UFC 222 may just have been pulled back from the brink of cancellation, thanks to a women’s featherweight title fight being booked for the main event.
After losing the UFC 222 main event featherweight title fight between Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar, the UFC has managed to salvage the PPV card. And it’s a featherweight title fight that will top the bill — on the women’s side. On Wednesday, MMA Fighting was first to report that the UFC had booked women’s featherweight champ Cris Cyborg against Invicta FC bantamweight champ Yana Kunitskaya. The move was necessitated by an injury to Holloway that forced him off the card.
The end result is that Edgar (22–5–1), who was to challenge for the men’s 145lb title, will stay on the event. He’ll take on fellow featherweight contender Brian Ortega (13–0 (1)), who is coming off the biggest win of his career, a guillotine submission of Cub Swanson at UFC Fresno. That fight will serve as UFC 222’s co-main event.
Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya, meanwhile, serves as the main event. Cyborg (19–1 (1)) is coming off a five-round unanimous decision against Holly Holm at UFC 219. While she had been targeted for a super-fight against UFC bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes for sometime later this year, the UFC has apparently put that on the back-burner for now.
Instead, Cyborg gets Kunitskaya, who captured the vacant Invicta FC 135lb title in August. She defeated Raquel Pa’aluhi at Invicta FC 25 via unanimous decision to claim the belt, but has not fought since. She signed on the the UFC in recent months, but saw her potential debut against Sara McMann fall through previously.
In a stroke of luck, that made Kunitskaya, a 28-year old from Murmansk, Russia, available to fight for UFC gold. The big question mark will once again be the fact that yet another fighter is moving up in weight to face Cyborg. Not to mention that Kunitskaya was defeated by Tonya Evinger, who previously moved up to face Cyborg and was finished within three rounds.
That said, Cyborg has made a career of lining them up and knocking them down. It’s that very fact that has bolstered her popularity.
UFC 222 takes place March 3 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV.
Update — 11:15 PM ET: The UFC has now confirmed the bookings for UFC 222.
