Last night the UFC confirmed that Jessica Aguilar vs Jodie Esquibel has been added to UFC Fight Night 131 June 1 at the Adirondack Bank Center in Utica, NY. This was first reported last week by Nolan King of MMA Kings. This show will air on Fox Sports 1 in the US and TSN in Canada. I expect this to air on the prelims. There was a time when a Jessica Aguilar fight was a sure main event. But MMA can be cruel and the UFC has not been kind to Jessica. She recently had a fight cancelled due to a broken hand. And before that she had knee surgery. She's 0-2 in the UFC. Based on her most recent fight, a loss to Cortney Casey, Jessica has slowed down considerably. And at 35 years old, it may be time for her to go into coaching at American Top Team. This fight is a must win for her. Most fans are familiar with Jodie from her days in Invicta. She's 31 years old and she trains at Jackson Wink in New Mexico. After Jodie lost in round one of TUF 23, she returned to Invicta. She finally got the call and made her UFC debut Oct. 2017 in Poland against Karolina Kowalkiewicz. As I expected, Karolina won by unanimous decision. Both are points fighters but Karolina is just better at that. Jodie did OK in Invicta. But I'm not surprised she has trouble with a higher level of competition. Jodie is a striker with no power and she has no ground game. And in her fight against Karolina, she was clearly losing but she made no changes in her strategy to try and pull out a win. There was no sense of urgency. Yes, I know she is very popular with the usual WMMA fanboys. That doesn't mean she is any better than mediocre. I think this is a bigger fight for Jessica. A loss could mean the end of the road. Jodie can always go back to Invicta.
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