Irene Aldana vs. Raquel Pennington main event among additions to UFC card May 20
The UFC Fight Night lineup for May 20 continues to fill as a main event is among new official additions.
Women’s bantamweight contenders Irene Aldana and Raquel Pennington will headline the event in a five-round bout, the promotion announced Tuesday. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Aldana (14-6 MMA, 7-4 UFC) and Pennington (15-8 MMA, 12-7 UFC) were initially linked to a March 25 main event matchup in San Antonio. However, the bout never materialized.
The bout will be rematch of a UFC on ESPN 4 matchup, which took place in July 2019 and saw Pennington defeat Aldana by split decision.
Some fans and pundits speculated Aldana would be next for bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes. However, the promotion ultimately booked Nunes in a trilogy bout vs. Julianna Peña instead.
Aldana, 35, has won two straight fights and four of her most recent five. Her two most recent victories were TKOs against Yana Kunitskaya and Macy Chiasson.
Pennington, 34, rides a five-fight winning streak into the bout, which includes victories over Marion Reneau, Pannie Kianzad, Macy Chiasson, Aspen Ladd, and Ketlen Vieira.
Other new additions to the card announced Tuesday include Joaquin Buckley (15-6 MMA, 5-4 UFC) vs. Andre Fialho (16-6 MMA, 2-3 UFC), Orion Cosce (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) vs. Gilbert Urbina (6-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC), and Victoria Leonardo (9-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC) vs. Natalia Silva (14-5-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC).
With the additions, the UFC Fight Night lineup for May 20 includes:
- Irene Aldana vs. Raquel Pennington
- Anthony Hernandez vs. Edmen Shahbazyan
- Joaquin Buckley vs. Andre Fialho
- Orion Cosce vs. Gilbert Urbina
- Diego Ferreira vs. Michael Johnson
- Vanessa Demopoulos vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Brunno Ferreira
- Ilir Latifi vs. Rodrigo Nascimento
- Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Hayisaer Maheshate
- Nick Fiore vs. Chase Hooper
- Victoria Leonardo vs. Natalia Silva
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for the UFC Fight Night event May 20.