UFC 217 in New York City this November officially has its third title fight. Confirmed today is a women’s strawweight championship bout between Joanna Jedrzejczyk and “Thug” Rose Namajunas. MMA Today originally reported the pair were being targeted for the Madison Square Garden card early in August. The bout will join Georges St. Pierre vs. Michael Bisping, and Cody Garabrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw, for the middleweight and bantamweight titles respectively.
via @ProCast: @joannamma will fight at UFC 217 to tie @RondaRousey's record for title defenses! But who will she face? pic.twitter.com/529tokkW1V
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) September 12, 2017
With the bout, Joanna Champion will have a chance to tie Ronda Rousey’s title defense record for women in the UFC at six. Jedrzejczyk (14–0) has been perfect thus far in her career, and is coming off a five round unanimous decision against Jessica Andrade at UFC 211 in May. UFC 217 will mark her second time performing at Madison Square Garden, following her defeat of Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC 205 last year.
Namajunas (6–3) will be getting her second crack at UFC gold with the match-up, following her fight against Carla Esparza for the inaugural women’s strawweight title back in 2014 at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 20. While she came up short that night, Thug Rose would go on to win four of her next five bouts in the UFC. She’s coming off a submission win over Michelle Waterson at UFC on Fox 24 in April.
UFC 217 takes place in New York City’s storied Madison Square Garden on November 4. Thus far, the card looks as follows:
Michael Bisping (c) vs. Georges St-Pierre
Cody Garbrandt (c) vs. T.J. Dillashaw
Joanna Jędrzejczyk (c) vs. Rose Namajunas
Aiemann Zahabi vs. Ricardo Ramos
Johny Hendricks vs. Paulo Borrachinha
Oleksiy Oliynyk vs. Curtis Blaydes
Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Ion Cuțelaba
Corey Anderson vs. Patrick Cummins
Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal
