The massive UFC 259 card just picked up two
more intriguing matchups.
A bantamweight matchup between Yadong Song
(16-4-1, 1 NC) and Kyler
Phillips (8-1) has been added to the year’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view on
American soil, as first reported by Bloody Canvas on Friday. Song
fought most recently at UFC on ESPN 8 last May, winning a unanimous
decision over fellow bantamweight Marlon Vera
in a short-notice featherweight booking, and bringing his record in
the UFC to 5-0-1. The 25-year-old Phillips is 2-0 in the UFC since
making his Octagon debut last year, having defeated Gabriel
Silva by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 169 on Feb. 29,
and ground-and-pounded Cameron
Else for a second-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 16 on Oct. 3.
Strawweight up-and-comers Livinha
Souza (14-2) and Amanda
Lemos (8-1-1) are also set to square off at UFC 259, with both
women looking to keep their positive momentum going in the new
year. Combate was the first to
announce the matchup on Friday. Former Invicta FC strawweight champion Souza defeated
Ashley
Yoder by unanimous decision at UFC 252 on Aug. 15, bouncing
back from her first Octagon loss and bringing her UFC record to
3-1. Lemos is 2-1 since joining the UFC in 2017, having defeated
Miranda
Granger and Mizuki
Inoue after being punched out by a much larger Leslie
Smith at flyweight in her debut.
UFC 259 takes place on March 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas,
Nevada. It is scheduled to be headlined by a title tripleheader, as
light heavyweight kingpin Jan
Blachowicz defends against middleweight counterpart Israel
Adesanya in a champ vs. champ superfight in the main event. The
co-main event features a current two-division champ, with Amanda
Nunes set to stake her featherweight belt against Megan
Anderson, and before that, Petr Yan will
defend his bantamweight belt against Aljamain
Sterling.