Anchorage fighter Murphy will be cast member on TUF 26

Lauren Murphy, the Anchorage fighter who won a world championship in 2013, is getting another chance to vie for a title.

Murphy, 34, is the latest Alaskan to win a spot on The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC reality show that begins its 26th season later this month on Fox Sports 1. Filming has already begun.

Murphy is among 16 cast members, the UFC announced Saturday night. The series will culminate with the UFC's inaugural title bout for the 125-pound women's flyweight division.

A former Alaska Fighting Championship star, Murphy is one of the show's more familiar faces. She captured the Invicta 135-pound bantamweight title in 2013, a victory that helped propel her to a UFC contract. She went 1-3 in UFC bouts, getting her victory with a TKO and losing twice by unanimous decision and once by split decision.

[Murphy loses final fight of her 3-bout UFC contract]

Murphy began her mixed martial arts career in Anchorage in 2009 after taking her son to a jiu jitsu class. As her career took off, she relocated to Arizona with husband Joe Murphy, another veteran of Anchorage's AFC fights.

Other top fighters in the TUF 26 cast are Barb Honchak, a former Invicta flyweight champion, and Roxanne Modafferi, a veteran of TUF 18.

Each week during the series, elimination fights are held until only two fighters remain unbeaten. Those two square off in a championship fight, with the winner earning a UFC contract valued in the six-figure range.

TUF 26 begins airing Aug. 30. The finale is Dec. 1 at The Park Theater in Las Vegas.

Murphy, who in May joined 45 other women for tryouts in Las Vegas, becomes the seventh Alaskan and the third Alaska woman to appear on The Ultimate Fighter. Previous shows have featured Terrence Mitchell (TUF 24), Gina Mazany and Colleen Schneider (TUF 18), Andy Enz (TUF 17), Nic Herron-Webb (TUF 16) and Richie Whitson (TUF 9), according to AFC promoter Sarah Lorimer.

With the exception of Herron-Webb and Whitson, who both made it to the quarterfinals, none of the Alaskans have advanced beyond the first round.