Mackenzie Dern vs. Angela Hill Shifts to UFC Fight Night 223 Headliner

The upcoming UFC Fight Night 223 has an
interesting women’s strawweight clash as its new main event.

Mackenzie
Dern and Angela Hill
will now collide one week later than initially scheduled. The pair
was supposed to fight on the UFC on ABC 4 main card this
weekend, but the Ultimate Fighting Championship has opted to
promote the matchup as the new UFC Fight Night 224 headliner on May
20. The Nevada-based promotion had to deal with several last-minute
changes as the initially targeted main event between Irene
Aldana vs. Raquel
Pennington was canceled after Aldana accepted to replace the
injured Juliana Pena against two-division titleholder Amanda
Nunes for the women’s 135-pound gold at UFC 289 next month. The
change was first reported by
MMA Fighting and has already been confirmed by Hill on her
social accounts.

Hill (15-12, 9-10 UFC) is riding a two-bout winning streak after
overcoming Lupita
Godinez and Emily
Ducote via unanimous decision at UFC on ESPN 41 and at UFC on
ESPN 42, respectively. Prio to those wins, “Overkill” had been on a
three-bout skid. The 38-year-old Alliance MMA representative is
looking to climb the rankings with a victory in her next
assignment.

Dern (12-3, 7-3 UFC) is looking to get back on track following a
majority-decision loss at the hands of Xiaonan Yan
in the UFC Fight Night 211 headliner. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu
expert is 5-2 in her laast seven bouts, with victories over
Tecia
Torres, Nina Nunes
and Virna
Jandiroba, among others. A win over Hill would get three-time
“Performance of the Night” winner Dern closer to a coveted title
shot.

UFC Fight Night 223 will go down at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas,
Nevada. The card will also feature a 185-pound clash between
Edmen
Shahbazyan and Anthony
Hernandez, which had been promoted as the main event as
recently as May 6, during the UFC 288 broadcast. Additionally,
Andre
Fialho will meet Joaquin
Buckley in the welterweight division, among other matchups.