Holly Holm is back in the main event spotlight.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) will follow up its 2023 International Fight Week with a July 15, 2023, Fight Night event at a location yet to be announced. In the main event of that card, however, will be a women’s Bantamweight contender showdown, pitting the former champion, Holly Holm (15-6), against the No. 10-ranked Mayra Bueno Silva (10-2-1), according to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. Miesha Tate was originally expected to face Bueno Silva at UFC Vegas 74 on June 3, 2023, but is no longer a part of the equation because of a hand injury.
Bueno Silva has been red-hot at 135 pounds since moving up from Flyweight in early 2022. “Sheetara” has won three in a row, finishing her last two opponents, Stephanie Egger and Lina Landsberg, via armbar and kneebar submissions, respectively. The bout will be her first time as a main event in her eight-fight UFC career.
Holm, 41, has continued to turn back the clock, looking arguably just as good as ever in her last time out, picking up an overall impressive unanimous decision win vs. former training partner, Yana Santos, in March 2023. The Bueno Silva match up will see Holm enter her eighth UFC main event. Ketlen Vieira defeated Holm via a tightly contested split decision in “The Preacher’s Daughter’s” last headliner directly prior to the Santos rebound victory.
The current six-fight line up for the July 15, 2023, Fight Night event can be seen below.
- 135lbs.: Holly Holm vs. Mayra Bueno Silva
- 170lbs.: Rafael dos Anjos vs. Vicente Luque
- 265lbs.: Walt Harris vs. Josh Parisian
- 125lbs.: Azat Maksum vs. Tyson Nam
- 135lbs.: Ashlee Evans-Smith vs. Ailín Pérez
- 145lbs.: Norma Dumont vs. Chelsea Chandler
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
