Amanda Ribas weighs in for her fight against Emily Whitmire in June 2019. PhotoCred: FanSided
Amanda Ribas booked to fight Michelle Waterson at UFC 257
Amanda Ribas wanted to fight by the end of 2020. Originally she was scheduled to do so at UFC 256 against Carla Esparza, but then Esparza pulled out of the fight.
After Esparza dropped out, Ribas wanted to fight Michelle Waterson. Now she’s getting that wish, but it will happen next year at UFC 257 on Jan 23. ESPN was first to report the news of the fight and following their report, a source close to Ribas confirmed the news to MyMMANews.
Waterson (18-8) is a household name in the UFC and at one point in 2019 she was knocking on the door of getting a title fight until she lost back-to-back fights to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Esparza, both of which are former champions. Since those losses, she did pick up a win over Angela Hill in September.
Ribas (10-1) is a rising star and she is unbeaten in the UFC. So far this year, Ribas is 2-0 and she is coming off a first round submission win over Paige VanZant at UFC 251 in July.
Right now both Waterson and Ribas are ranked in the top ten of strawweight division at six and nine respectively.
Ribas wants to hold the UFC strawweight title one day and she told MyMMANews last month that Waterson would definitely help her move up in the rankings.
“It’ll be an amazing fight against Michelle,” Ribas said. “She is in a very good position in the rankings and I think It’ll be a good fight to watch.”
There is no set location for UFC 257, but it is expected to be a huge card for the UFC as Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier have agree to fight each other on that date.
