LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 12: (R-L) Gigi Canuto attempts to submit Melissa Amaya in their women's strawweight fight during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter Season 34 at Meta APEX on May 12, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC)

Melissa Amaya is headed to the finals of The Ultimate Fighter 34 and, fortunately, she’s bringing both arms with her.

That wasn’t a guarantee during her matchup against GiGi Canuto, who dominated the early portion of their semifinal bout and looked to have Amaya dead to rights with an armbar and then a triangle choke that bent Amaya’s limb at seemingly impossible angles. However, Amaya fought through the dangerous submissions and by the end of the first round, she’d managed to turn the tide and battered Canuto with heavy ground-and-pound.

By the time Round 2 started, it was clear Amaya was the fresher fighter and she soon found herself on top of an exhausted Canuto again, hammering away to punch her ticket to the strawweight finale.

WHAT A BATTLE

Melissa Amaya & Gigi Canuto put on an INCREDIBLE fight in the semifinal of #TUF34!

STREAM NOW on @ParamountPlus! pic.twitter.com/tlfTBqL0NP
— The Ultimate Fighter (@UltimateFighter) August 6, 2026

Amaya’s gutsy effort wowed her coach Daniel Cormier and UFC CEO Dana White, with both men in disbelief at her toughness. After finally having the chance to see her episode, even Amaya isn’t sure how she survived that fight.

“It was my first time watching it,” Amaya told MMA Fighting. “I was nervous because I knew, in the moment, I was like, I could feel my arm doing things it’s not supposed to and I was like, ‘Well, well, tough shit. You’re in it, try to get out.’ So when I watched it, I was like, ‘Oh… Oh!’ That’s why people are having the reaction they’re having. Like, holy shit, how did it not just snap in every way possible?”

“Yeah, I tore some muscles, yeah, but it was literally best-case scenario. There was no tendon, ligament, or bone involvement, which my physical therapist—I had to work with him for a couple months already—he said, the muscles you tore, the brachialis, it’s so deep, and the fact that nothing else gave out, and that was what happened. He’s like, ‘I don’t understand. That’s impressive in itself.’”

Unsurprisingly, Amaya revealed this is the closest she’s ever come to tapping out in a fight.

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Amaya said. “When she had me on that triangle, I didn’t know how tight it was. Because you know if your arm is across your neck and they have it in, they should be done. It should be over, whether the person taps or they’re out, they pass out.

“And I thought, ‘F*ck it, tonight we ride.’ I’m not going to go out without swinging, so I said I’m just gonna start punching her face.”

When Amaya finally freed her beleaguered limb, there was little time to celebrate. Her mind essentially went blank and before she knew it, she was in top position and close to finishing Canuto before the Round 1 buzzer sounded.

“No, no, no, it’s just like, ‘Next thing, next thing, next thing,’” Amaya said when asked if she felt relief at escaping Canuto’s submission attempts. “There’s no, ‘Oh my God,’ like, pity party, ‘Oh no’ or ‘Yay, I got out!’ none of that.”

“I didn’t know what time, how much time was left,” she added. “I didn’t know. I was just in pure war mode. It was no longer an athlete competing. It was kill or be killed.”

Just making it to the semifinal fight was a minor miracle for Amaya. As shown on the episode, “La Mamba” was felled by a debilitating back injury during training, the result of an existing Sacroiliac (SI) joint condition. Amaya recalled the injury first occurring during a match of pickleball, but didn’t think it would come back to haunt her.

Until it did ahead of the biggest opportunity of her life.

As tough as they come 😤

Melissa Amaya is ready to battle through injury in pursuit of becoming The Ultimate Fighter!

STREAM #TUF34 NOW on @ParamountPlus! pic.twitter.com/e0XJIlSBaf
— The Ultimate Fighter (@UltimateFighter) August 4, 2026

“It’s a really weird nerve thing,” Amaya said. “You feel wobbly, like you can’t stand. I was like, out of all of these scenarios, I did not expect this one. I thought maybe a broken nose, some black eyes or my knee. I thought my knee or a ligament would have gone before my back. I never thought my back would hurt.

“But the people at the PI, the physical therapist, worked magic. I’ve had a lot of PT experiences throughout my life and what they managed to do at that time and the most crucial time in my career, amazing.”

“I’m getting in that Octagon” 😤

Melissa Amaya works with the UFC Performance Institute to get ready for the semifinal of #TUF34!

STREAM NOW on @ParamountPlus! pic.twitter.com/TWUdCW4RDv
— The Ultimate Fighter (@UltimateFighter) August 4, 2026

With her win, Amaya knocked off coach Michael Bisping’s top two picks, Anna Melisano and Canuto, and guaranteed it will be an all Team Cormier strawweight final with teammates Delphine Benouaich and Tina Black on the other side of the bracket.

Despite her success, Amaya can admit she had no assumptions about how she might do on the show once she got her foot in the door.

“I’ll just backtrack to even getting in the house,” Amaya said. “I didn’t even know I was going to get in the house. The tryouts, I was like, I’m at the wrong tryout. There’s no way. All these girls are so good. You can feel the intensity and the experience and I was like, ‘I’m proud of myself for putting my name in the hat.’ Waiting there to get picked, and then I got picked, and I was like, ‘Oh snap. OK. I get a chance. Hell yeah.’ So even just getting in the house alone was the biggest accomplishment, and at that point it was just a matter of ‘Put your head down, be a sponge, learn as much as you can, no pity parties. You’re here, be here.’

“You don’t get to experience this ever again. Many people don’t get to experience this. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and out of all the strawweights, there’s only eight picked, you know, that’s just crazy. So getting picked against Anna, who’s No. 1, and I had just seen her, she demolished the second girl I ever fought, Andrea Almaro, sliced her head open. I went into that fight, I was like, ‘All right, every time I get in the pocket, this is danger zone.’ I just accepted the fact that I could get cut, broken nose, maybe knocked out. I don’t give a shit. I’m going to do everything I can and put one foot in front of the other, and whatever happens happens, I’ll deal with it right then and there, which is my personality in general, which I know it drives my husband crazy. ‘We need to figure this out and this and this.’ I’ll figure it out when it comes, we’ll cross that bridge when it gets here.”

Amaya is now one win away from becoming TUF 34 champion and earning a multi-fight UFC deal.

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