Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino was originally supposed to take on Invicta FC featherweight champion Megan Anderson at UFC 214, however Anderson pulled out for personal reasons. Justino will instead face hard-nosed veteran Tonya Evinger with the vacant UFC women’s 145-pound title on the line.
The new weight class was introduced at UFC 208 in February with Germaine de Randamie winning a controversial decision over Holly Holm to earn the inaugural title. However, de Randamie never defended her belt, refused to fight Justino, and said she had planned on returning to the 135-pound bantamweight division, so the promotion stripped her of the belt.
Justino (17-1, 1 NC) has long been the top female featherweight as well as the consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in women’s mixed martial arts. The Brazilian star is 2-0 in the UFC, finishing Lina Lansberg and Leslie Smith in 140-pound catchweight bouts in 2016, but she has never fought in her natural weight class under the UFC banner.
Evinger, the current Invicta FC bantamweight champion, is 19-5 with one no contest and hasn’t lost since 2011. She was submitted by Yana Kunitskaya with an armbar this past November but the result was overturned and changed to a no contest because the referee gave Evinger a warning for a foul she wasn’t committing, which in turn impacted her ability to defend the fight-finishing armbar. Evinger submitted Kunitskaya with a rear-naked choke in their March rematch.
UFC 214 takes place July 29 in Anaheim, Calif. It’s headlined by a championship grudge match between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones.
Here’s a look at the full UFC 214 lineup:
MAIN CARD
– Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones (for light-heavyweight title)
– Tyron Woodley vs. Demian Maia (for welterweight title)
– Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino vs. Tonya Evinger (for vacant women’s featherweight title)
– Robbie Lawler vs. Donald Cerrone
– Jimi Manuwa vs. Volkan Oezdemir
PRELIMINARY CARD
– Ricardo Lamas vs. Jason Knight
– Aljamain Sterling vs. Renan Barao
– Brian Ortega vs. Renato Moicano
– Andre Fili vs. Calvin Kattar
– Kailin Curran vs. Alexandra Albu
– Eric Shelton vs. Jarred Brooks
– Josh Burkman vs. Drew Dober