UFC fans have become accustomed to surprising news, especially recently with big fights falling week by week but the recent addition to UFC 304 has taken the fanbase utterly by surprise.

Irish strawweight, Shauna Bannon, was scheduled to take on Ravena Oliveira at UFC 304 on July 27 but the Brazilian recently withdrew from the bout.

With that, the UFC announced that Alice Ardelean would step in on short notice to take on ‘Mama B’, leaving the fanbase in disbelief.

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UFC fans in disbelief as Alice Ardelean is signed to compete at UFC 304

Ardelean fights out of Birmingham, UK, and currently holds a professional record of 9-5. The Romanian-born 32-year-old was originally scheduled to compete on the coming season of Dana White’s Contender Series but was offered a big step-in opportunity instead.

Despite being on a five-fight win streak, Ardelean is predominantly known for her social media content.

The 32-year-old has 3 million followers on TikTok, and is known for her meme videos and provocative content and also has over 500k followers on Instagram.

And because of that, Ardelean’s signing has caused disbelief, with fans struggling to understand why the 9-5 strawweight has been signed.

“The UFC signing Alice Ardelean is a disgrace to the promotion,” Shawn Bitter of Cageside Press commented on X.

“Probably the worst signing ever and I’m not joking. Ardelean isn’t a fighter, she’s a TikTok star. Ardelean has a terrible (9-5) record. She’s won her last five, but against who? Such a shame that the best promotion in the world isn’t caring about “best in the world” talent,” Shawn Bitter continued.

Alice Ardelean has already shared the cage with current UFC strawweight champion

The 32-year-old’s last fight was competed at 125lbs when she won the UFT flyweight title against 0-3 opponent, Dilia Suyapa.

Ardelean has shared the cage with current UFC strawweight champion, Zhang Weili when she was submitted by the Chinese champion in round two of their fight in 2016.

Fellow Romanian UFC female fighter, Diana Belbita, also holds a win over Ardelean on the Romanian regional scene, also submitting her in round two.

Ardelean’s recent win streak comes after she was forced to move gyms following controversy with former training partners and their wives. The Romanian fighter who has a subscription site for her fans, was forced to move gyms after the wives of her former training partners took issue with her outside work.

She now trains at Fearless MMA in Birmingham, UK, where current UFC welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, gets in his wrestling training.