Aspen Ladd vs Germaine De Randamie added to July 13 UFC show

BREAKING: UFC targeting Aspen Ladd vs. Germaine de Randamie for #UFC Sacramento main event (via @MMAJunkieJohn) https://t.co/83N1YjB4bD

— MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) May 29, 2019

John Morgan of MMA Junkie reports that Aspen Ladd vs Germaine De Randamie has been added to UFC on ESPN+ 13 July 13 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. This fight is at Bantamweight and will be the main event. The fight has been verbally agreed to. The UFC is waiting on signed bout agreements. Because of the current Bantamweight rankings, the UFC is limited as to what they can do with Aspen. They need a top ten opponent for her. Aspen was suggesting on Twitter a match with Yana Kunitskaya because Yana had called her out a while back. But at #7, Yana isn't ranked high enough for a main event. Did you know that Germaine is currently the #1 ranked Bantamweight? Well, neither did I until I just looked it up. And anyone who reads this blog knows that I pay no attention to rankings. But in this case, I knew the only reason for this fight was that Germaine is ranked way too high. Yes, she once held a title...but it was after a bogus Featherweight title shot when the UFC needed a title match when Cris Cyborg was unavailable. And Germaine gave up the title when she refused to fight Cyborg. So the whole thing was nonsense. There's no question that Germaine is a great kickboxer. But she's a mediocre MMA fighter at best. She has no ground game. Germaine did win her latest fight over Raquel Pennington. But Raquel didn't look like herself and Germaine still only eked out a win. Germaine is living back in her home in The Nerherlands after several years training in the US. And she did have surgery on her hand last year. But Aspen is an elite fighter. She is 24 years old and she trains at MMA Gold in El Dorado Hills, CA. She is now 8-0. Sijara Eubanks gave her a tough fight. But I think a lot of that was the two had fought before and Sijara knew she had to be more aggressive than usual. Aspen showed her composure in round one and then almost finished Sijara in round two. So though Germaine is ranked higher, I don't think she is any better than Sijara. And Aspen will want to make a statement with a finish. Germaine doesn't have the skills to compete with Aspen.