“One really awesome one was me and Rachael Ostovich; we both fought the same day and we both won. And then later Dana [White] came to the house and he let us drive his car. Well, I drove the car, so I had me, Rachael and Shana Dobson in the front seat, and Dana, Nicco [Montano] and one of the TUF House workers in the back. And I was driving 100mph down Sahara, no ID, no nothing. I was like ‘I hope I get pulled over right now, the look on the cop’s face will be amazing.’ I didn’t get pulled over, but that was one of my favorite memories.”

TUF may not have ended the way Whitmire had hoped, but her considerable skills were evident, and it was more than enough to get her into the UFC. She’s put together back-to-back wins in the strawweight division, with the most recent being one of the most beautiful rear-naked chokes 2019 has produced thus far, a first-round finish of Alexandra Albu on February’s UFC Phoenix card.

“I think people know at Xtreme Couture, we’re pretty known for our back-takes. Miesha Tate won the title with the back-take, and that’s something our gym is pretty good at, and something I’ve really tapped into these last few years.”

That might be true, but it didn’t keep the moment from being special.

“How surreal…I just could not believe I got the submission like that.”