Although the organization had no immediate plans for a 145-pound featherweight division, the UFC will soon add additional female fighters to its burgeoning 135-pound bantamweight division.
In fact, UFC President Dana White said that in addition to the six fighters already under contract – including champion Ronda Rousey and challenger Liz Carmouche, who headline tonight's UFC 157 pay-per-view event in California – another nine are on the way.
Rousey was the first signing, and UFC officials introduced her as a new champ in December. Carmouche then followed, and in recent weeks, the UFC has confirmed the signings of former Strikeforce bantamweight champ Miesha Tate and fellow 135-pounders Cat Zingano, Alexis Davis and Sara McMann.
"We'll see what happens, but I don't know if we'd be adding 145 in a couple months because over the next year what we're going to be doing is building this 135-pound division," White said on Friday. "I'm going to have 15 new fighters in here that we need to introduce to the world."
White, who once infamously said women would never fight in the UFC, ultimately changed his mind largely due to the 135-pound division, including its most notable member: Rousey, an Olympic medalist who later won a Strikeforce belt.
"These girls are really talented fighters, and they belong here," White said. "As we started doing our homework, started looking at the divisions and started breaking down the women's division, the 135-pound division had talent in it. So I said, 'Let do it. Let's give it a shot.'"
White said this week's UFC 157 event, which is close to sellout status, has brought the unparalleled media attention. He said it's even surpassed the attention that WWE star and former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion Brock Lesnar brought during his heavyweight title reign from 2008-2010.
Rousey and Co., though, have a long way to go before they can challenge Lesnar's PPV record drawing power. Additionally, notable main-card fighters such as Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida, Urijah Faber and Josh Koscheck will help boost UFC 157's PPV numbers this weekend.
But if nothing else, White said, it's getting new folks talking and potentially turning them into new MMA fans.
"The one thing that we're noticing is how many women are talking about this fight," he said. "It's crazy how many women are talking about this fight. We're hearing in Las Vegas that all the women are saying all their friends are watching it. This thing is bigger than I thought."
Source: MMAJunkie.com