TUF 18 Finale: Who's on the Hot Seat?

Usually, The Ultimate Fighter finale cards are filled with competitors battling for spots on the UFC roster. 

While there are a lot of fresh faces scheduled to compete at the TUF 18 finale, not many will be in jeopardy of being bounced from the world's top MMA promotion. Outside of the two tournament finals, only four other TUF 18 participants will fight in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Only finalists Chris Holdsworth and David Grant will represent the male portion of the TUF 18 competition. All eight female UFC hopefuls from TUF 18 will be given official UFC bouts, but Shayna Baszler and Sarah Moras are not able to compete at the finale due to injuries.

Main event fighters Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz are the only fighters on Saturday's fight card coming off of UFC losses. Since TUF finalists are almost guaranteed another UFC bout, the pool of fighters competing for their jobs at this weekend's finale is very small.

Here are the few fighters who may be in need of a win or strong showing heading into the TUF 18 finale fight card.

Nate Diaz

One of the more popular fighters on the UFC roster, Diaz should be safe from being released regardless of the outcome of his rematch with Maynard on Saturday.

Still, a loss to Maynard would be three in a row for Diaz. His prior two defeats came against Top 10 lightweights in Benson Henderson and Josh Thomson, but we've seen popular fighters released for lesser skids recently.

Diaz doesn't fit into the same mold as Jon Fitch or Yushin Okami, though. He's entertaining and skilled, so Diaz is likely to be given more room for error than most fighters.

Regardless, he'll be looking to avoid another defeat over the weekend. 

Jessamyn Duke and Margaret Morgan

Any TUF participant who doesn't reach the finals is likely to be fighting for their UFC career in their official debut inside the Octagon.

With the UFC still building its women's bantamweight division, this season's female fighters may be given more leniency than most TUF alumni. 

That doesn't mean TUF 18 quarterfinalists Jessamyn Duke and Margaret Morgan can coast on Saturday. Both will have to prove they are UFC-level talents to get extra chances in the world's top MMA promotion. 

Roxanne Modafferi and Raquel Pennington

For the same reason Duke and Morgan are in jeopardy, Roxanne Modafferi and Raquel Pennington will likely enter their fight on Saturday believing they need a win.

The last female fighter eliminated from the competition, Pennington may be further from the chopping block than other non-finalist TUF participants competing on Saturday. Nonetheless, even Pennington will need to put on an entertaining performance to maintain a UFC job following a potential loss.

As experienced as she is, Modafferi may not get another shot to prove herself inside the Octagon. Athletically, Modafferi hasn't appeared to be on the same level as the rest of the female bantamweights on the UFC roster.

In order to stick around, she'll need to prove otherwise on Saturday.