The Ultimate Fighter: Team Pettis versus Team Melendez will begin airing in September this year. The upcoming season will mark the 20th set of UFC hopefuls to come through the reality show ranks.
With the tagline of ‘A champion will be crowned’, the season is a landmark for the UFC on two counts. It will be the first all-female cast and the show’s winner will be crowned as the first ever UFC women’s strawweight champion.
The fighters were selected both from the all-female MMA organisation Invicta Fighting Championships and through a series of tryouts. One of the show’s hopefuls will be former Invicta FC talent and Sydney local Alex ‘Astro Girl’ Chambers.
With an impressive 4-1 record (four finishes in the first round) and a degree in astrophysics, Chambers will be looking to make a meteoric rise to UFC championship gold.
As Astro Girl you have a degree in astrophysics. What made you decide to make the move to professional MMA?
I’ve always been involved in martial arts, even while doing my university studies. It has always been a big part of my life. I’m very passionate about it and I knew it was something I wanted to pursue and do for the rest of my life in some capacity whether it was owning my own gym or now, given the chance, to fight for the biggest promotion in the world.
I never thought that would be possible while I was still fighting, that’s for sure. Astrophysics will always be there but I wanted to make the most of this opportunity that I’ve been given to do something that I love and that’s fighting.
You obviously can’t go into too much detail but could you tell us a little bit about your time in the house?
The season is starting soon, thank god. We won’t have to keep too many secrets for too long! It was a great experience, I really enjoyed it. What an opportunity to be a part of history, the first all-female season of The Ultimate Fighter. And also the first season where the belt is on the line so it was great to be part of something like that.
Did the fact that you were cooped up in the same house with your opponents affect you at all?
I guess everyone’s different. It was probably more difficult for some people than others. It was a fairly big house so you could kind of stay away from your opponents if you wanted to.
It was definitely different to what you usually have to deal with in fighting with your normal support group behind you and not being around your opponent. But everyone was in the same boat and I got along with everyone so I really enjoyed it.
I made some really good friends from it and that was something I didn’t expect to do. I was thinking I would make some friends but in that situation where you’re all cooped up together and you see each other 24/7, I made some really good friendships so that’s something I’ll definitely cherish from this experience.
Now that you’ve been exposed to the coaching and the standard of MMA in the U.S., do you think you’ll eventually move there or do you plan on staying in Australia?
I will stay in Australia. I’m really confident with my team here, my coaches and training partners. I think the thing that’s a little bit different would be the different number of training partners you might have at big camps overseas, compared to back home where we’re limited with our training partners. In terms of coaching and the level of MMA I think Australia is high-level and so I’d like to support it by staying in this country.
If we all went overseas for our camps, what would happen to Australian MMA? Of course I’d like to go overseas here and there just to train for a couple of weeks but definitely train for my camps in Australia.
Your natural weight class is atomweight (105lbs). What made you decided to move up to strawweight and how did you find it?
I guess I’m considered more natural at atomweight but most of my fights were not at atomweight – I only had one and that was my last fight for Invicta. I was used to fighting bigger opponents and obviously when you’re in the situation where you’re in the house and you’re potentially fighting three times in the six weeks we were in there it was, in some respects, an advantage.
Putting on weight to go on the show wasn’t something that I was wanting to do, I was happy walking around close to fight weight.
All four of your wins have come in the first round. Is that part of your strategy to try and finish from the opening bell?
It’s definitely something that everyone trains to do; finish the fight as quick as they can. I train to finish as quick as I can, whatever that may be. Fight until you finish. You train to get submissions and to hit hard but come fight time with the adrenaline and everything if you’re able to turn the switch on you can look for those finishes.
Having a good coaching corner definitely helps with that. We are in the cage by ourselves but being able to listen to your corner – they can see things that you can’t. That’s definitely been a big part of my finishes.
Let’s get ready to rumble! Pick a fighter and place your bets with PlayUp for great odds. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Nikita Tszyu defended his Australian super welterweight crown. But a fightback from opponent Danilo Creati threatened to spoil everything in the sixth round.
Nikita Tszyu has overcome a nasty mid-fight moment to score a unanimous points win over Danilo Creati and retain his Australian super welterweight title…
A bloodied Tim Tszyu has been cruelly denied in his quest to emulate his legendary father Kostya and become a unified world boxing champion…
Liam Wilson has suffered further heartbreak in Arizona, the Australian boxer losing his super-featherweight world-title fight against Mexican Oscar Valdez. In front of a…
Tim Tszyu has the chance to emulate his legendary father as a unified world boxing champion after the stakes were dramatically raised for his…
Australia's Alexander Volkanovski has lost his UFC featherweight title to Ilia Topuria, with the Spaniard scoring a stunning second round knockout in the main…
