It didn’t take long for the UFC 229 to find a new opponent for Tonya Evinger following Ketlen Vieira pulling out of her scheduled UFC Fight Night 137 bout against Evinger at Sao Paulo. Now, Evinger will stay in the states as she takes part in what may be the biggest event in the UFC’s history when she faces young, undefeated bantamweight prospect Aspen Ladd. News of this bout was first reported by MMAJunkie.
Tonya Evinger has not fought since July of last year when at UFC 214, she, like so many before her, got destroyed by Cris Cyborg. There is hardly any shame in that loss, especially seeing as how Evinger is a bantamweight and not a featherweight. At bantamweight, Evinger has an extremely impressive 10-fight winning streak and was the Invicta bantamweight champion. That’s not all. Five of Evinger’s last six victories have been finishes.
Aspen Ladd is 6-0 and 1-0 in the UFC. At only 23 years of age, the sky is the limit for the native Californian. Aspen Ladd made her professional debut in Invicta FC and after going 5-0 in the promotion, she moved up to the UFC where she made an impressive TKO debut over Lina Lansber, who coincidentally will be competing at this same event. Ladd was scheduled to face Leslie Smith in April, but the bout was cancelled following Ladd missing weight. This will be Ladd’s first bout since October of 2017.
With this addition, here is the current UFC 229 lineup:
Main Event: UFC Lightweight Championship: Khabib Nurmagomedov © vs. Conor McGregor
Tony Ferguson vs. Anthony Pettis
Derrick Lewis vs. Alexander Volkov
Dominick Reyes vs. Ovince Saint Preux
Jussier Formiga vs. Sergio Pettis
Sean O’Malley vs. Jose Quinonez
Felice Herrig vs. Michelle Waterson
Aspen Ladd vs. Tonya Evinger
Ryan LaFlare vs. Tony Martin
Yana Kunitskaya vs. Lina Lansberg
Scott Holtzman vs. Alan Patrick
Does Aspen Ladd remain undefeated following UFC 229?
