Undefeated strawweight standout Tecia “The Tiny Tornado” Torres faces a familiar foe on April 16th at UFC on FOX 19: “Nurmagomedov vs Ferguson” in Tampa, Florida. Torres is set to face off against TUF 20 finalist “Thug” Rose Namajunas in a featured rematch on the FOX-televised main card.
UFC officials announced the matchup tonight following an initial report from MMAFighting.com this week. Torres handed Namajunas her first pro loss in the pair’s initial meeting at Invicta FC 6 in July 2013. Namajunas rebounded from her UFC title loss in late 2014 with back-to-back wins this past year.
Torres (7-0-0) entered The Ultimate Fighter 20 in 2014 as a fan favourite whom many had expected to advance far in the competition, but she was upset in the opening round by Randa “Quiet Storm” Markos and ultimately eliminated by eventual TUF 20 winner Carla “Cookie Monster” Esparza after receiving a second chance in the tournament. Since the unofficial setbacks, Torres has racked up three straight victories in official UFC bouts. She most recently outpointed RFA champion Jocelyn “Lights Out” Jones-Lybarger at UFC 194, and now looks to get back into title contention with a big victory in April.
Namajunas (4-2-0) put together an excellent run on TUF 20 that included submission victories over Alex “Astro Girl” Chambers, Joanne “JoJo” Calderwood and the aforementioned Markos before suffering a third-round submission loss to Esparza in the championship final. After a planned UFC 187 bout was scrapped, Namajunas returned to the Octagon in October and destroyed Angela “Overkill” Hill at UFC 192. She most recently finished “12 Gauge” Paige VanZant in round five of the UFC Fight Night 80 headliner in December, and now hopes to avenge her past loss to Torres in their April rematch.
UFC on FOX 19: “Nurmagomedov vs Ferguson” takes place on April 16th at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. The event is headlined by a lightweight bout between Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov and Tony “El Cucuy” Ferguson, and also features a women’s bantamweight matchup between Bethe “Pitbull” Correia and Raquel “Rocky” Pennington.
(Photo Credit: UFC)