A pivotal strawweight bout will be going down on Jan. 23 at UFC 257.
According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Michelle Waterson will take on rising contender, Amanda Ribas on the pay-per-view-card. According to the report, the fight is not signed as of yet but both have agreed to the matchup.
Michelle Waterson returned to the win column in September with a split decision win over Angela Hill in the main event. Before that, she suffered back-to-back decision losses to Carla Esparza by split and to Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Currently, “The Karate Hottie” is ranked sixth at strawweight and holds notable wins over Paige VanZant, and Cortney Casey.
Amanda Ribas, meanwhile, is 10-1 and a perfect 4-0 inside the Octagon. The Brazilian made her UFC debut in 2019 after not fighting for three years and submitted Emily Whitmire in the second round. She then beat Mackenzie Dern and Randa Markos by decision. At UFC 251, she had a coming-out party of sorts as she submitted VanZant in the first round. This will no doubt be Ribas’ toughest test of her career against Waterson.
UFC 257 is expected to take place in at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main event is likely to be Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2, although the fight is not official at this time.
