Just six weeks before she enters the inaugural Cage Warriors 125-pound women’s tournament, Ireland’s Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly will face Dutch striker Titiana van Polanen Petel at Battlezone Fighting Championships 5. The fight takes place on March 24th in Daly’s hometown of Dublin, Ireland.

Battlezone officials revealed the matchup on Sunday and both fighters subsequently confirmed their participation on Twitter. Daly has won three straight fights and captured the NAAFS 125-pound women’s title in June. Van Polanen Petel scored a first-round TKO victory this past March.

Daly (13-2-0) will bring a considerable edge in MMA experience into her bout with Holland’s van Polanen Petel (1-2-0 MMA; 16-5-1 kickboxing), but her opponent should hold a decided advantage on the feet and has been kickboxing professionally for nearly six years. Daly will compete in Ireland for only the second time since 2009 when she faces van Polanen Petel and she has never lost in her home country. She remains Ireland’s top female fighter and will be one half of the biggest women’s bout in U.K. MMA history when she faces England’s Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton for Cage Warriors on May 5th.

Before Daly enters the Cage Warriors tournament, however, she will first have to get past van Polanen Petel and the task may not be as straightforward as van Polanen Petel’s limited MMA record might suggest. Daly won three of her four bouts in 2011, but her lone defeat came against a larger and more powerful striker in Germany’s Sheila Gaff. Van Polanen Petel has fought at weights above 125 pounds many times in her career and, like Gaff, she is a superior technical striker and power puncher to Daly.

If van Polanen Petel can keep the bout with Daly on the feet, she could score a considerable upset victory and would send a shockwave through the division in the process.

Battlezone Fighting Championships 5 takes place on March 24th at the Regency Hotel in Whitehall, Dublin, Ireland. The bout between Daly and van Polanen Petel will be contested at 125 pounds and Daly will still be a part of the upcoming Cage Warriors women’s tournament barring injury.

(Photo Credit: Sherdog.com)