Tiffany Masters Record: 2-2-0

The Mallory Martin rivalry and tougher tests

A strawweight bout with Mallory Martin was first booked for July 2017 but fell through before it could happen. In the meantime, Masters stepped up in competition and ran into the harder edge of the sport. In August 2017 she faced Jamie Colleen Miller on Dana White's Contender Series and was caught in a third-round armbar, the first loss of her career. The rebooked meeting with Martin finally landed at Invicta FC 27 in January 2018, and Martin got the better of it, stopping Masters with ground-and-pound in the second round. The back-to-back defeats came against live, motivated opposition and marked the toughest stretch of her run. A scheduled 2018 bout against Marisol Ruelas was later cancelled.

Fighting style

Masters is a finisher who has never seen the judges' scorecards as a professional: every one of her bouts ended inside the distance, and her two wins split evenly between a knockout and a submission. The childhood wrestling base shows in her willingness to grapple, and the anaconda choke of Rogers underlined a real submission threat. The flip side is on her ledger too – both of her losses came by finish, an armbar and a ground-and-pound stoppage, pointing to defensive grappling as the area that cost her against stiffer competition. At her best she is an aggressive, all-action strawweight who hunts the finish rather than managing rounds.

Career highlights

• Two finishes to open her career — knocked out Laken Jowers and submitted Miki Rogers with an anaconda choke, both in the first round, to start 2-0 under King of the Cage.
• Invicta FC signing — earned a contract with one of the sport's top all-women promotions and competed at Invicta FC 27.
• Visibility as the Rainbow Renegade — became one of MMA's most visible openly queer fighters, walking to the cage with a rainbow flag and using her platform for the LGBTQ community.