UFC women’s bantamweight contender Bethe Correia will look to rebound from her loss to Ronda Rousey against Raquel Pennington at UFC on Fox 19 in April.
A clash of female bantamweight contenders was added to the Tampa card, as Combate announced Bethe Correia will face Raquel Pennington in April. MMA Fighting also confirmed the matchup on Friday afternoon, although UFC officials haven’t formally announced it themselves.
Correia suffered a brutal first round KO to Ronda Rousey in the UFC 190 main event last August. The loss was the first of her ten-fight professional career. Correia’s three-fight winning streak in the UFC came against the likes of Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Julie Kedzie.
A veteran of the 18th season of The Ultimate Fighter, Pennington (6-5) has been alternating wins and losses since her UFC debut in 2013. In her last outing, she was awarded a “Performance of The Night” bonus for her rear-naked choke victory over Jessica Andrade last September. Before that, “Rocky” suffered a close split decision loss at UFC 184 to current champion, Holly Holm.
Correia will join fellow Brazilians Lyoto Machida (who will rematch Dan Henderson) and Mauricio Rua (who faces Rashad Evans) on the UFC on FOX 19 card on April 16th. The night’s main event is expected to be a pivotal lightweight matchup between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov.