Ashlee Evans-Smith Women’s bantamweight Ashlee Evans-Smith (3-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) had a little more than two weeks to prepare for her octagon debut, a fight with Raquel Pennington (4-4 MMA, 1-1 UFC) at UFC 181, so her reaction to a contract offer was more practical than ecstatic. “I was happy, but I put my game face on, and I was calculating how much weight I had to lose,” she told MMAjunkie Radio. “Looking at my opponent and all that, and people were like, ‘How come you’re not more excited?’” There was no question Evans-Smith was excited. The UFC, after all, is the pinnacle of competition in the sport of MMA, and getting signed by the promotion is not something every fighter gets to experience. Many struggle and suffer for years on the regional circuit, fighting for minimal paydays and exposure, never being afforded the opportunity to leave a day job to train full-time as a professional athlete. Even though most of her pro experience was as a featherweight, necessitating a steep weight cut on short notice, Evans-Smith said she got her “game face” on and started planning the moment she got the call, which puts her on the FOX Sports 1-televised preliminary-card of Saturday’s card at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center
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For Ashlee Evans-Smith, UFC signing came with delayed reaction – MMA Junkie