Bangor native and Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s strawweight competitor Emily Peters Kagan will return to the Octagon for the first time in nearly a year on Thursday, Dec. 10, when she takes on Hawaiian Kailin Curran on the undercard of a UFC Fight Night show at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Kagan, 34, will be competing for the first time since last Dec. 12, when she lost a unanimous decision to Angela Hill in her UFC debut, also in Las Vegas.
Before that, she was one of 16 participants on Season 20 of The Ultimate Fighter television series that crowned the first UFC women’s strawweight (115-pound) champion.
Kagan lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she trains at the well-known Jackson-Wink MMA.
Kagan will bring a 3-2 overall record (0-1 in the UFC) into her December quest for her first UFC victory against Curran (3-2 overall, 0-2 in the UFC). Curran last fought in May when she lost via third-round armbar submission to Alex Chambers in Adelaide, Australia. Before that she dropped a third-round TKO via punches to current strawweight sensation Paige VanZant.
VanZant, 21, will headline the Dec. 10 show, taking a 3-0 record into her toughest test to date against former TUF 20 competitor Joanne Calderwood.
VanZant currently is ranked sixth in the UFC women’s strawweight division after her victories over Curran, Felice Herrig and Chambers, while Calderwood is ranked eighth.
Toe2Toe plans Oct. 3 Portland show
The state’s next mixed martial arts card is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Portland Exposition Building.
Toe2Toe Fights III will feature a scheduled five-round bout between “The” Ryan Sanders (8-7, 7 submissions) of Etna and Lucas Cruz (7-3, 2 KOs, 3 submissions) of Somerville, Massachusetts, for the promotion’s vacant lightweight title.
Sanders, ranked seventh among New England welterweights, is dropping down to the 155-pound class for just the second time after stopping Brazilian Regiclaudio “Kexada” Macedo (7-3) via guillotine choke in his last Toe2Toe bout earlier this year.
Cruz, a member of Sityodtong Boston and Carlos Neto BJJ, is the fourth-ranked lightweight in New England. He had a six-fight win streak snapped in back-to-back losses to UFC veterans Rob Font and Julian Lane.
