Bantamweight Division
The women’s bantamweight division is looking to shake things up with the first bantamweight fight of the night. #1 ranked former champion Germaine De Randamie takes on #4 ranked Julianna Pena, both fighters hoping to get closer to a title shot.
**Just a warning, if you look through the ranks, women in the featherweight and bantamweight division have moved back and forth between the divisions, so try to keep up!**
Germaine De Randamie made history as the UFC’s first ever women’s featherweight champion. In 2017, she won a unanimous decision over this nights Fight Night favorite, to become champion. Just about 4 months later, De Randamie would be stripped of the belt by the UFC. It was announced by the UFC that they were stripping her of the belt because she did not want to fight the top featherweight contender at the time, Cris Cyborg. De Randamie confirmed this, and her manager Brian Butler said that they refused to fight Cris Cyborg because she is a “known and proven cheater”.
Here’s some quick background on that. It was said by Dana White, UFC President that he offered Cyborg 3 fights at featherweight and she denied them all. That seemed suspicious to him but he didn’t press the issue at the time. Then White finds out through the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the agency that conducts drug tests for the UFC, that Cyborg tested positive for a banned substance in an event outside of the UFC. Cyborg claims she needed it for treatment and it wasn’t a performance enhancing drug etc etc… Long story short, De Randamie used this as her reasoning for not wanting to fight Cyborg. Now I’m not entirely sure if that was the actual reason, or the reason was that Cyborg completely battered her opponents. It’s a crappy way to lose your belt, but I guess we’ll never really know the truth.
Moving on…
After having the belt taken away, De Randamie would continue with her winning ways, winning a total of 5 straight fights. However, her win streak would be snapped by the one and only Amanda “The Lioness” Nunes.
A lot less controversy with the underdog Julianna Pena. She has never held a title in the UFC, however she is well on her way to one. With just one loss in the UFC, defeating the #1 title contender in the division will make her the latest and greatest option for a title shot. Pena has stayed true to being a bantamweight and has defeated some pretty decent opponents in her short UFC career. Her only loss is to Valentina Shevchenko, the current flyweight champion. No surprise, Shevchenko is a beast. She is coming off a unanimous decision win against Nicco Montano, and hopes to add another to her win column.
Pena Is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist and that could pose and issue for De Randamie. Both fighters have been submitted once, but Pena has four submission victories under her belt. This is a very close matchup, De Randamie is 5 years older, has three inches of height and a two inch reach advantage on Pena. That’s about all the difference. I’m thinking I’m going with the underdog on this one. This could really shake up the bantamweight division. Get a fresh face and new name in title contention
Hammer: Julianna Pena
Nail: Germaine De Randamie
Prediction: I don’t see this fight ending in a TKO for either fighter. I predict a second round submission victory for Julianna Pena.
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