Outside Source
In the midst of a sea of breaking news in regards to new matchups, the UFC added some firepower to UFC 321 in addition to its Madison Square Garden card. On Thursday, it broke two new tilts for this pay-per-view card at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Oct. 25. With Weili Zhang giving up her belt to fight Valentina Shevchenko, the vacancy allows for Virna Jandiroba (22-3) and Mackenzie Dern (15-5) to run it back for that ownerless strawweight throne.
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The two met at UFC 256 in late 2020, and the Brazilian fell short by a close decision. Since then, Jandiroba has been a woman possessed, winning six of her last seven including five straight. On her current run, “Carcara” has won decisions over Xiaonan Yan, Lupita Godinez, Marina Rodriguez and Angela Hill while snaring an armbar over Amanda Lemos. The 37-year-old from Bahia, Brazil, holds her place among the top 10 in the strawweight record books in several categories, including being recognized for submission attempts—she and Dern are tied for divisional lead—along with control time and some other grappling metrics.
While Jandiroba is currently tied for second (three) for the most subs landed at strawweight, the leader of that accolade is Dern. The 10 wins for Dern at 115 pounds in the Octagon are good for the third-most, trailing Tecia Pennington’s 11 and Hill’s 12. The Arizona-born submission savant has notched back-to-back wins on her current run, prevailing on the scorecards over Godinez while tapping out Amanda Ribas with her own armbar.
The UFC did not announce just a single match for this Oct. 25 show. In addition to the Jandiroba-Dern rematch, the organization is marking on the calendar the official date of Umar Nurmagomedov (18-1) vs. Mario Bautista (16-2). Their bantamweight affair has been rumored and discussed by multiple figures in the sport including Nurmagomedov’s cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov. It is now a three-round 135-pound contest on the UFC 321 lineup, and not part of UFC Vancouver.
The last time out for Nurmagomedov, he vied for Merab Dvalishvili’s bantamweight strap and ran out of answers, ultimately losing a decision. That defeat squashed an undefeated record with 18 wins dating back to his pro debut at the end of 2016. As a member of the UFC roster, Nurmagomedov made his rise by outhustling competition like Raoni Barcelos, Brian Kelleher and Cory Sandhagen to get to his first title shot.
MMA Lab’s Bautista has played spoiler to fan-favorites of late, snagging a split decision against Jose Aldo before taking a much clearer triumph on the scorecards against Patrick Mix. While Nurmagomedov had won 18 in a row, Bautista has not come up short since getting punched repeatedly by Trevin Jones at UFC 259 in 2021. Since then, the 32-year-old has put together eight straight victories, even landing an ultra-rare reverse triangle armbar on his way up against Benito Lopez.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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