Female Fighter Waterson Joins ‘Bully Beatdown’

The newest season of the popular MTV reality show “Bully Beatdown” will add a fresh angle to its bullies vs. professional mixed martial artists premise. For the first time, the show will include a female fighter.

Michelle “The Karate Hottie” Waterson, who trains at Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts in Albuquerque, N.M., will appear on an episode when the show’s third season airs at an as yet to be announced date. During the previous two seasons, all 16 30-minute episodes featured male MMA fighters.

“I love the show,” Waterson said. “I remember watching it, and being like, ‘Man, there are more girl bullies than there are guy bullies. I want to be on that show.’ It was real cool that they gave me a call.”

The Colorado native, who normally fights at 110 pounds, received a spot on the show in part because of her diminutive stature.

“They needed a little girl, because the bully was a little girl. There’s not too many small female fighters. It was just kind of like word of mouth. I think ‘Big’ John McCarthy, the ref, knew coach Greg Jackson, and just asked him if I was interested.”

“Bully Beatdown” is hosted by Strikeforce’s Jason “Mayhem” Miller. Victims of bullying enlist Miller to send their tormentors to the cage against professional fighters for two three-minute rounds. During the first round, bullies can earn $1,000 for each submission they survive until they tap out five times. The second round is striking-based, and the bullies can only earn $5,000 for surviving the entire round. Victims earn $1,000 for each successful submission performed by the pro fighter and $5,000 if the fight is stopped during the kickboxing round.

Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields, former UFC and current Strikeforce star Andrei Arlovski, Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, Tony Bonello and Thomas Denny are some of the fighters who have appeared on “Bully Beatdown’s” first two seasons. Waterson has won her last two professional fights -- against Rosary Califano and Masako Yoshida -- and six of seven overall.

Waterson couldn’t reveal any specifics from her episode, but she did say that fans of the show will not be disappointed.

“They have me do a bunch of crazy stuff. I’m not allowed to say, but it’s pretty funny,” Waterson said. “Who doesn’t like to watch two girls fight?”