Tonya Evinger finally got the UFC call, and all she had to do was the thing no one else wanted to

After a quick workout for the fans on Thursday, Tonya Evinger strolled over to talk to reporters and quickly found herself confronted with questions about whether she ever felt overlooked by the UFC during her two-year reign as Invicta FC bantamweight champion?

“Is that a joke?” Evinger shot back. “My whole career – everybody I beat gets signed to the UFC.”

Hopefully she did not intend that as a statement of fact. Obviously, not everybody she’s beaten has gone on to a UFC contract. A few have, and usually not immediately after losing to Evinger (19-5 MMA, 0-0 UFC), but still, this must be how it feels from Evinger’s perspective.

She became a champion in Invicta FC. She built up a fan following. Then she watched as other, less accomplished fighters got UFC deals and left her behind.

And yet now here she is, one day away from a UFC 214 bout that will give her a shot at the UFC women’s featherweight title in her promotional debut. And all she had to do to finally break in was agree to fight Cristiane Justino (17-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC), the woman who has terrorized the weight class above hers for most of the last decade.

In other words, in order to get the job she’s rightfully earned, she had to be willing to do the job that so few others wanted, and even then she only got offered the gig as the replacement for someone else.

And you can see why others might not want it, right? “Cyborg” is scary enough to other featherweights. The first and so far only champion of the division, Germaine de Randamie, relinquished the belt specifically to avoid fighting her. If you care at all about your face, to say nothing of your professional record, there’s always a reason to say no to this fight.

According to Evinger, she agreed “as soon as they told me how much they were paying me.” And now the UFC has somehow backed into a strangely compelling matchup that might fairly be called a “superfight.” Both were champions in different divisions for Invicta FC. Both held onto their titles until the UFC came calling. Now one has agreed to cross divisional lines in order to get the opportunity that she couldn’t seem to get any other way.

If you believe the oddsmakers, she’ll likely pay in blood for that opportunity. Justino is by far the biggest favorite on the card, going off at roughly 13-1 at the time of this writing. That, too, is understandable. She’s a powerhouse striker going up against a grappler who’s accustomed to bullying and grinding her way to victory. Putting Justino on her back is tough for anyone. Keeping her there when she’s got the size advantage could be borderline impossible.

That Evinger is willing to try, when she could just as easily stay home and keep holding it down as an Invicta FC champ, shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows her. Stubbornness is one of her defining features, according to friends and family. Somewhere inside her still lives the little girl who used to beat up her brothers and then go riding around on her bike, looking for a tackle football game to join.

When you look at it that way, a longshot crack at a UFC title against a colossus from another division might be the perfect point of entry for someone like Evinger. Her entire career has been an exercise in doing things her own way, from her climb up the ranks to her self-promotion via social media.

Now that her moment has finally arrived, why shouldn’t it be a terrifying challenge that everyone else thinks is a very bad idea? Any other path to the UFC would be too conventional for Evinger. And she’s never been known for making things easy on herself.

For more on UFC 214, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.