The UFC has officially announced the creation of a woman’s featherweight division in the UFC, but Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino won’t be one of the first two fighters to contend for the new title.
Instead, UFC Officials have revealed that former bantamweight champion Holly Holm will step up to the new 145lb weight class to fight Germaine De Randamie for the belt at UFC 208 on February 11th in Brooklyn, New York.
The UFC had originally offered ‘Cyborg’ the opportunity to fight either Holm or De Randamie for the title at UFC 208, but when she turned down the opportunity, indicating that she’d need more time to prepare, the UFC decided to forge ahead without her.
A former multiple-time boxing champion, Holm gets the opportunity despite having been defeated in her last two fights – losing the 135lb title by way of a fifth round submission against Miesha Tate at UFC 196 in March and then dropping a unanimous decision loss to Valentina Shevchenko at UFC On FOX 20 in July.
Meanwhile, De Randamie is only ranked No.11 at bantamweight, but the former muay thai champion is coming off back-to-back victories and has previous experience fighting at 145lbs while in the Strikeforce promotion a few years ago.
Holm Vs De Randamie is the first fight to be officially confirmed for UFC 208, though it’s also believed that a featherweight title unification bout between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway is also being targeted for the Brooklyn show.
