Emily Ducote excited to make UFC debut against Jessica Penne at UFC Long Island
Emily Ducote has had a rollercoaster career up to this point, but nonetheless things couldn’t be better right now as she is officially a UFC fighter.
Ducote will be making her UFC debut on July 16 at UFC London when she takes on former UFC title challenger Jessica Penne.
For Ducote the road to the UFC has been a wild one filled with plenty of experiences.
When she was young in her career, the American Top Team OKC athlete made the decision to take a chance and join Bellator’s flyweight division despite being a natural strawweight.
While fighting in a higher weight class in Bellator, Ducote experienced highs and lows. She started off her flyweight journey with a 4-1 record and competed for the the inaugural Bellator flyweight title, but lost to Ilima-Lei Macfarlane.
Following that loss, Ducote would lose her next two fights and would enter up no longer on the Bellator roster.
After that experience, Ducote made the decision to go back to strawweight and it turns out it was the right decision as since then she has posted 5-1 record and defeated former UFC fighter Danielle Taylor by a highlight reel knockout to win the Invicta FC strawweight title.
Many thought Ducote would get the call to the UFC after winning the title, but when the promotion wasn’t making the call, Ducote decided to stay active and make a successful title defense.
Following her win over Alesha Zappitella at Invicta FC 47, the UFC finally called and now Ducote is focused on making a run in the sports biggest promotion.
Prior to her UFC debut, Ducote spoke with MyMMANews about her matchup with Penne, her road to the UFC and her goals now that she’s in the promotion.
You can watch the full interview in the video above.
A full listed of fights scheduled for UFC Long Island are listed below
Brian Ortega vs. Yair Rodriguez
Shane Burgos vs. Charles Jourdain
Jack Shore vs. Ricky Simon
Amanda Lemos vs. Michelle Waterson
Bill Algeo vs. Billy Quarantillo
Li Jingliang vs. Muslim Salikhov
Matt Schnell vs. Su Mudaerji
Dwight Grant vs. Dustin Stoltzfus
Khusein Askhabov vs. Herbert Burns
Dalcha Lungiambula vs. Puna Soriano
Dustin Jacoby vs. Da-un Jung
Jessica Penne vs. Emily Ducote
