Despite earning a hard-fought victory on last night’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, talented prospect Julieta ‘The Ninja Ferret’ Martinez was sadly not offered a spot on the UFC roster.
Whilst Dana White refused to deliver her a UFC contract, he was so impressed with the young Argentinian that he later teased that the promotion is open to creating a whole new weight class and division.
Dana White open to ‘new division’ after talented 20-year-old fails to earn UFC contract
On last night’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, four of the five winners received UFC contracts: with 20-year-old Julieta Martinez being the only victor not to be added to the roster following her split decision win over Leslie Hernandez.
“Julieta, let me just say this; I cannot express to you, how much we like you and there is no doubt that you are incredibly talented, but you’re just too young right now,” White explained as a disappointed Martinez watched on from the sidelines.
“You are a baby, you just turned 20 years old and you’re undersized for the division. You came in here tonight and showed that you are incredibly talented, you have a future in this sport, [and] I love that Dominick Cruz is in your corner.”
Under Cruz’s tutelage, Martinez is now 8-0 as a professional with four wins coming by KO/TKO, two via submission and two via the judges’ scorecards… Yet at a slight 5’ 1”, she’s massively undersized for even the lowest weight class that the UFC retains.
“We’re going to keep you at the PI down in Mexico and let you keep fighting some fights down there; we love you; we want you in the UFC, we just think that we would be doing you an incredible disservice if we were to sign you right now.”
White would claim that despite putting her UFC career on hold, the promotion will keep a close eye on her next fights so that they can “determine when we think that you’re ready for the UFC.”
In fact, White was so impressed that at the post-fight press conference, he’d tease that the UFC is open to creating a new Atomweight division (105lbs) – especially now that the promotion is bringing in more talent from South America and East Asia, regions that predominantly feature smaller female athletes.
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“She’s small for the weight class, she’s really small and really green so that’s why I didn’t bring her in tonight… We can keep her down at the PI, she’s talented but I don’t want to see her come to the UFC and get hurt; she’s too young, you’re not even in your prime until you’re 28 and she’s only just turned 20.
“That’s the other thing, as you start to talk about South America and you start to talk about Asia, whether it is China or Japan or Korea, as we keep cultivating talent in these places, we might end up creating another division.”
When asked to clarify whether that new division would be Atomweight, White simply stated: “Yeah, that’s what I just said.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that Dana White has hinted that the promotion is open to creating a new weight class for those athletes considered too small to compete at 115lbs.
Back at UFC 255 in 2020, the UFC CEO would admit that Atomweight has been a topic of conversation for some time, telling reporters: “I have thought about it, this isn’t the year to do it; definitely not the year to do it, [but] I’ve definitely kicked it around.”