Jessica Aguilar recently pulled out of her UFC 197 bout against Juliana Lima due to a torn ACL and stepping in on short notice to face Lima on the April 23 fight card in Las Vegas will be former UFC women’s strawweight champion Carla Esparza.
The fight change was made official by the UFC on Tuesday.
UFC 197 will come from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 23 and will be headlined by a title fight rematch as Daniel Cormier defends the light heavyweight title against former champion Jon Jones.
Esparza (10-3) was the inaugural UFC women’s 115 pound champion and lost the title in her first title defense against current champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. This will be her first fight since losing the title as she has been on the sidelines due to an injury. Lima (8-2) enters this fight with back to back victories and her only defeat in the UFC came against Jedrzejczyk. During her back to back victories, both wins have come by decision and the most recent victory came against Ericka Almeida last year.
The current UFC 197: Cormier vs. Jones II fight card is below.
Main Card: (PPV – 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT)
Daniel Cormier (17-1) vs. Jon Jones (21-1)
Demetrious Johnson (23-2-1) vs. Henry Cejudo (10-0)
Anthony Pettis (18-4) vs. Edson Barboza (16-4)
Robert Whittaker (15-4) vs. Rafael Natal (21-6-1)
Yair Rodriguez (6-1) vs. Andre Fili (15-3)
Preliminary Card: (FS1 – 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT)
Sergio Pettis (13-2) vs. Chris Kelades (9-2)
Danny Roberts (12-1) vs. Dominique Steele (14-6)
Jessica Aguilar (19-5) vs. Juliana Lima (8-2)
Glaico Franca (13-3) vs. James Vick (8-0)
Preliminary Card: (UFC Fight Pass – 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT)
Marcos Rogerio de Lima (13-3-1) vs. Clint Hester (11-5)
Efrain Escudero (24-10) vs. Kevin Lee (11-2)