Holly Holm & Irene Aldana to headline Aug. 1 event; Shahbazyan-Brunson also on card
Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm will return to action on August 1 by headlining the card against Irene Aldana.
According to ESPN, who was first to report the news, the UFC planned to have a pay-per-view event on that date, but the promotion has since changed the event to a UFC Fight Night. The event is expected to be held in the UFC’s Apex facility in Las Vegas.
Holm (13-5) will come into the fight coming off a unanimous decision win over Raquel Pennington at UFC 248 in January. Holm has fought in five title fights over two weight classes in her career. She won her first title opportunity by scoring a knockout win over Ronda Rousey. After that she dropped the rest of title fights to Miesha Tate, Germaine de Randamie, Cris Cyborg and Amanda Nunes.
Aldana (12-5), of Guadalajara, Mexico, is on the rise in the division. She has won five of her past six fights, including a first-round stoppage over Ketlen Vira in December.
The UFC also added a middleweight bout between undefeated prospect Edmen Shahbazyan and veteran Derek Brunson to that same card. The two were originally scheduled to fight on March 7 and then on April 11, but both fights were moved for various reasons.
Shahbazyan (11-0) is a rising star within the middleweight division. The 22-year old trains out of Glendale Fighting Club in California, which is famously known as the gym of UFC legend Ronda Rousey. Since retiring from the sport, Rousey now serves as Shahbazyan’s manager.
Brunson (20-7) is looking to build off of a great 2019, where he won back-to-back fights over Elias Theodorou and Ian Heinisch. Prior to that, he dropped both his fights in 2018 to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. Brunson also hold a knockout win over legend Lyoto Machida.
