And we’re back 💥 https://t.co/WYnMHrYkxu
— Shane Burgos (@HurricaneShaneB)
June 2, 2022
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The Ultimate Fighting Championship is making sure
that its next foray on the ABC network will be one to remember.
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On Thursday, a trio of matchups were confirmed or updated for
UFC on ABC 3, with one fighter getting signed as a replacement
while two additional fights were set on the lineup. The July 16
event in Elmont, N.Y., initially had a preliminary strawweight
contest between Jessica
Penne (14-5) and Brianna
Fortino, but the latter had to withdraw from the contest. Per
MMA Junkie on Thursday morning, in her stead is ex-Invicta Fighting Championships champ Emily
Ducote, who successfully defended her title in that
organization earlier in May. Ducote confirmed her signing and match
on her Instagram
Stories on Thursday.
Penne returned to the organization after a lengthy layoff due to
USADA issues in 2021, and she met the surging Lupita
Godinez and won a split decision to end a three-fight skid
dating back to 2015. Since then, Penne fought once more, tapping
out Karolina
Kowalkiewicz in the first round with an armbar. The former
Invicta atomweight queen evened her UFC record to .500 with that
win, as she has only made six appearances since debuting off the
20th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2014.
In 2021, Ducote scored a frontrunner for “Knockout of the Year”
when she lamped Danielle
Taylor with a punch and a head kick to claim the vacant Invicta
strawweight strap. The aforementioned May title fight for Ducote
went her way when she forced the doctors to intervene at the end of
the second round against Alesha
Zappitella. In that bout, “Gordinha” became the first fighter
to finish the durable Zappitella. A longtime staple of the Bellator MMA flyweight division before leaving the
organization in 2018, she vied for the inaugural Bellator flyweight
championship in 2017, and succumbed to a fifth-round submission to
Ilima-Lei
Macfarlane.
When announcing that this event’s main card would air on ABC on
Wednesday, the promotion confirmed several matchups on the card
that had already been reported. One that first came to light prior
to the UFC’s announcement, courtesy of MMA
Island, was a flyweight tilt between Matt
Schnell (15-6) and Su Mudaerji
(16-4). Schnell will come into the pairing looking for his first
win in 18 months, while Mudaerji rides in on a three-fight win
streak across 125 and 135 pounds.
Finally, a sure-fire featherweight brawl was set for this fight
card, one that will likely serve on the main card between Shane
Burgos (13-3) and Charles
Jourdain (13-4-1). This fight booking first broke from Eurosport.NL
on Thursday, and Burgos celebrated
this bout moments after its announcement. The bout was once
targeted for UFC 276 at the beginning of July, but it has
subsequently shifted to July 16.
Burgos ended the first skid of his career – a decision loss to
Josh
Emmett in 2020 and a knockout defeat to Edson
Barboza in May 2021 – by going three hard-fought rounds with
Billy
Quarantillo at UFC 268. On most other nights,
Burgos-Quarantillo would have likely earned “Fight of the Night”
honors, but it had to contend with Justin
Gaethje and Michael
Chandler’s “Fight of the Year” winning battle. Since joining
the roster in 2016, Burgos has beaten the likes of Cub Swanson,
Makwan
Amirkhani and Charles
Rosa as he claimed a place in the ultra-competitive
featherweight division’s rankings.
“Air” Jourdain has seen a successful 2022 campaign thus far, where
he became just the second fighter to finish Lando
Vannata, doing so in April by guillotine choke. Winner of his
last two, the Canadian has had his fair share of ups and downs
since signing with the UFC in 2019, as this two-fight win streak is
his first streak of any kind as a UFC fighter. Losses to Andre Fili
and Julian
Erosa, interspersed by wins over Doo Ho Choi
and Marcelo
Rojo, along with a split draw with Joshua
Culibao, have seen little momentum build for the fighter who
celebrates a stellar finish rate of 92%.
UFC on ABC 3 goes down at the UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., which is
located on Long Island. The fight card on July 16 will be buoyed by
a featherweight scrap between Brian
Ortega and Yair
Rodriguez with major divisional implications at stake. The
remainder of the bout order has not yet been set, but other fights
featured highly on the event include a potential flyweight title
eliminator between Askar
Askarov and Alex Perez, a
bantamweight encounter between Ricky Simon
and Jack
Shore as well as a strawweight pairing when Michelle
Waterson takes on Amanda
Lemos.