Fresh off a May 14 event that featured Jessica Camara’s upset of Heather Hardy, Lou DiBella is stepping up to the plate again on August 20 with perhaps the best all-female card seen in years, featuring two world championship fights, a title eliminator and the return of a former world champ after a long layoff.
The event will air live on UFC FIGHT PASS from the Sycuan Casino Resort in El Cajon, California.
In the main event, WBA junior welterweight champion Kali Reis will face comebacking former world titlist Diana Prazak of Australia. Reis has been garnering headlines for her starring role in the film “Catch the Fair One,” which earned the first-place audience award in the Narrative Feature category at the Tribeca Film Festival. But in August, the 34-year-old will make her first start since winning the vacant 140-pound crown in a November 2020 bout with Kandi Wyatt when she faces Prazak, a seasoned vet who has been in with the likes of Holly Holm, Layla McCarter (in a BKB bout), Frida Wallberg, Fatuma Zarika, and Delfine Persoon. In March, the 41-year-old Prazak returned from an over six-year layoff to decision Milagros Diaz and improve her record to 14-3 (nine KOs). This bout will also be contested for the vacant IBO title.
In the co-main event, Mary McGee puts her IBF junior welterweight crown on the line against her mandatory challenger from Argentina, Victoria Bustos. Bustos has won six of her last eight, with her only defeats in that stretch coming against Katie Taylor and Cecilia Braekhus, while McGee is unbeaten in seven fights since 2013 and back in action for the first time since a February 2020 stoppage of Deanha Hobbs. The fight will also be for the vacant WBO title, which will be vacated due to champion Christina Linardatou’s pregnancy.
Rounding out the televised portion of the card is a welterweight bout to produce a mandatory challenger for the WBA portion of Jessica McCaskill’s undisputed crown as Alma Ibarra, who recently defeated Maricela Cornejo at 160 pounds, returns to 147 to battle the aforementioned Wyatt.
We’re calling the fight ‘The Thrilla for CasKILLA,’” laughed DiBella, who also revealed that August 20 will mark the long-awaited return of former interim WBA junior middleweight champion Raquel Miller in the UFC FIGHT PASS opener. Sporting a perfect 10-0 record, Miller has been on the sidelines since a 2019 campaign that saw her defeat Ashleigh Curry, Erin Toughill, and Ibarra in succession.
“Every fight on the card is gonna be significant,” said DiBella, a longtime advocate for women’s boxing who is leading the charge for the sport with this series, which he hopes will continue to grow as it gives a platform for the ladies of the sweet science. “It's a loaded show and hopefully it will get supported by fans of women's boxing, and they'll get UFC FIGHT PASS and watch. I want people to respond and watch. That's the only way the women's game is gonna get traction and continue to grow.”
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