TUF S20:E4 Results: #1 seed Carla Esparza makes it look easy

#1 seed Carla Esparza came into the TUF 20 house with a bigger bullseye on her back than any of the 16 fighters involved in the grueling 6 week competition. After all, she was the Invicta FC champion for her weight class, and she even got champions pay, $40K, to vacate her Invcita strap and sit on the sidelines before the show started filming while the other Invicta FC signees got $32K a piece.

While she may have been a little nervous going into her first round fight with #16 seed Angela Hill, a Muay Thai specialist out of NYC, she performed exactly how we expected her to – like a true champion.

After her first takedown attempt was thwarted by Hill, Esparza didn’t hesitate to go to her bread and butter once again when her opponent looked to engage in the stand up. Once Esparza got Hill to the ground, you just got the feeling that it was matter of time. ‘The Cookie Monster’ was able to secure the RNC choke. Urijah Faber backpack style, at the 3:41 marker of the very first round. This moved Team Pettis to 4-0 in the competition thus far and led to plenty of cookies being devoured by the teams first pick.

Credit to Hill for lasting as long as she did on the ground with Esparza. She’s only competed in one professional MMA contest before heading into the house and she entered the match with a phenomenal attitude. Her personality combined with her dangerous stand up game makes her a sure bet to compete on the TUF 20 finale this December. For Esparza, it’s only going to get tougher as the tournament goes on. It may have been a lopsided match up, but she did exactly what she was supposed to do and it certainly doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy her handiwork below.