With the
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight title picture in
flux, the victor of this affair might be a couple wins away from a
crack at gold.
Ranked 135ers Karol Rosa
(17-6) and Pannie
Kianzad (16-8) will toe the line at a currently unnamed
UFC Fight Night card on Aug. 10. The two will square off inside
of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, with the first report on Wednesday
from Brazilian outlet
Ag Fight. Kianzad subsequently posted about the pairing on
social media
on Thursday to confirm its veracity.
Having alternated wins and losses in her last six, Brazil’s Rosa is
coming off of a titanic tussle with Irene
Aldana at UFC 296 in December. The two slugged it out for 15
violent, bloody minutes, and although Aldana picked up the nod on
the scorecards, both ladies scored $50,000 bonus checks for their
handiwork. As the Parana Vale Tudo fighter remained a contender in
her division, she has bested the likes of Yana Santos,
Lina
Lansberg and Bethe
Correia, all via decision. Rosa has gone the distance in nine
straight fights, encompassing her entire UFC run.
While Rosa lost in her last time out, Kianzad has dropped two in a
row dating back to July 2023. Ketlen
Vieira took a decision over her at UFC Fight Night 224, and
then lost via submission in a rematch with Macy
Chiasson at UFC Fight Night 239. Of note, both encounters came
at events headlined by Marcin
Tybura, who is rematching Sergey
Spivak in what could become the main attraction on this card.
Before the two losses, Kianzad had rattled off five wins in six
outings, beating Lansberg and Correia as well while falling short
to future champ Raquel
Pennington.
The UFC Fight Night event on Aug. 10 currently has no headliner
announced, although it will take place at the UFC Apex in Las
Vegas. Matchups likely to receive main card status include the
aforementioned Tybura-Spivak 2 heavyweight bout, a recently
rebooked featherweight affair between Damon
Jackson and Jose
Mariscal and a scrap at 135 pounds between Javid
Basharat and Chris
Gutierrez.