A pair of former UFC strawweight champions will once again throw down after it was reported that former UFC 115 pound champion Rose Namajunas will take on the woman who took the title from her, Jessica Andrade, at UFC 249 on April 18 from the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
News of the bout, which has yet to be made official by the promotion, was first reported by ESPN.
Namajunas will compete for the first time since suffering a grisly slam KO to Andrade at UFC 237 last May in a bout in which she was dominating until a second-round submission attempt resulted in Brazilian fighter Andrade picking her opponent up and slamming her head-first into the canvas, knocking her out.
Andrade wouldn’t hold the title for long after she was beaten via strikes just 42 seconds into her first title defence against surging Chinese fighter Zhang Weili who became the first UFC champion from that country in the process.
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Two years ago today… 2020 will be mine God willing! Matter fact today is mine! Praise the Lord! 🙌
New York City has been a happy hunting ground for Namaunas. She caused one of the biggest upsets in the history of women’s divisions in the UFC when she knocked out previously undefeated champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk just over three minutes into the first round of their fight at UFC 217 in November 2017. Namajunas followed that up with a five round unanimous decision win against the Pole five months later.
UFC 249 is set to be headlined by a lightweight title bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, while a middleweight bout between Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza and Uriah Hall has also been announced.
