Australia will be getting a second major women’s title match for the UFC’s stadium show in Melbourne, Australia.
Dana White confirmed Friday that Joanna Jedrzejczyk will defend her strawweight title against Valerie Letourneau at UFC 193 on November 15th. The fight will serve as the co-main event to the bantamweight title fight between champion Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm.
Jedrzejczyk (10-0) would the title earlier this year and defeated Jessica Penne by TKO in her first title defense. The champ was sidelined due to a hand injury the past few months. It was expected the champ would face Claudia Gadleha in a rematch of their 2014 outing, but Gadleha is still sidelined with a hand injury of her own.
Letourneau (8-3) is undefeated in the UFC and is 2-0 at strawweight. She defeated Maryna Moroz last month, giving the Ukrainian her first ever loss.
Nunes (11-4) has won back to back fights via first round TKOs and is the only fighter to have finished all her opponents in her UFC wins in the first round. Her lone UFC loss was to Cat Zingano.
Tate (17-5) has won four straight since losing to Zingano and Rousey. A win would see her get a third crack at the champ.
The fight would be in the main card on whatever event the UFC decides. The two front runners for the match are the TUF 22 finale December 11th in Vegas or UFC on Fox 17 on December 19 in Orlando, Florida.
A battle between two InvictaFC vets will take place December 12 in Las Vegas.
Former InvictaFC atomweight champion Michelle Waterson will take on the undefeated Tecia Torres at UFC 194. The promotion announced the match on Monday.
Waterson (13-4) was on a six fight win streak before losing her title to Herica Tiburcio last year. She soon signed to the UFC and defeated Angela Magana by rear naked choke in July.
Torres (6-0) has won back to back fights in the UFC. She would make it to the quarterfinals of the Ultimate Fighter 20, losing a majority decision to Carla Esparza.
The match will most likely headline the preliminary card on Fox Sports 1 December 12.
It will be the ladies that will kick off 2016 as both UFC female champions will defend their belts at UFC 195 in Las Vegas, NV on January 2.
In a surprise to most fans, the UFC has given Holly Holm a shot at bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey. The former world boxing champion is undefeated in MMA, coming off a win over Marion Reneau by decision. Holm will be the most talented striker Rousey has faced so far.
This announcement comes much to the dismay of Miesha Tate, who was heavily speculated to get her 3rd crack at the champ.
The co-main event will most likely see the much anticipated rematch between champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Claudia Gadhela. The match hinges on medical clearances from both fighters after hand injuries.
The first time around, Jędrzejczyk took home a razor thin split decision which earned her a shot at then champion Carla Esparza. Jędrzejczyk would take home the title. Gadhela defeated former #1 fighter Jessica Aguilar to gain the rematch, this time with the gold on the line.
Both matches will be on the main pay-per-view card.
A second female bouts has been announced to the UFC’s return to Houston, Texas October 3rd.
TUF 20 finalist Rose Namajunas will return to action as she takes on fellow castmate Angela Hill at UFC 192. The promotion announced the fight Monday.
Namajunas (2-2) submitted all of her opponents in her wins during the show, but came up short and lost in the finals to Carla Esparza. Namajunas still holds the record for the fastest armbar submission in the women’s divisions history.
Accomplished striker Hill (2-1) is coming off a decision loss to Tecia Torres. Hill would win her official UFC debut with a decision win over Emily Kagan.
The match joins Jessica Eye versus Julianna Peña on the card.
The bout will most likely air on Fox Sports 1 October 3rd.
A solid bantamweight fight will head to Vegas for UFC 191 in Las Vegas. Liz Carmouche will take on Raquel Pennington on the card, which was announced on UFC Tonight Wednesday.
Carmouche (10-5) is coming off an unanimous decision win over Lauren Murphy in April, snapping a two fight losing streak. Pennington (5-5) is coming off a close split decision loss to Holly Holm.
The match joins Paige VanZant versus Alex Chambers as the two female bouts on the card.
The match will most likely be on the preliminary portion on Fox Sports 1.
Paige Van Zant and Alex Chambers will enter the octagon for the there respective third bouts in the octagon at UFC 191 on Las Vegas September 5th. The match was announced Wednesday.
Van Zant (5-1) has won three straight fights with a TKO over Kailin Curran and a unanimous decision over Felice Herrig in her trips to the octagon.
Chambers (5-2) is coming off a come from behind win over Curran, getting the armbar in round 3 in May. The Aussie would lose her official UFC debut by unanimous decision to Aisling Daly.
The match will either air on the ppv portion of the card or be the featured fight on the Fox Sports 1 prelims.
UFC heads to San Diego with two solid bantamweight bouts.
Top boxer-turned-MMA-fighter Holly Holm looks for her second UFC win as she takes on rising star Marion Reneau. Holm hit the scales at 135 and Reneau 134.5 Tuesday with an intense 30 second staredown following.
Holm is coming off a razor thin decision win over Raquel Pennington in her UFC debut in February. Reneau has won her past 5 fights and finishing in four of them.
Andrade & Moras Courtesy UFC
The other match sees the return of TUF 18 vet Sarah Moras as she takes on Jéssica Andrade. Moras has won back to back on her official record, including her UFC debut. Andrade is coming off a loss to Reneau having won three straight.
The Holm-Reneau match will air on the main card, while the Moras-Andrade fight will be on the prelims. Both will air on Fox Sports 1 Wednesday night.
Cyborg Courtesy InvictaFC/Ester Lin
Cyborg Justino was the big winner this weekend, gaining $100,000 (which includes a $50,000 win bonus) for her efforts. This doesn’t include her performance of the night bonus or any sponsors pay. Should be noted Cyborg is being paid through the UFC rather than Invicta. Her payout is twice as much of what the rest of the fighters on the card got combined.
Van Duin got $6000 for her efforts.
Here is the rest of the payouts (not including bonuses or sponsor money):
The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released medical suspensions for the InvictaFC card. Faith Van Duin can’t compete until August 9th, Irene Aldana until August 24th, and Marina Shafir until July 31st.
InvictaFC President Shannon Knapp will be looking to close out the year with three cards. She had confirmed a September and December card Thursday. The third will be in either October or November. You can read more about the rest of Invicta’s 2015 here.
Knapp also stated she would like Jennifer Maia to fight soon and is looking at possible opponents.
Michelle Waterson’s third round rear naked choke over Angela Magana at the TUF 21 Finale Sunday banked her $30,000 (including $15,000 win bonus). Magana got $10,000 in the loss. This doesn’t include any bonuses or sponsorship money.
Waterson injured her hand during the fight and will be getting it x-rayed this week. If it is fractured, she will be medically suspended until January 12. If cleared medically, she will can get a fight after August 3rd.
Magana is medically suspended until August 9th for cautionary reasons. She reported coming into the fight with an injured rib.
UFC strawweight Tina Lahdemaki will be out until 2016 due to a shoulder injury. We wish her a speedy recovery.
Weeks after her release from the WSOF, Jessica Aguilar has signed to the UFC.
The current #2 strawweight on the planet will face the #3 fighter Claudia Gadelha in what could be a title eliminator at UFC 160 August 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Combate was the first to report the news and was later verified by MMAFighting.com.
Aguilar (19-4) has won 10 straight and defended her WSOF title twice. Having a notable win over the legend Megumi Fujii, she has only lost twice in her career.
Gadelha (12-1) is coming a close loss to current UFC champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. She defeated current InvictaFC champion Herica Tiburcio and former JEWELS champion Ayaka Hamasaki during her career.
The fight will most likely air on the preliminary card on Fox Sports 1. UFC 190 will be headlined by champion Ronda Rousey defending her bantamweight title against Bethe Correia.
After back to back losses, Jessamyn Duke is ready to get her career back on track as she takes on Elizabeth Phillips at UFC on Fox July 25th. MMA Fighting broke the news Thursday.
Duke (3-2) has won her first three pro fights at Invicta before heading into TUF 18. She lost to Raquel Pennington on the show in what was the “Fight of the Season”. Duke would win her official UFC debut over Peggy Morgan. She lost to current title challenger Bethe Correia by decision, and lost by TKO to Leslie Smith in her last outing.
Phillips (4-3) won four straight before entering the UFC. She has since lost two close split decisions. She is a teammate of UFC fight Juliana Pena.
As speculated last week, Holly Holm and Marion Reneau will be fighting on the UFC Fight Night San Diego July 15th. The UFC website posted the match Wednesday.
Former pound for pound boxing world champ Holm (8-0) is coming off a split decision win in her UFC debut over Raquel Pennington. Six of her wins were by TKO or KO.
Reneau (6-1) has yet to be finished, having finished all but one of her wins. In her last fight, she defeated Jessica Andrade by triangle choke.
The winner would make a case for a possible title shot against champion Ronda Rousey.
The fight that was supposed to happen at InvictaFC 4 will now take place in the UFC.
The promotion announced Scotland’s own Joanne Calderwood will face Bec Rawlings at the UFC’s debut in Calderwood’s home country July 18th in Glasgow.
Calderwood (9-1) suffered her first official loss by armbar to undefeated Maryna Moroz. Calderwood would win her official UFC debut by defeating former JEWELS champion Seo Hee Ham,. This will be the first time since 2013 she has fought in her home country.
Rawlings (6-4) is coming off a win in her home country, getting the submission over Lisa Ellis. She snapped a two fight losing streak with the win.
The match will air on Fox Sports 1 and will most likely be the co-main event of the card.
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