The UFC soon returns to pay-per-view, and when it does, the organization will crown its first women’s featherweight champion.
The inaugural title fight headlines the card, which takes place Feb. 11 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Former bantamweight champion Holly Holm (10-2 MMA, 3-2 UFC) moves up a weight class to fight fellow striker and 135-pound vet Germaine de Randamie (7-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC). Holm or de Randamie, who are respectively ranked No. 4 and No. 14 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA women’s bantamweight rankings, will become the third female UFC champion, joining bantamweight Amanda Nunes and strawweight Joanna Jedrzejczyk.
Check out a quick preview of the fight above.
Holm, a former pro boxing champion, quickly rose through the ranks once she turned to MMA, but she enters UFC 208 with back-to-back losses. After a 10-0 start to her career that included an upset “Knockout of the Year” win over then-champ Ronda Rousey in late 2015 to win the title, the 35-year-old has since suffered losses to Miesha Tate and Valentina Shevchenko.
She now meets de Randamie, a 32-year-old Dutch kickboxer and former Strikeforce fighter. After a 2013 loss to now-champ Nunes, de Randamie rebounded with wins over Larissa Pacheco and Anna Elmose, the latter earning “Performance of the Night” honors. She’s now 4-1 with three knockouts in her past five fights.
The latest UFC 208 lineup includes:
For more on UFC 208, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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