Ketlen Vieira vs. Raquel Pennington Set for UFC Fight Night Event on Jan. 14
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.
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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.
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