A third women’s strawweight bout has been added to the upcoming UFC Fight Night 64: “Gonzaga vs Cro Cop 2” event on April 11th in Kraków, Poland. Former bantamweights Izabela Badurek and Aleksandra “Stitch” Albu drop down to 115 pounds and face off on the preliminary card.
UFC officials announced the fight this week. Badurek weighed in at 143 pounds for her most recent bout four weeks ago, which ended in a quick submission victory. Albu was originally set to make her UFC debut at 135 pounds in late 2013 before an injury forced her out of her planned fight.
Badurek (5-2-0) has fought exclusively in her home country of Poland, where she has earned first-round submission wins in each of her five victories. All five wins have come against pro debutants, however, and Badurek will encounter tougher opposition along with a significant weight cut as a member of the UFC women’s strawweight roster. The 23-year-old is coming off of a first-round armbar submission win over the debuting Zaira Dyshekova on January 31st, in a bout that was contested almost 30 pounds heavier than Badurek will be competing at inside the Octagon.
Albu (1-0-0; billed as 5-0-0) remains one of the most puzzling UFC signees in recent years. The Russian fighter reportedly racked up four straight wins in undocumented MMA bouts in Thailand before winning her lone credited fight in June 2013 when she stopped Lyubov Demidova. She was set to battle Julie “Fireball” Kedzie in a bantamweight bout at UFC Fight Night 33 before an injury forced Albu to withdraw. She sat out all of 2014 and now makes her long-delayed UFC debut as a strawweight in April.
UFC Fight Night 64: “Gonzaga vs Cro Cop 2” takes place on April 11th at Kraków Arena in Kraków, Poland. The event is headlined by a heavyweight rematch between Gabriel “Napão” Gonzaga and the returning Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović, and also features a second women’s strawweight bout between Claudia “Claudinha” Gadelha and Aisling “Ais The Bash” Daly, as well as a third 115-pound female fight between Joanne “JoJo” Calderwood and Maryna “The Iron Woman” Moroz.
The myth! The legend! The Albu!
UFC has shown they like hot girl fights, it sells like hot potatoes, and this is the queen of them. Someone told me Badurek is the most well known female fighter in Poland because, well you can see. And people have been waiting for Albu for years
It also seems like UFC is almost creating a European divsion of strawweights. I expect the last European based Invicta fighters to jump since it would take a financial burden off Invitca to fly these fighters in. And it will expose the fighters to a European audience.