Ultimate Fighting Championship

UFC 208: Holm to Fight De Randamie for Inaugural Featherweight Title

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:05 p.m. ET

Fansided, Gabriel Gonzalez/FanSided via Cage Pages

The UFC announced on Tuesday that Holly Holm would be facing Germaine De Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight world title.

UFC 208 scheduled for February 11 in Brooklyn has been a peculiar event. Due to scheduling and injuries, it appeared that no viable main event would be found and that it could end up being scrapped the same way the Anaheim card was for January.

Instead, the UFC announced (first reported by Brett Okamoto) that Holly Holm will be facing Germaine De Randamie for the inaugural women’s featherweight world title. Holm obviously became well-known to the general public after she knocked out Ronda Rousey to win the bantamweight championship last year. De Randamie is a former Muay Thai fighter from the Netherlands who is 6-3 as a professional, including three victories in the UFC.

The creation of the division is groundbreaking for the UFC as it was once considered the premiere division in women’s MMA. Fighters like Cris Cyborg, Gina Carano, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate have all competed at 145. The fight between Carano and Cyborg, in particular, is considered by many to be the bout that put women’s MMA into the consciousness of casual fans of the sport.

Other bouts announced for the card are a light-heavyweight bout between Glover Teixeira and Jason Cannonier, and a flyweight bout between Ian McCall and Neil Seery. Notably, the bout between Holm and De Randamie is being promoted as the main event, leading to further speculation on the proposed championship bout between José Aldo and Max Holloway that was targeted for the Brooklyn card.

Sep 24, 2016; Brasilia, Brazil; Cris Cyborg (red gloves) fights Lina Lansberg (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night at Nilson Nelson Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports

While no other bouts in the new division are set, there are two key questions to be addressed. The first is regarding current Invicta FC featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. Cyborg has long been considered the best in the world at 145 pounds and competed twice under the UFC banner at a catchweight of 140. Many believed that should the division be created, Cyborg would be appointed the champion by default as was done for Ronda Rousey in the bantamweight division.

Recently, Cyborg made told MMAFighting.com that due to the grueling process she went through to make the catchweight limit, she requested at least 12 weeks for any fight at the 145. Her timetable required a bout in March, well beyond the February 11 date set in Brooklyn. UFC president Dana White also stated that Cyborg was offered bouts with both Holm and De Randamie for the title.

Want your voice heard? Join the Cage Pages team!

While it is assumed that Cris Cyborg will receive an automatic title shot later in the year, the UFC also has to look at what talent they will use to fill the division. It’s assumed that the top Invicta talent like Charmaine Tweet and Megan Anderson will be signed in the coming weeks (although they are scheduled to fight each other on a future Invicta card). Bellator also has a women’s division with names like Marloes Coenen and Julia Budd. There are several good fighters, but is there enough talent for it to be competitive with the frequency and exposure that the UFC commands?

There are two cases that can be used for comparison. The first is the men’s flyweight division. At the time, it was believed that there was enough talent both in and out of the UFC to make a competitive division. Instead, Demetrious Johnson has gone on a historical run in which he has essentially lapped the field of contenders for his title. Johnson is not responsible for the fact that his competition has not risen to his level, but there is no question that 125 lacks depth.

Conversely, the women’s strawweight division is thriving behind stars like Joanna Jędrzejczyk, Paige VanZant, Rose Namajunas, and others. The UFC used a season of The Ultimate Fighter to kickstart the division, but the weight class is competitive enough that several of the current top fighters were not even part of the show.

Only time will tell what direction the women’s featherweight division will take. In the short term, the new weight class has plenty of exciting match-ups to showcase elite talent that is excited to finally compete under the UFC banner.