Raquel Pennington vs. Ketlen Viera teed up for UFC's first 2023 event
The lineup for the UFC’s first card of 2023 continues to grow with the addition of a new women’s bantamweight bout.
Raquel Pennington (14-8 MMA, 11-5 UFC) is set to take on Ketlen Viera (13-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) at the event, which is expected to be UFC Fight Night 217, at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Both fighters confirmed the matchup on their social media accounts following an initial report from MMAFighting.com.
Pennington will put a four-fight winning streak on the line against Brazil’s Vieira. After a rough patch that saw her drop three of four fights, Pennington got on a roll in mid-2020 with a win over Marion Reneaau.
After 15 months away, she returned in September 2021 to beat Pannie Kianzad, then submitted “Ultimate Fighter” winner Macy Chiasson at featherweight later that year. In April, she picked up arguably her biggest win yet when she returned to bantamweight to beat Aspen Ladd at UFC 273.
Vieira has bounced back in the past year after a decision loss to former Invicta champion Yana Kunitskaya. In November 2021, she outworked former champion Miesha Tate in Tate’s second fight since her comeback from retirement. And in April, she beat another ex-champ in Holly Holm with a split decision, giving her wins in three of her past four fights.
With the addition, the UFC’s Jan. 14 lineup now includes:
- Kelvin Gastelum vs. Nassourdine Imavov
- Carlos Hernandez vs. Allan Nascimento
- Geoff Neal vs. Shavkat Rakhmonov
- Jimmy Flick vs. Jeff Molina
- Raquel Pennington vs. Ketlen Vieira