UFC adds women's strawweight (115lb) division; signs 11 female fighters to compete on TUF, with the winner to be crowned division champ

Quote :

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been assigned the contracts of 11 female strawweight fighters for the organization, UFC President Dana White said on Wednesday.
The 115-pound women will be part of 20th season ofThe Ultimate Fighter in May 2014, White said. The season winner will be crowned the first UFC women’s strawweight champion.
“The women’s 135-pound division in the UFC has been amazing and we know there are a ton of talented women’s mixed martial artists out there,” White said in a statement. “Now, you’ll see even more great women’s bouts in the UFC with the addition of the 115-pound division. We’re excited to crown the first-ever UFC women’s strawweight champion in 2014 after a historic season of The Ultimate Fighter.”
The fighters signed thus far all came from women’s MMA organization Invicta FC, and include Invicta champion Carla Esparza, Claudia Gadelha, Felice Herrig, Joanne Calderwood, Tecia Torres, Rose Namajunas, Bec Hyatt, Emily Kagan, Alex Chambers, Julianna Lima, and Paige Van Zant.
The newly assigned fighters will be part of the first all-women’s season of The Ultimate Fighter. White said the remaining spots on the show will be filled with an open tryout. Coaches for the show’s 20th season have not yet been determined, but will likely be men, according to White.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/ufc-picks-up-11-female-fighters-to-create-115-pound-womens-division

IMO this is a good way to go about doing this. It's basicly (or actually, if you get right down to it) a tournament for the vacant belt. Dana isn't dipping his toe in the water like he did with the women's bantamweight division. He's pretty much importing an entire existing division, instead of bringing in 3 or 4 fighters and letting the rest trickle in over time.
I like it.

yawn... whatever.

LOL!
That's more or less the sentiment I figured you would express.

It is what it is.
I really wish WMMA was my biggest gripe over what MMA has turned into. It's not even close.

Well, I know it's been said before- by everyone from hardcore MMA fans to bandwagon jumpers to people who believe every single thing that comes out of Dana's mouth- but more often than not, the women's fights steal the show. If we have to bump a men's BW fight off the card where neither guy is willing to do anything other than powerless vanilla-style boxing and trying to win a UD in the safest way possible in order to make room for an exciting women's fight where both fighters are leaving it all out there, I have zero problem with that whatsoever.
Personally, I feel the lighter weight male fighters are a bigger issue than the addition of women's divisions. If I had a choice between only keeping either women's divisions 115lbs through 135lbs or men's divisions 115lbs through 135lbs, I would keep the chick fights all day everyday.

I totally agree (relatively speaking).
Unfortunately, I tend to look at things in absolute terms.

I would be happier with a 135 and 115 pound womens division along with only 5 mens divisions.

Unfortunately, we will have two women's divisions and 8 mens divisions. So, pretty much on average we are lucky to get one fight per division per card.

I would prefer to have a WMMA leauge with a few divisions. Then, when I want to watch women's MMA, I can view fights in that league.
Instead, I am forced to keep the dirty bathwater with the baby... or just throw it all out.

Well yeah. I think what I said about scrapping the lighter men's weight classes would partially solve that problem. Then, instead of trying to squeeze a fight from every weight class into one card, there would be a little more breathing room. Nearly two fights from each men's weight class from FW to HW and one female fight sounds a lot better to me than one of each, including 1 fly and 1 bantam that will almost always look like a hyperactive dance-off.
I'm not saying I want to get rid of the men's lighter weight classes, but gun to my head; 115lb-135lb women go, or 115-135lb men go, It's an easy decision for me.

I personally don't love the idea of an all-women league. It would probably be oversaturation. It's nice to see one female fight per card because they almost seem like they're trying to prove something, and I think that's why the fights end up being better. If they were just another chick fight on a card full of chick fights, I don't think the results would be the same.