Two fights have been added to the UFC’s return to New Zealand.
A women’s strawweight bout between Loma Lookboonmee (4-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) and Hannah Goldy (5-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC), as well as a welterweight matchup between Maki Pitolo (12-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and Takashi Sato (15-3 MMA, 1-1 UFC), have been added to UFC on ESPN+ 26.
MMA Junkie confirmed the bookings with two persons with knowledge of the matchups following an initial report by the New Zealand Herald. The persons asked to remain anonymous since the UFC has not yet made an official announcement.
UFC on ESPN+ 26 takes place Feb. 22 (Feb. 23 locally) at Spark Arena in Auckland. The card streams on ESPN+.
Lookboonmee and Goldy will both be competing in their sophomore UFC appearances when they square off in Auckland. Lookboonmee’s first promotional outing was successful. At UFC on ESPN+ 20 in October, she defeated Aleksandra Albu by split decision. Goldy will look to rebound from a unanimous decision loss to Miranda Granger at UFC on ESPN 5 in August.
Pitolo and Sato each are coming off losses. After punching his ticket to the UFC on Dana White’s Contender Series, Pitolo dropped his debut to Callan Potter at UFC 234 in February. The defeat marked one of the biggest betting upsets of the year. Sato was successful in his UFC debut, an April knockout of Ben Saunders. In his second outing, Sato lost by third-round submission to Belal Muhammad at UFC 242 in September.
With the additions, the latest UFC on ESPN+ 26 lineup includes:
- Paul Felder vs. Dan Hooker
- Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Ben Sosoli
- Jake Matthews vs. Emil Meek
- Magomed Mustafaev vs. Brad Riddell
- Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Xiaonan Yan
- Jimmy Crute vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk
- Shana Dobson vs. Rachael Ostovich
- Kevin Aguilar vs. Zubaira Tukhugov
- Kai Kara-France vs. Tyson Nam
- Song Kenan vs. Callan Potter
- Jamie Mullarkey vs. Jalin Turner
- Hannah Goldy vs. Loma Lookboonmee
- Maki Pitolo vs. Takashi Sato
