A women’s strawweight division affair has been added to the forthcoming UFC 216 card as Pearl Gonzalez is going to be in action against Poliana Botelho.
Gonzalez (6-2-0) is currently winless under the UFC banner, having dropped a fight to Cynthia Calvillo at UFC 210. Gonzalez has only seen two of his eight professional MMA fights go the distance and it has been over two years since her last fight that didn’t end with a finish. Gonzalez also holds a win over fellow UFC fighter Cortney Casey, whom she defeated at Xtreme Fighting Championships 26 in October 2013.
You may remember Gonzalez as the fighter who was briefly pulled from UFC 210 due to having breast implants.
Botelho (5-1-0) is going to be making her UFC debut in this fight and she does so on the strength of a three fight winning streak. Botelho has only suffered a single defeat as a professional MMA fighter and that came to fellow UFC fighter Viviane Pereira at Bitetti Combat 20. Botelho is also competing for the first time in two years, with her last fight coming against Silvana Gomez Juarez at Xtreme Fighting Championships International 11 in 2015.
UFC 216 takes place on Saturday, October 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
