A women’s bantamweight rematch between top-5 ranked contenders Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana has reportedly been targeted to be the main event of UFC On ESPN 43 on March 25th in San Antonio, Texas.
These two have fought once before back in 2019, with Pennington emerging victorious on that occasion via split-decision.
Word of the rematch being in the works comes just two weeks after Pennington started off the year with a split decision victory over Ketlen Vieira at UFC Fight Night 217.
That was the former title contender’s 5th win in a row, having also beaten the likes of Marion Reneau, Pannie Kianzad, May Chiasson and Aspen Ladd along the way to rise up to the No.2 spot in the 135lb rankings.
Now Pennington will go up against the 5th ranked Aldana, who has made a big statement with her last two victories in the Octagon, having TKO’d Yana Kunitskaya in the first round back in 2021 and then followed that up by a KO finish against Macy Chiasson last year.
That leaves her with four wins from her last five fights, including another KO victory against Aspen Ladd, and so a win over Pennington could propel her into title contention.
If officially confirmed, Pennington vs. Aldana 2 would fron a UFC On ESPN 43 card that will also feature the likes of Holly Holm vs. Yana Kunitskaya, Sean Brady vs. Michel Pereira and Macy Chiasson vs. Andrea Lee.
