Cat’s Back! Zingano Faces Nunes For UFC 178 Return
It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen No. 1-ranked UFC women’s bantamweight Cat Zingano in the Octagon. “Alpha” locked up a shot at dominant champion with a come-from-behind TKO finish of No. 2 Miesha Tate at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 17 way back in April 2013.
Since that fateful day, it’s been a long line of unfortunate setbacks for Zingano, as she tore her ACL in training, injured her other knee by overcompensating, and even lost her former husband Mauricio Zingano to an apparent suicide earlier this year.
She was recently cleared to resume training, and appeared at last weekend’s (July 5, 2014) UFC 175 in anticipation of the next bout with Rousey.
But after the champ broke her hand and decided to get knee surgery, Zingano is going to need something to do in the meantime. Today, news comes from Yahoo! that she’s found it, as “Alpha” will take on talented Brazilian Amanda Nunes at the growing September 27 UFC 178 card from Las Vegas.
The No. 8-ranked Nunes has been out of action for some time as well, her last victory being a first round TKO finish over Germaine de Randamie at UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3 last November. She also destroyed Sheila Gaff at UFC 163 in August 2013, and has finished each one of her victories.
UFC 178, which features the long awaited Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson rematch in addition to the recently announced Tim Kennedy vs. Yoel Romero and Dominick Cruz vs. Takeya Mizugaki bouts, is quickly becoming one of the most stacked pay-per-view (PPV) cards of the year, at least on paper.
We’re going to see an “Alpha” Cat take on a “Lioness” in Las Vegas. Who is your early pick to come out on top?
