Dana White: ‘The Ultimate Fighter Will Produce The Next Ronda Rousey’

Sep 9, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; FC Women's Bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey arrives on the Red Carpet at Lure Nightclub for the premier of The Ultimate Fighter women in the newly formed women in the strawweight class. REUTERS

Ronda Rousey, the Ultimate Fighting Champion's biggest draw, set the bar high for all new and incoming female fighters. The standard is set so high that up until now nobody has made a threat to her throne as the queen of the sport.

Dana White is assuring the public that a new queen bee is in succession as his outfit launches Season 20 of the The Ultimate Fighter. With its premiere on the horizon tonight, White is optimistic of his next big prize among the pool of talented hopefuls.

"There's a Ronda Rousey on this season of the Ultimate Fighter. Absolutely," he said as per MMAJunkie.com.

This is the first time that the show will showcase an all-female cast in its nine year of airing and is picking from a pool of 16 participants who will become the first UFC straw weight champion. The talent search is not particularly banking on amateur fighters as it already has 11 partakers coming from the Invicta promotion including its former champion Carla Esparza.

Rousey was present at the red carpet event celebrating the commencement of the 20th season of the show. What is ironic is that the women's bantamweight champion spent last year as one of the mentors of the girls and was critical of the show's editorial licensing. During her controversial stint in the show, Rousey was on the receiving end of social media backlash as she was allegedly portrayed as pouty, foul-mouthed and emotionally unbalanced. She also clashed with rival Meisha Tate and was critical of the perceived favouritism of the show.

She is back in the event just for the girls. Her presence alone is enough to lift the importance of fielding in an all-girl line-up and a potential new division in women's mixed martial arts. If the new division can provide a new star, it will lift some pressure on Rousey to produce numerous fights every year just to field an entry from the women's class.

"Everybody knows how I feel about the show and how it was produced, but I'm here solely to support the strawweights and the new division. And I'll do everything I can to support the women in the sport," Rousey revealed.

The show that will be aired at Fox Sports 1 premiers today, the title of that will be hotly contested by the following professional fighters:

Joanne Calderwood (8-0), 27, Glasgow, Scotland, fourth in MMARising's strawweight rankings

Alex Chambers (4-1), 35, Sydney, Australia

Heather Jo Clark (6-4), 34, Los Angeles, Calif.

Aisling Daly (14-3), 26, Dublin, Ireland

Lisa Ellis (15-8), 31, Olympia, Wash.

Felice Herrig (9-5), 29, Crystal Lake, Ill., 10th in MMARising's strawweight rankings

Angela Hill (1-0), 29, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Emily Peters Kagan (3-1), 32, Bangor, Maine

Justine Kish (4-0), 26, Cramerton, N.C.

Angela Magana (11-6), 30, Farmington, N.M.

Randa Markos (4-1), 28, Windsor, Canada