Several new UFC fights booked for coming events
In some odd way, the UFC seem to be back. No events have taken place yet, though there are several planned, and those events have had many new UFC fights tentatively booked. The UFC announced UFC 249 for May 9th, alongside two events on May 13th and 19th, all set for Jacksonville, Florida. The headliners for those three events have all been confirmed, and two additional events on May 23rd and June 6th have been set for undisclosed locations.
Several new fights have been announced during the past few days as well. A heavyweight scrap between Ovince Saint Preux and Ben Rothwell has been booked for the May 13th event according to ESPN. MMA Fighting have reported a strawweight battle between Mackenzie Dern and Hannah Cifers set for the May 23rd event. Finally the bantamweight battle between former champ Cody Carbrandt and top contender Raphael Assuncao has been re-booked for the June 6th event.
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Saint Preux was last active in the UFC’s debut in Denmark in September of last year. There he broke a two fight losing streak by submitting Michal Oleksiejczuk in the second round. Rothwell also managed to return to the win column in his last outing. After suffering three straight decision losses to top competition Rothwell TKO’d Steefan Struve, scoring his first win since 2016.
Fan favourite Dern debuted undefeated in the UFC in 2018, edging out Ashley Yoder via split decision. She then submitted Amanda Cooper at UFC 224, but suffered her first defeat in her last outing, losing a decision to Amanda Ribas. Cifers holds a 2-2 record in the UFC, losing to established, ranked fighters Maycee Barber and Angela Hill. Her kast win came in August of 2019 when she defeated Jodie Esquibel via decision.
Garbrandt is currently in a tough spot, career-wise. since winning the bantamweight title in December 2016, he went on to lose back-to-back fights against rival TJ Dillashaw – Both via KO. He then faced Pedro Munhoz at UFC 235, once again losing via KO. Similarly, Assuncao was nearing a title shot before getting TKO’d by Marlon Moraes. That loss snapped a four fight winning streak, and after losing his second straight bout against Cody Sandhagen, now beginning a losing streak.
