Tina Black targets UFC gold after TUF 34 final against Melissa Amaya at Vegas 121

Tina Black will look to add her name to a short list of UFC champions when she meets Melissa Amaya in the TUF 34 strawweight final at UFC Vegas 121 on Saturday. The Brazilian contender, whose real name is Valesca Machado, reached the finale with wins over Natalia Alves and Delphine Benouaich after being Daniel Cormier’s first pick of the season.

Black carries a professional record of 15-4 and one no-contest into the bout — her two TUF victories are classified as exhibitions and sit outside that tally. She has previously held titles in both Invicta FC and A1 Combat, and sees the TUF trophy as a stepping stone rather than a destination.

“I always told my coaches that I wanted to come here to stay and make history,” Black told MMA Fighting. “I don’t want to be just another one. I want to be recognised like so many other people are. There are great names, Amanda Nunes, a great star, Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira. I want to get there like they did, making history.”

Nine fighters have gone on to win UFC gold after appearing on The Ultimate Fighter, and the 30-year-old is confident she will join them. “He gave me Invicta, He gave me A1, and now He has given me TUF so I can win the title in the finale, and soon the UFC belt,” she said. “We’re going step by step.”

Black dismissed concerns about the compressed schedule of fighting twice in a short window, pointing to a tougher test earlier in her career. “When I won a belt in Invicta, it was two fights on the same night,” she said. “I had to study my opponents without knowing who I was going to face. The hardest part was in Invicta. In TUF, it felt like I had already done half of the work.”

Off camera, Black was involved in friction with fellow contestants during the season, generating storylines that she says unsettled her father more than herself. “I’m not a controversial person, but if people want to have beef with me, I’ll do it too,” she said with a laugh. “Nothing I did there was because I was playing a character. Where I come from, my mom used to say that if I got beaten up in the street, I would get beaten up at home too. I’m not going to take disrespect and just let it go.”

Black went 7-1 in the period between a failed Contender Series appearance in 2021 and her arrival on TUF earlier this year, a run that underlines why Cormier made her his top selection.