Megan Anderson’s wait for a UFC title shot is almost over.
On Monday, UFC officials announced through broadcast partner ESPN that Anderson will challenge dual champion Amanda Nunes for the women’s featherweight title on March 6 at UFC 259 in a rebooking of a fight that had been scheduled for earlier this year.
Anderson (11-4 MMA, 3-2 UFC) was set to take on Nunes (20-4 MMA, 13-1 UFC), who’s also bantamweight champion, for the 145-pound title Dec. 12 at UFC 256, but the fight fell off after Nunes withdrew in early November because of injury.
Nunes is riding an 11-fight winning streak that dates back nearly six years. She’s been on a tear since the lone loss of her UFC career to Cat Zingano in September 2014. She won the women’s bantamweight title at UFC 200 in July 2016 and has defended it five times.
In addition, she ran through Cris Cyborg in just 51 seconds to win the featherweight title in December 2018, making her a simultaneous two-division champion. Nunes has been able to defend both titles since, with wins over Holly Holm, Germaine de Randamie, and Felicia Spencer in her last fight at UFC 250.
Anderson, a former Invicta FC featherweight titleholder, has been up and down since joining the UFC in 2018. She lost her promotional debut to former bantamweight champ Holly Holm, but picked up a TKO win over Zingano in December 2018 after an accidental eye poke.
After that win, Anderson fought fellow ex-Invicta champ Spencer and was submitted in the first round. Spencer went on to a title shot with Nunes from that win. But in October 2019, Anderson bounced back with a submission of Zarah Fairn at UFC 243, and this past February she knocked out Norma Dumont for her first UFC winning streak.
With the addition, the UFC 259 lineup now includes:
- Champ Amanda Nunes vs. Megan Anderson – for women’s featherweight title
- Aleksandar Rakic vs. Thiago Santos
- Dominick Cruz vs. Casey Kenney
- Askar Askarov vs. Joseph Benavidez
- Sean Brady vs. Jake Matthews
- Randy Costa vs. Trevin Jones
- Aalon Cruz vs. Uros Medic