Unbeaten at 21, Regina Tarin turned down WWE to chase UFC destiny on three days' notice

Regina Tarin walked away from a potential WWE career after the UFC called her on three days’ notice, a moment the unbeaten 21-year-old now describes as the turning point that confirmed mixed martial arts was her sport. She makes her second Octagon appearance against J.J. Aldrich (15-7) at Noche UFC 4 on September 12 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

Tarin’s route to the UFC was anything but straightforward. The Mexican fighter had previously tried professional boxing and was exploring pro wrestling before a scheduled bout on Dana White’s Contender Series was cancelled. The WWE moved quickly, inviting her to tryouts in January, and Tarin came close to committing to that path.

“I had a Contender Series fight that got canceled and WWE called me,” Tarin told Full Send MMA. “I thought, ‘OK, maybe [MMA] is not my sport; I can try WWE.’ But spoke to God and said, ‘Please tell me if I chose the correct sport.’ Then UFC called me on three days’ notice. That’s the exact moment when I thought MMA is for me.”

She made the most of that short-notice opportunity, defeating Ernesta Kareckaite via unanimous decision in her UFC debut this past February. The win extended a professional record that now stands at 8-0, with six of those victories coming by finish.

Tarin enters the Aldrich bout as a -250 favourite. Her opponent arrives on a two-fight winning streak, giving the matchup a competitive edge despite the gulf in experience. For Tarin, the fight represents another step in a career that, by her own telling, almost never happened inside the Octagon at all.