Aspen Ladd set to make PFL debut at 2022 PFL Championships against Julia Budd
Aspen Ladd will be making her PFL debut this year.
According to MMAMania, and later confirmed by Ladd, the former UFC contender will face former Bellator featherweight champ, Julia Budd, at the 2022 PFL Championships event on November 25 at Hulu Theater in New York City. The event will be live on pay-per-view.
Aspen Ladd (9-3) is on a two-fight losing skid and was released from the UFC after missing weight again against Sara McMann. The weight misses have been a concern for Ladd who has been the reason for canceled fights due to illness or weight cuts three other times.
Ladd last fought back in April at UFC 273 when she dropped a decision to Raquel Pennington and prior to that, she lost a five-round main event decision loss to Norma Dumont. Her last win came back in December of 2019 when she scored a TKO win over Yana Kunitskaya to return to the win column after a TKO loss to Germaine de Randamie in her first UFC main event. Inside the UFC, Ladd went 4-3 with her other wins coming over Sijara Eubanks, Tonya Evinger, and Lina Lansberg.
Julia Budd (16-4) suffered an upset loss to Genah Fabian back in May and then was forced to withdraw from her scrap against Kayla Harrison in July. She started out her PFL career with a decision win over Kaitlin Young after ending her Bellator career on a two-fight win streak. Budd had defended her Bellator featherweight title three times before losing it to Cris Cyborg. In her career, she holds notable wins over Germaine de Randamie, Olga Rubin, Arlene Blencowe, and Marloes Coenen. Her other two losses also came to Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey.
With the addition of Ladd vs. Budd, the 2022 PFL Championship card is as follows:
- Kayla Harrison vs. Larissa Pacheco – for women’s lightweight championship
- Bubba Jenkins vs. Brendan Loughnane – for featherweight championship
- Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Stevie Ray – for lightweight championship
- Sadibou Sy vs. Dilano Taylor – for welterweight championship
- Omari Akhmedov vs. Rob Wilkinson – for light heavyweight championship
- Ante Delija vs. Matheus Scheffel – for heavyweight championship
- Shane Burgos vs. Marlon Moraes
- Julia Budd vs. Aspen Ladd
- Biaggio Ali Walsh vs. opponent TBA
