Former LFA strawweight champion and Contender Series alum Vanessa Demopoulos will be stepping in to face JJ Aldrich at UFC Vegas 35.
JJ Aldrich will remain on the UFC Vegas 35 card on August 28, as she takes on Vanessa Demopoulos. The ex-LFA champ known as “Lil Monster” steps in to replace Tracy Cortez on short notice. Sources confirmed the booking to Cageside Press on Friday evening. MMA DNA was first to report the news.
Demopoulos (6-3) was preparing for a strawweight bout against Kathryn Paprocki on August 27, which is the day before UFC Vegas 35. Fighting out of FightReady and SiegeMMA in Arizona, Demopoulos was the inaugural LFA strawweight champion and fought on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020. A professional since 2017, Demopoulos also has an impressive amateur career that saw her face UFC veterans Katlyn Chookagian and Cheyanne Buys.
Aldrich (9-4) has been part of the UFC since 2016 and is looking to build on her victory over Cortney Casey this past March. Aldrich had previously been preparing for Contender Series alum Tracy Cortez who is a teammate of Demopoulos.
UFC Vegas 35 is set to be headlined by a featherweight matchup between knockout artists Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze. The event will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Currently, the card breaks down as follows:
Edson Barboza vs. Giga Chikadze
Ricky Turcios vs. Brady Hiestand – TUF 29 final (bantamweight)
Bryan Battle vs. Gilbert Urbina – TUF 29 final (middleweight)
Kevin Lee vs. Daniel Rodriguez
Alessio Di Chirico vs. Aliaskhab Khizriev
Makhmud Muradov vs. Gerald Meerschaert
Antônio Braga Neto vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan
Sam Alvey vs. Wellington Turman
Jamall Emmers vs. Pat Sabatini
Mario Bautista vs. Guido Cannetti
Dustin Jacoby vs. Darren Stewart
Andre Petroski vs. Micheal Gillmore
