A battle between top-five Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweights will go down on its first fight card of 2023.
MMA Fighting first reported the news on Thursday that Ketlen Vieira (13-2) will be squaring off with Raquel Pennington (14-8) at the UFC Fight Night event on Jan. 14. The 135-pound contenders will be facing one another inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on that date, likely placed high on the main card. Vieira has since confirmed this booking on her Instagram Stories shortly after its announcement.
Vieira bounced back from the first decision loss of her career – a three-round setback to Yana Kunitskaya in February 2021 – by overcoming ex-champs Miesha Tate and Holly Holm in five-round headliners over the last year. The finish rate of the Brazilian has diminished significant since joining the roster in 2016, as she has only won once by stoppage while recording six other victories on the scorecards. Beyond Kunitskaya, her only other setback came against Irene Aldana in 2019, where she was punched out in the first round by the top Mexican contender.
Former title challenger Pennington is arguably on the best win streak of her career, racking up four straight wins since mid-2020 over the likes of top-15 talents Marion Reneau, Pannie Kianzat, Macy Chiasson and Aspen Ladd. Of note, the Chiasson match came in her featherweight debut, and Chiasson still missed weight by 2.5 pounds. The semifinalist of season 18 of “The Ultimate Fighter” has never before won five bouts in a row in her career that includes a run at the bantamweight belt – only to be outclassed and finished last in the fifth round by Amanda Nunes.
The unnumbered UFC Fight Night event on Jan. 14 will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, with a 185-pound tilt between Nassourdine Imavov and Kelvin Gastelum its main attraction. The likely co-main event comes at welterweight between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov. The only two other confirmed matchups on the billing come in the flyweight division, as Jeff Molina takes on Jimmy Flick and Allan Nascimento faces Carlos Hernandez.
More must-reads: