Holly Holm vs. Yana Kunitskaya Booked for UFC on ESPN 43

Former bantamweight queen Holly Holm will lock horns with Yana Kunitskaya at UFC on ESPN 43 on March 25.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the pairing. UFC on ESPN 43 takes place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. A headliner has not been announced, but the card is expected to include a middleweight tilt between Chidi Njokuani and Albert Duraev as well as a women’s flyweight duel pitting Maycee Barber against Andrea Lee.

Holm had a two-bout winning streak snapped in her lone appearance of 2022, as she fell to Ketlen Vieira in a closely-contested split-decision defeat at UFC Fight Night 206. Prior to that, the Jackson-Wink MMA standout had posted back-to-back decision triumphs over Irene Aldana and Raquel Pennington.

Kunitskaya sat out the entirety of 2022 after announcing her pregnancy with husband Thiago Santos. In her last outing, the 33-year-old Russian suffered a first-round TKO defeat to Aldana at UFC 264 in July 2021.