Frust » s my profession," Penne added. "It was just someth

LOS ANGELES -- When Carla Esparza and Jessica Penne agreed to spend several weeks of the summer sequestered in a house with 14 fellow mixed martial artists, they didnt do it because it sounded like fun. They joined the cast of the upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter" because their sport is growing in ways they never imagined just a few months earlier. After years of training, sacrificing and getting punched for little more than personal satisfaction, they embraced the chance to showcase womens MMA to a new audience, even if it meant living in what Esparza called "a combination of a prison and a sorority." "Were getting an amazing opportunity I never thought I would see," added Penne, who was fired from her job as a boxing instructor during her stint on the show this summer. "In this sport, you go through people not taking you seriously, not being able to pay your bills because youre chasing a dream," Penne said. "It gets really difficult. Its a crazy, up-and-down life, but I feel lucky to be able to do something I love every single day. Not many people get the opportunity to do that. Ill suffer while I can to chase my dream." When the UFC added an entire 115-pound womens division this year, the promotion decided to use its long-running reality television show to pick a champion for the first time. The UFC signed most of the worlds top strawweights out of the Invicta FC womens promotion and filmed them living and training together in Las Vegas. The results air on Fox Sports 1 starting Wednesday night, culminating in the title fight Dec. 12. "It was a good experience," said Esparza, a wrestler from Redondo Beach. "I wouldnt trade it for anything in the world, but I dont know if I would do it again." The visibility of womens MMA has skyrocketed in the last two years with the ascent of Ronda Rousey, the UFCs undefeated bantamweight champion and a budding movie star. Rouseys charisma and MMA skills were the main reasons UFC President Dana White reversed his long-standing reluctance to promote female fighters, and Rousey has become arguably the UFCs biggest star. With Rousey topping a thriving bantamweight division, White decided to double down on womens MMA. Suddenly, 115-pound fighters who had barely made any money after years in their sport had the chance to become reality-TV stars and eventual fighters in MMAs biggest showcases. "I had no clue that this was even going to be possible," Esparza said. "I started off fighting for pennies. I thought I was going to fight for a couple of years. It wasnt something I could survive on. I was just fighting because I love it." "Through all my years of training and competing, I never thought of it as my profession," Penne added. "It was just something that I loved to do. I enjoyed and just never really thought of it in that way. I think Ronda did a great service to womens MMA and gave us that catapult to be taken seriously." The UFC appointed lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and top contender Gilbert Melendez as the coaches. Melendez has been a supporter of womens MMA since he taught his first all-women jiu jitsu class in 2004, and his wife, Keri Anne, competes in muay thai. "I was never like, Oh, theyre girls," Melendez said. "Theyre all gamers. A lot of guys fight for so many reasons besides trying to be a true champion. Some of them fight for what it brings to them. These ladies fight straight because they like it." The strawweights needed the UFC, but the worlds dominant MMA promotion also needs them. Even White acknowledged "The Ultimate Fighter" had grown stagnant and repetitive after 19 seasons of the same formula. Most seasons showcase up-and-coming fighters from regional promotions trying to break into the big time -- and usually failing. The 20th season showcases most of the worlds best fighters in the 115-pound weight class, and a title awaits at the end. "The Ultimate Fighter" hasnt featured this much top-end talent since mens flyweights and bantamweights joined the promotion three years ago in a season that featured current bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, John Dodson and Dennis Bermudez. "I think there will be a couple of stars coming out of this season that can help the company," Melendez said. "And they can use it." Will Hernandez Jersey . 1 player in the world. So Duval gutted it out Thursday at the Byron Nelson Championship despite the pain from a muscle issue in his right elbow, a day after his stepson had to drive him because he couldnt even use that arm. Dalvin Tomlinson Jersey . The Hockey Canada Foundation is donating $50,000, with Hockey Quebec contributing $15,000. Hockey Canada also announced it will hold a skills camp for all levels of minor hockey in Lac-Mégantic during the 2013-14 season. 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CINCINNATI - Bengals cornerback Leon Hall is happy with his recovery from a torn Achilles tendon and expects to be ready for the start of training camp in July.MINNEAPOLIS - The Minnesota Vikings have been in transition all year.Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater is learning on the job. Coach Mike Zimmer is shaping his new teams mindset. Dave Mansell is making sure a 970-foot steel roof truss will be in place on time and within budget, along with tens of thousands of other tasks.Whatever happens on the field this season and next will ultimately be a mere speck on the horizon of this franchises 54-year history. The stadium under construction, set for completion in the summer of 2016 as the next NFL venue to open, will become just as much of an icon for the Vikings as any player or coach.With the Vikings playing a couple of miles away at the University of Minnesota, the modern-style stadium has begun to rise. It will feature giant glass front doors, a see-through roof and a sharp-angled asymmetrical shape not-so-vaguely resembling the ships that once carried the original Vikings across the seas of northern Europe.The yet-to-be-named, 65,000-seat facility will look like nothing else in the league when its finished.When they walk through that bowl, theyre going to be like, Holy wow, said Mansell, the general superintendent for Mortensen Construction, the local company hired to build the stadium over 1.75 million gross square feet with a total price tag of a bit over $1 billion.Mansell managed construction for several other sports venues around town and around the country, at the request of Allen Troshinsky, the vice-president of operations for Mortensens sports group. They have taken the plans devised by the architects led by Bryan Trubey at HKS in Dallas, the firm that designed AT&T Stadium for the Cowboys and Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Colts.These guys are used to big, high-tech and bold.This one, though, is headed for the front of the portfolio.The job is just awesome. It sort of exceeds the experience that almost anybody working out here has ever had, said John Wood, a Mortensen senior vice-president who oversees the sports group. Its the biggest project ever built in the state of Minnesota, and so for almost all of us its the biggest thing weve ever done in our careers.The blueprints Mansell and his seven lieutenants inherited came from Trubey and his team, the result of extensive cultural and climatological research.This, after all is Minnesota, where the Vikings were forced out of their previous home at the end of the 2010 season following a massive snowstorm that toppled the Metrodome roof. All those fancy features are useless if the stadium isnt functiional through the winter.ddddddddddddThe pitch of the roof will be steep so the snow doesnt pile up. The peak will be more than 300 feet, about 30 stories, above the field. The building will be largely translucent to match the citys pattern of design. The stadium will feature five 95-foot-tall pivoting glass doors facing the skyscrapers of the central business district and sunlight over the entire playing field. The south half of the roof will be built with the largest span of ETFE in the nation, a lightweight, glass-like substance formally called ethylene tetrafluoroethylene.The multi-purpose facility, which will host the Super Bowl in 2018, also has landed the NCAA mens basketball Final Four for 2019. In addition to college basketball, it also was designed to host major soccer, college baseball, concerts and any number of other events year round.A striking, modern, very progressive, edgy building, Trubey said. Its a very future-oriented culture there.Before the future arrives, there is much work to be done. But not out of panic.Mortensens on-time record has helped the companys sports group flourish, with major venues in Denver, Kansas City, Memphis and many other locations beyond Minnesota. This is the result of careful, confident planning, ever more important with the standards of such buildings increasingly cutting edge and complicated.To try to rush it, it would only lead to safety and quality issues, Troshinsky said. So as often as youre encouraging people forward, sometimes youve got to pull those reins back too so they dont get ahead of their skis.Mansells workdays are often 12 hours. Hes a blunt-speaking busybody more comfortable next to machines than in meetings. Still, his hardhat sits idle on Sundays.Were here to make a living to support our families and it doesnt do us any good if were not with our families, he said, adding: We dont plan these jobs seven days a week. When you go by these construction sites and theyre working seven days a week, I guarantee you its a train wreck.The number of workers on site these days is around 750. Many of them will come back to watch a game in a couple of years. Troshinsky and Mansell always enjoy opening days with their families, but theyre hardly regulars in the seats. Looking around can sometimes feel too much like work.We didnt do it on our own, boy, Mansell said. 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