A women’s bantamweight fight between Julianna Pena and Sara McMann has been moved from UFC Fight Island 7 to UFC 257.
Julianna Pena and Sara McMann will have to wait an extra week before fighting each other. Their originally scheduled date of January 16 has been moved to January 23. The news was first reported by MMA Junkie and later confirmed by both Pena and McMann on their respective social media profiles.
There were no details given as to why the fight between Pena and McMann was moved, but it will proceed nonetheless.
Pena will be making a quicker turnaround than in her last time out. She made her return to the Octagon in October of this year after being away for more than a year and a half. Her return fight was at UFC on ESPN: Holm vs. Aldana opposite former women’s featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie. Pena was submitted by way of guillotine choke in the second round, which marked the third stoppage loss of her professional career.
Prior to the submission loss to de Randamie, Pena took on an defeated Nicco Montano by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night: de Randamie vs. Ladd. It was her first win in almost two years.
McMann most recently appeared at UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. dos Santos in January. She earned an unanimous decision win over Lina Lansberg and snapped a two-fight losing streak in the process. McMann was previously submitted by both Ketlen Vieira and Marion Reneau in back-to-back second-round stoppages.
McMann was supposed to come back a few months after the Lansberg fight against Aspen Ladd, but the fight was canceled after Ladd withdrew due to tearing her ACL and MCL in training.
UFC 257 is the first pay-per-view event of 2021 and it will be headlined by the highly anticipated rematch between former lightweight champions Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.