The Ultimate Fighter 18 began filming today in Las Vegas and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was surprised when she saw Miesha Tate and not Cat Zingano. 
Zingano defeated Tate at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale to secure her spot as a coach against Rousey but suffered a knee injury nearly two weeks ago and had surgery today.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports broke the news of the injury today as Zingano had surgery today to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. Zingano injured her knee on May 16th but the UFC kept the injury a secret and Rousey was unaware of the change in opponent until Tate walked on the set.
“This is what we really wanted all along,” Rousey told Yahoo! Sports. “Everyone said an Ultimate Fighter between me and Miesha would be the best. We have a personal history with each other and this is a personal show. For some reason, me and Miesha are intertwined in fate like Ali and Frazier or something like that.
Following the Yahoo! Sports article coming out, Zingano tweeted a picture of herself after coming out of surgery.
Well… Just got off surgery. Thx @danawhite and @ufc for all ur support thru all of this. twitter.com/CatZingano/sta…
— Alpha Cat Zingano (@CatZingano) May 29, 2013
Tate (13-4) will now be the coach against Rousey and will get a title shot at the end of the year. She will be the fourth UFC fighter this year to get a title shot after a lost with the other three fighters being Frankie Edgar, Nick Diaz and Chael Sonnen.
With Tate now getting the title shot, Liz Carmouche is left without an opponent for UFC on FOX 8 on July 27th in Seattle and the UFC is now looking for a replacement fighter. A specific date of Rousey vs. Tate II has not been announced but that fight is expected to take place in December on a pay-per-view card.