A women’s strawweight matchup between Diana Belbita and former title challenger Karolina Kowalkiewicz is heading to a UFC Fight Night in October.
On Oct. 7 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Belbita (15-7 MMA, 2-3 UFC) faces Kowalkiewicz (15-7 MMA, 8-7 UFC) in what will be the second appearance of the year for both fighters. MMA Junkie confirmed the matchup with two sources following the bout appearing on the ESPN event schedule.
The UFC Fight Night event features a lightweight matchup between Grant Dawson and Bobby Green, and will air live on ESPN+.
Belbita, 27, will look to keep the momentum going following a unanimous decision win over Maria Oliveira at UFC 289 in June. If successful, she will get back to .500 in her young UFC tenure.
However, standing in her way will be Kowalkiewicz, 37, who is in the midst of a late career resurgence as a winner of three straight. The Polish fighter was thought to be on her way out after dropping five straight through 2018-21, but has since turned things around with consecutive wins over Felice Herrig, Silvana Gomez Juarez and Vanessa Demopoulos.
With the addition, the current UFC Fight Night event on Oct. 7 includes:
- Grant Dawson vs. Bobby Green
- Joaquin Buckley vs. Alex Morono
- Diana Belbita vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
- Drew Dober vs. Ricky Glenn
- Chris Gutierrez vs. Montel Jackson
- Abdul Razak Alhassan vs. Joe Pyfer
- Vanessa Demopoulos vs. Kanako Murata
- Bill Algeo vs. Alexander Hernandez
- Johnny Munoz vs. Aori Qileng
- Nate Maness vs. Mateus Mendonca
- Khusein Askhabov vs. Daniel Pineda
- Ion Cutelaba vs. Philipe Lins
- Montana De La Rosa vs. Stephanie Egger
