Two major female fights added to UFC 205 in NYC

The UFC continues to stack the deck for their historic first visit to New York on November 12th. Earlier today, officials announced a strawweight title bout between 3-time defending champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (12-0) and #1 contender Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-0). FloCombat was the first to break news of the booking between these two undefeated Polish powerhouses.

Kowalkiewicz earned her title shot by defeating Rose Namajunas via split decision in the co-main event of UFC 201 in late July. Their back and forth war would earn both women fight of the night honors.

Joanna Champion put together one of the best calendar years in MMA history last year. She started off her 2015 campaign with the destruction of inaugural strawweight champ Carla Esparza before defending her new title twice against Jessica Penne and Valerie Letourneau.

2015’s Lady Violence award winner went on to coach season 23 of The Ultimate Fighter against her most bitter rival to date, Claudia Gadelha, whom she would close the book on after defeating her for a 2nd time this past summer.

An Ode to Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Claudia Gadelha

A pivotal women’s bantamweight match up between former Strikeforce and UFC champ, Miesha Tate (18-6), and surging slugger Raquel Pennington (8-5) has also been added to UFC 205.

Coming off a headlining stint on the landmark UFC 200 card, Tate will look to put another string of wins together after dropping her title to Amanda Nunes.

Tate coached Pennington to the semi-finals on season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter where she would lose via unanimous decision to former professional boxer Jessica Rakoczy.

Pennington has put together a respectful 5-2 record since joining the UFC as a .500 fighter having posted wins against the likes of Jessica Andrade, Ashlee Evans-Smith, Bethe Correia and Roxanne Modafferi. If she emerges victorious from this coach versus pupil bout it will easily be the biggest win of her career.

Here’s a look at UFC 205 as it stands tonight:

Welterweight Title Bout
Tyron Woodley (c) (16-3) vs. Stephen Thompson (13-1)

Women’s Strawweight Title Bout
Joanna Jedrzejczyk (c) (12-0) vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-0)

Welterweight Bout
Donald Cerrone (31-7) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (12-2)

Featherweight Bout
Frankie Edgar (20-5-1) vs. Jeremy Stephens (25-12)

Middleweight Bout
Chris Weidman (13-1) vs. Yoel Romero (12-1)

Middleweight Bout
Tim Kennedy (18-5) vs. Rashad Evans (19-5-1)

Women’s Bantamweight Bout
Miesha Tate (18-6) vs. Raquel Pennington (8-5)

Women’s Bantamweight Bout
Liz Carmouche (10-5) vs. Katlyn Chookagian (8-0)

Middleweight Bout
Tim Boetsch (19-10) vs. Rafael Natal (21-7-1)

Lightweight Bout
Jim Miller (27-8) vs. Thiago Alves (21-10)

Welterweight Bout
Lyman Good (19-3) vs. Belal Muhammad (10-1)