Unbeaten prospect Bethe “Pitbull” Correia and popular rising star Jessamyn “The Gun” Duke have agreed to face off in a featured bantamweight bout at UFC 172: “Jones vs Teixeira,” which takes place on April 26th in Baltimore, Maryland. Globo.com first reported on the planned fight earlier today.
Correia made a successful Octagon debut this past month when she edged out veteran contender Julie “Fireball” Kedzie at UFC Fight Night 33. TUF 18 quarterfinalist Duke kicked off her official UFC career with a Unanimous Decision victory over Peggy “The Daywalker” Morgan in November.
Correia (7-0-0) opened her pro career with three straight decision wins in 2012, but it was her campaign in 2013 that put her on the UFC radar. Following back-to-back wins, Correia picked up her third victory of the year and biggest to date when she defeated Érica Paes at Jungle Fight 54 in June. UFC officials quickly signed Correia to join the newly-formed UFC women’s bantamweight division and she made her promotional debut on December 7th. At the end of three hard-fought rounds, Correia narrowly defeated Kedzie via a razor-thin Split Decision.
Duke (3-0-0, 1 NC) followed up on her 5-2 stint as an amateur by stopping back-to-back opponents in her first two professional fights for Invicta FC. Her third pro bout initially ended in a first-round knockout loss to multi-time Muay Thai world champion “The Queen of Mean” Miriam Nakamoto at Invicta FC 5, but the result of the fight was overturned to a No Contest as a result of an illegal knee. Duke’s TUF 18 run ended in a loss to Raquel “Rocky” Pennington in the quarterfinal round, but she rebounded by outpointing Morgan at The Ultimate Fighter 18 Finale on November 30th.
UFC 172: “Jones vs Teixeira” takes place on April 26th at the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, Maryland. The event is headlined by a UFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout between Jon “Bones” Jones and Glover Teixeira.
(Photo Credit: UFC)
I believe Duke is improving very quickly, especially training with Rousey at her gym, and she should win this fight quite handily. I think Duke is just too big and strong for all but a handful of the top girls. I still don’t know how Peggy Morgan lasted the full 3 rounds against Duke. I hope we see Peggy again at some point.
Peggy is bigger than Jessamyn. She’s dropped down to bantamweight to get into the UFC but she was a featherweight before. That’s probably the reason Jessamyn couldn’t KO her.