live together, train together and compete for the right to be crowned the first ever UFC Women's Strawweight Champion.
Every week, Scotland's Joanne Calderwood gives her behind-the-scenes take on The Ultimate Fighter experience.
"I don't really remember the 'slumber party' that Team Melendez had. I was probably in bed at the time. It's pretty bad that they weren't thinking about Tecia Torres still being in the room and still being in the competition, but that's the kind of girls they are. They're selfish and they weren't really thinking about the girls who were taking it seriously.
Some of the girls had started getting their party heads on and drinking, but they're supposed to be professional athletes. I thought they should be training and still taking it seriously.
Even if you're out after your first fight, you've still got four or five weeks where you can be learning and training with other people, rather than getting drunk and not turning up to training.




Randa Markos and I were close. We shared a room and we ended up training together most of the time because we were both serious about the competition.
We just clicked because we were both there for the same reason. Both Randa and I are serious about wanting to go to the top and we don't really think about anything else, which can't be said about some other people.
I just didn't see the point in splitting the Team Pettis training sessions at all. You could see Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne training together, they trained with each other from the start, but they were in the same side of the draw too! If they won their next fights, then they'd be fighting each other, so it didn't make sense.




It was mostly Randa who was on the mat with me. We were on the same side of the board as well but we weren't thinking about that. We just got on with it.
It was silly and I totally agreed with Randa. She thought, 'Hang on a minute, I'm not giving up one of my training sessions.' It's bad enough that we only got an hour at training so to then give up even more time was crazy.
In the TUF house, you were lucky if you were getting two good hours out of your day. To cut that back even more when you're supposed to be working towards the most serious fight in your career, was silly. It shouldn't have been an issue.




Carla and Felice Herrig were really immature. I hate watching these episodes because it brings it all back and what we had to deal with.
I hope they're both embarrassed watching it now. They're supposed to be role models for anyone who is out there and is looking to get into MMA. Anyone watching that would think, 'Why would I want to go and be around these people?' These are supposed to be people at the top of their game. They should act like it.




That's what it was like, twice a day, every day. Randa and I were trying not to get involved with it all but it's hard when Carla and Felice were acting like that. You don't want any conflict but they were creating it.
I thought Randa hit Felice at the weigh-ins. From my angle, it looked like she slapped her! We had talked about it and I said, 'You know she's going to try and get a reaction out of you' which she did.
I'd said, 'Don't rise to it or lower yourself to her level.' I don't know what I would do if someone blew a bubble in my face but obviously Randa felt the need to burst it.





I thought that was really disrespectful but that's what Felice is like, she is a disrespectful person. I would never get in anyone's face like that. It's called a staredown; you're only supposed to stare!
The fight between Randa and Felice didn't last very long. It was pretty sweet; that's a really rare submission that Randa got and I think only one other person has ever pulled it off in the UFC.
It just shows that you have to stay focused out there and you can't get caught up in your emotions. Felice was quite vocal that she just wanted to go in there and punch Randa in the face but Randa was just focused on going in there and executing her gameplan.




I didn't even know that argument between Randa and Carla after the fight had happened, to be honest. I was laughing watching it.
It reminded me of the thing in Invicta where Tecia beat Felice up and Carla stormed into the cage and demanded she fight Tecia next because she 'beat up her best friend'. She's so childish."

razorblunt wrote: »

for once though a bully gets put back in her place, watching herself shout tap in panic will be tough to watch for her.

califano wrote: »

Never seen Conor looking so awkward!. He didnt know wtf!.Basically the b!tches didnt really like Ais and as a consequence werent giving Conor the love. Conor didnt know what to make of the atmosphere and just handled it the best he could.