Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
A women’s bantamweight and strawweight fight are the first matchups confirmed for the UFC’s return to Washington.
A women’s bantamweight and strawweight matchup have been agreed on for the UFC’s return to Washington, D.C on December 7th.
MMA Fighting first reported the matchups. Top bantamweight Aspen Ladd is scheduled to take on Yana Kunitskaya, whilst strawweights Claudia Gadelha and Cynthia Calvillo will also meet on the card.
Ladd (8-1) suffered the first loss of her MMA career when she was knocked out in 16-seconds by Germaine De Randamie last month, despite the stoppage being controversial. The 24-year-old picked up performance bonus wins in her fights before that, winning a tough fought decision against Sijara Eubanks and stopping Tonya Evinger at UFC 229 last year.
Kunitskaya (12-4, 1NC) is currently on the best winning streak of her UFC career, picking up decision wins against Marion Reneau and Lina Lansberg in her last fights. Before this, the Russian challenged Cris Cyborg for the featherweight title but lost the fight by first-round stoppage.
In the strawweight matchup, Gadelha (17-4) has gone 2-2 in her last four UFC appearances. After losing a decision to current champion Jessica Andrade, the Brazilian won a split decision over Carla Esparza at UFC 225, but lost her next fight to Nina Ansaroff. Gadelha last fought at UFC 239 in July winning a unanimous decision over Randa Markos.
After serving a nine-month suspension for testing positive to marijuana metabolites following the first loss of her career to Joanne Calderwood, Calvillo (8-1) has since won fights against Poliana Botelho and Cortney Casey.
No other fights or a venue has been announced for the UFC Washington card taking place on December 7th.