The UFC have revealed that no.2 ranked light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming UFC Fight Night Berlin main event bout against Brazilian Glover Teixeira. The Swedish standout is suffering from a nagging back injury according to earlier reports from Swedish website MMAViking.com.
UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk (9-0-0), from Poland, will step into the main event slot at O2 World in Berlin on June 20 to defend her belt against no.3 ranked Jessica Penne (12-3-0) from California, USA. This will be the first title fight to take place in Europe outside of the UK and the first ever female title fight in Europe. UFC gold was last on the line in Europ when Brazil’s Renan Barão defended the Interim Bantamweight Championships against American Michael McDonald in 2013 t London’s Wembley Arena.
Following her impressive win fro the 115lb title over Carla Esparza in March this year, Jedrzejczyk returned to Poland a national hero and began to train for her next fight almost immediately, eager to defend the belt against the next contender.
Former Invicta Atomweight Champion Penne featured on the 2014 series of The Ultimate Fighter: A Champion Will be Crowned as a member of Team Pettis, recording a win over Randa Markos at the finale on December 12.
Penne, once the best in the world at 105lbs, will look to derail the meteoric run of Jedrzejczyk with her world class ground attack and claim the strawweight belt.
Photo by Jorden Curran
