Michelle Waterson Officially Signs With The UFC

Confirming a previous rumor, former Invicta FC atomweight champion Michelle Waterson is headed to the UFC to compete in the quickly exploding 115-pound division.

“The Karate Hottie” will bring a ton of name recognition and excitement to the Octagon, as she earned “Fight of the Night” honors twice in her only four-fight Invicta FC tenure.

She won her first three bouts, defeating Lacey Shuckman in a war at Invicta FC 3 before finishing fellow former champion (and now top-ranked UFC strawweight) Jessica Penne with a rousing armbar at Invicta FC 5. From there, she successfully defended her title once as the headliner of Invicta FC 8, badly battering Yasuko Tamada en route to a third round TKO stoppage.

She ran into a bump in the road when she faced off with unknown 21-year-old grappler Herica Tiburcio at last December’s Invicta FC 10, succumbing to a third round guillotine choke in another “Fight of the Night”-winning bout.

Waterson will return to the UFC’s strawweight division, which absorbed the entirety of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 20 cast to fight alongside newly crowned champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and top Brazilian contender Claudia Gadelha.

The new and exciting division is open and unknown, as it remains unclear as to who will fight Jedrzejczyk for the belt next. Waterson will have to win a fight or two before she finds herself in that position, but given her impressive mix of striking and grappling in conjunction with her penchant for putting on some of the most exciting back-and-forth brawls women’s MMA has ever seen, it’s an overall great signing for the UFC (and an obvious one).

Who should “The Karate Hottie” lock horns with first?