After seemingly endless back-and-forth, the women’s featherweight title tilt between champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino and Holly Holm is finally set for UFC 219.
The UFC made the announcement Thursday night via Twitter. It is unknown if the ladies will headline the promotion’s end-of-the-year spectacular.
The December 30 event takes place inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Holm’s camp was trying to negotiate a bigger payday for accepting the challenge of fighting the most violent female in MMA history. It is unknown if they received their target number, but whatever figure appeared on the contract was clearly enough to entice Holm.
This marks Holm’s fourth UFC title bout in her last six scaps. After shocking the MMA world with a highlight reel knockout of Ronda Rousey to capture the UFC bantamweight crown two years ago, she was upset by Miesha Tate in her next outing.
“The Preacher’s Daughter” faced Germaine de Randamie to become the UFC’s inaugural women’s 145-pound champ after losing to Valentina Shevchenko, but found herself on the wrong end of a unanimous decision in February.
Holm most recently knocked out Bethe Correia in June.
This marks the first time Justino will defend her gold since plastering Tonya Evinger in July to claim the belt de Randamie willingly vacated. Although Justino finished Evinger in devastating fashion, many thought the Brazilian showed several holes in her game by allowing the heavy underdog to last as long as three rounds.
Justino hasn’t dropped a fight since getting submitted in her MMA debut back in 2005. Her resume reads a dominant 18-1 (1 NC).
Here is the card’s current lineup:
Emil Meek vs. Kamaru Usman
Marc Diakiese vs. Dan Hooker
Rick Glenn vs. Myles Jury
Khalil Rountree vs. Gokhan Saki
Carlos Condit vs. Neil Magny
Matheus Nicolau vs. Louis Smolka
Cynthia Calvillo vs. Carla Esparza
Edson Barboza vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov
Holly Holm vs. Cris “Cyborg” Justino (UFC featherweight champion)
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