She is one of the toughest female fighters on the planet, but Aisling Daly was completely unprepared for the low punches and back-biting she experienced on a new US reality TV show.

The Dubliner (28) is one of the stars of the new Fox TV reality series The Ultimate Fighter. The first episode was broadcast on the US network last Wednesday.

The show pits Aisling - who is ranked the number 3 flyweight in the world, with a record of 14 wins from 19 professional fights - to slug it out with 15 other female pro-fighters, with little or no contact with the outside world while the series was being filmed.

But Aisling said she found the constant bitching and mind games that went on behind the scenes much harder to endure than the actual fighting.

She told the Sunday Independent: "A lot of the girls didn't have very good attitudes. Some of them were pretty nasty. It wasn't just basic bitchy stuff either; it was really kind of harsh bullying stuff. It was really hard and honestly I would never do it again, but I appreciate what I've learned and gained from the experience."

During filming, Aisling was effectively "locked up in a house in Las Vegas" for six weeks with 15 rival competitors, all of whom she could be called upon to fight against at any time.

"It was a pressure cooker of emotion," she added. "It was the toughest thing I have ever done. There was so much emotion in the house and it was a very strange situation. You are using the same kitchen as your opponents and the bedrooms are right beside each other, so you are constantly seeing the people who you are going to be fighting against.

"It's unlike anything I've ever experienced before. Usually you don't spend any time with your opponent, you don't see them, you don't speak to them and then all of a sudden you are getting to see everything, all of their habits."

Aisling, who was recently invited to ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq stock market in New York's Times Square, said the hype surrounding the big budget series in the US is "huge".

"It's such a big deal over here - and the amount of money that has been put into promoting it is just crazy," she added.

UFC President Dana White said his decision to change the format of the hit series to an all-female cast this year has breathed new life into the format of the nine-year-old competition.

"The best decision I ever made was to bring women in," he told the website MMAjunkie.com.

"I can't tell you how pumped I am. It's really fun. There are a few girls on this season that remind me of Ronda Rousey - they have that killer instinct. I'm so sold on women fighting. Look at how much it's evolved.

"I look at somebody like Ronda Rousey, and she is so empowering to women and to little girls."

'The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion will be Crowned' airs on Fox Sports 1 in the US on Wednesdays. Irish viewers can see the show on BT Sport

Sunday Independent