Mayra Sheetara will fight for the UFC belt. Photo: Reproduction/Twitter/@UFC
Mayra Sheetara have the chance to make history UFC this Saturday (20/01), when it faces the North American Rachel Pennington in the co-main fight of edition number 297, in Toronto, Canada. At stake is the women's bantamweight belt (up to 61,2 kg), which has remained vacant since Amanda nunes announced his retirement in June last year.
Sheetara, who has 10 wins, two losses and one draw in her career, could become the fourth Brazilian to win a UFC title, joining a select group made up of Amanda nunes, Chris Cyborg e Jessica Stacker. The three were champions in different categories and marked their time in MMA female.
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Amanda nunes was the first Brazilian to become champion in the UFC, in 2016, when she submitted Miesha Tate and won the bantamweight belt.
Afterwards, the Bahian made history by becoming the first woman to hold two UFC titles simultaneously, by knocking out Chris Cyborg and win the featherweight title (up to 65,7 kg) in 2018. The “Lioness” successfully defended her two belts until 2023, when she decided to retire.
Amanda nunes with the bantamweight and featherweight belts (Photo: Instagram/UFC)
Chris Cyborg She became the second Brazilian champion in the UFC, in 2016, when she beat Tonya Evinger and took the vacant featherweight belt. The Curitiba native defended the title twice, until losing to Amanda nunes, in one of the most anticipated fights in history.
Cyborg had one more fight in the organization, winning Felicia spencer, before moving to Bellator, where she became champion again.
Chris Cyborg defended the UFC between 2016 and 2019. Photo: Reproduction / Facebook ufc
Jessica Stacker is the most recent fighter from the country to reach the top of the world, in a 2019 fight, when she surprised Rose namajunas and took the strawweight belt (up to 52,1 kg), with a spectacular knockout in the second round.
Andrade defended the title once, against the Chinese Weili Zhang, but ended up losing by technical knockout at UFC Shenzhen three months after winning.
Jessica Stacker She is a former UFC strawweight champion. Photo: Reproduction/Facebook UFC
It's Mayra Sheetara's turn
Now, it's Sheetara's turn to try to make history and join this trio of Brazilian champions. The 32-year-old from Minas Gerais has been undefeated since moving up from flyweight to bantamweight in 2020, recording three wins and one “no contest” in the category.
She secured the chance to fight for the belt by submitting the former champion Holly holm with a rear naked choke in the first round, in July last year, at UFC Vegas 77.
The fight between Sheetara and Pennington will be the penultimate attraction of the UFC 297, which will have as its main event the fight for the middleweight belt (up to 83,9kg.), with Sean Strickland x Dricus du Plessis.
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