A women’s strawweight fight that was scrapped for next week due to a positive COVID-19 test has been rebooked for later in the month.
Marina Rodriguez (12-0-2 MMA, 2-0-2) was supposed to take on Carla Esparza (16-6 MMA, 7-4 UFC) at the UFC’s July 15 event in Abu Dhabi. But when one of Rodriguez’s corners tested positive for coronavirus, the fight was canceled.
Now, though, the fight is back on for “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi – but on July 25. A person with knowledge of the booking confirmed the news to MMA Junkie following an initial report from MMAFighting.com.
Rodriguez’s COVID-19 test come back negative after her corner tested positive, but had to be pulled for precautionary reasons. The 32-year-old most recently fought Cynthia Calvillo to a majority draw this past December – her second draw in four UFC fights.
Esparza is coming off a UFC 249 win over Michelle Waterson. Esparza, the UFC’s inaugural women’s strawweight champion and a former Invicta FC champ, is on a three-fight winning streak – her best run in the UFC and best run since a 2011-14 stretch of five straight victories.
With the addition, the UFC’s July 25 card now includes:
- Robert Whittaker vs. Darren Till
- Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Mauricio Rua
- Alex Oliveira vs. Peter Sobotta
- Alexander Gustafsson vs. Fabricio Werdum
- Nicolas Dalby vs. Jesse Ronson
- Tom Aspinall vs. Jake Collier
- Raphael Pessoa vs. Justin Tafa
- Movsar Evloev vs. Mike Grundy
- Bethe Correia vs. Pannie Kianzad
- Umar Nurmagomedov vs. Nathaniel Wood
- Ramazan Emeev vs. TBA
- Gadzhimurad Antigulov vs. Paul Craig
- Jai Herbert vs. Francisco Trinaldo
- Carla Esparza vs. Marina Rodriguez
