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It sounds like one of the four featherweight women competing at UFC Norfolk on Saturday, Feburary 29th, will earn a shot at UFC gold.
It looks like the UFC has added a little late notice narrative to this week’s card in Norfolk, VA. The 5-fight main card is set to feature a pair of women’s featherweight bouts, with former Invicta champions Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer taking on Norma Dumont and Zarah Fairn respectively.
Those two bouts, in reality, make up the entirity of the 145 lb women’s division in the UFC, outside of champion Amanda Nunes. So, with that in mind, it makes sense that the UFC would use these fights to determine the next challenger to Nunes’ belt. To that end, Combate’s Raphael Marinho reports that the UFC is planning for Nunes to defend her featherweight title at UFC 250 on May 9th—against a challenger to be determined following this Saturday’s fight card.
The May PPV event will take place in Sao Paulo Brazil, and is currently expected to be headlined by the bantamweight title fight between champion Henry Cejudo and longtime featherweight GOAT Jose Aldo. Fabricio Werdum’s return from USADA suspension has also been penciled in for the fight card, as well as a trilogy bout between ‘Shogun’ Rua and ‘Lil’ Nog’ Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Nunes will enter the fight on a 10-bout winning streak, stretch all the way back to 2014. Most recently she defeated former featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie at UFC 245. Assuming the bouts in Norfolk go as expected, Felicia Spencer seems like she’d be the likely front-runner for the next title shot. But, in the MMA world, it’s always a good idea to plan for potential chaos.