The victor of this Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight bout will be on a win streak, which might be all it takes to get a title shot.
Aldana will try to keep momentum in her favor against Chiasson, as she previously knocked out Yana Kunitskaya at UFC 264 in 2021. The match, however, was tainted by Aldana missing weight by nearly four pounds. Pairings with Germaine de Randamie and Aspen Ladd fell through following that bout for various reasons, including injury to her opponent and Aldana’s own withdrawal for undisclosed reasons. Dating back to 2018, Aldana has beaten the likes of Kunitskaya, Ketlen Vieira and Bethe Correia, while only falling short to Holly Holm and Raquel Pennington as she moved up the 135-pound rankings.
Chiasson has moved up and down between bantamweight and featherweight to find her place with the company, last topping an overweight Norma Dumont at 145 pounds to put herself in prime position to challenge for Amanda Nunes’ throne. Instead, Chiasson will return to a division in which she competed five times thus far in the UFC, with her lone defeat along the way a decision setback to Lina Lansberg. Winner of Season 28 of “The Ultimate Fighter” at featherweight, she did return to the division in December, only to fall victim to a Pennington submission after she herself missing weight.
UFC 279 will go down on Sept. 10 at an undetermined location or venue, and a match between Aljamain Sterling and T.J. Dillashaw may materialize as its headliner or at least on the marquee. A few other fights are established on the card, including Norma Dumont vs. Danyelle Wolf at women’s featherweight, as well as a heavyweight clash between Shamil Abdurakhimov and Jailton Almeida.