UFC 219 finally has a title fight.
We are six weeks out from the UFC’s big end-of-year card and a fitting title fight has finally been booked.
On December 30, women’s featherweight queen Cristiane ‘Cyborg’ Justino will defend her throne against former women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm.
This fight has been targeted for the Las Vegas show, but it was thought to have been lost in the negotiation stage. Last week, Holm’s camp said a deal could not be reached for the fight, but after talks were resurrected this week, both fighters put pen to paper on a contract.
BREAKING: There’s a title on the line at #UFC219!@CrisCyborg is set to defend her undisputed featherweight championship against @HollyHolm in Las Vegas on Dec. 30. pic.twitter.com/zHAGrIQDir
— UFC (@ufc) November 17, 2017
Cyborg (18-1, 1 NC) is undefeated in the UFC/ After destroying Leslie Smith in her sensational promotional debut, she was made the headline act for her second outing against Lina Landsberg. That fight also ended with fireworks and drew 1,109,000 viewers, making it the most-watched FOX Fight Night or TUF finals show ever headlined by a women’s fight. She claimed the vacant title by finishing Tonya Evinger at UFC 214.
‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ (11-3) snapped a three-fight losing streak in June by knocking out one-time UFC title challenger Bethe Correia. After dethroning Ronda Rousey with that seismic head kick heard around the world, she suffered consecutive losses to Miesha Tate, Valentina Shevchenko and Germaine de Randamie respectively, the latter coming under very controversial circumstances for the featherweight strap.
While this is a legitimate title fight between arguably the two most popular female stars the promotion has on its roster, it’s important to note that it has not been set as the headliner for the card.
Rumours of Nate Diaz being handed a welterweight title shot against Tyron Woodley have not died down, with both fighters making it known that they have begun training for the event.
