Kayla Harrison is back.
Multiple sources close to the promotion confirmed to MMA Fighting that Harrison will fight Ketlen Vieira in a bantamweight bout at the upcoming UFC 307 card, slated for Oct. 5. While the location is not yet official, UFC 307 is widely believed to be set for the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Léo Guimaraes was first to report the matchup.
A former two-time Olympic gold medalist in judo, Harrison rose to prominence in MMA as the face of the PFL before leaving the promotion earlier this year to join the UFC. She made her promotional debut at UFC 300 in April, dominating former champion Holly Holm en route to a second round rear-naked choke finish. That fight was also Harrison’s bantamweight debut and immediately moved her to No. 3 in the UFC rankings.
A veteran in the UFC bantamweight division since 2016, Vieira found herself on the cusp of title contention in 2022 with back-to-back wins over former champions Miesha Tate and Holly Holm. A split decision loss to Raquel Pennington set the Brazilian fighter back a step, but she rebounded with a win over Pannie Kianzad to retain her No. 2 spot in the UFC women’s bantamweight rankings. Most recently Vieira was set to face Macy Chiasson back in January, but was forced out of that bout due to injury.
The UFC 307 card is still taking shape but a featherweight matchup between former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and undefeated contender Movsar Evloev is confirmed for the event along with Jose Aldo making his return against Mario Bautista.
Damon Martin and Guilherme Cruz contributed to this report
