Ladd-Kunitskaya, Gadelha-Calvillo Matchups Added to UFC Washington D.C.

Breaking: Aspen Ladd vs. Yana Kunitskaya and Claudia Gadelha vs. Cynthia Calvillo in the works for UFC Fight Night on Dec. 7 in Washington DC. https://t.co/j1LPFJpnk3

— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) August 8, 2019

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has added two major matchups in women's divisions for its return to Washington, D.C., in December.

ESPN announced on Thursday that these two fights would be added to UFC on ESPN 7 in December. First, bantamweights square off as Aspen Ladd (8-1) looks to bounce back from her first loss against Yana Kunitskaya (12-4, 1 NC). At the strawweight division, Claudia Gadelha (17-4) clashes with Cynthia Calvillo (8-1). UFC on ESPN 7 will take place at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7. This will be the first time the organization has held an event in the U.S. capital since UFC on Versus 6 in 2011.

Ladd lost for the first time in her career when she was knocked out -- albeit somewhat controversially -- by Germaine de Randamie in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 155 in July. Prior to the defeat, she won her first eight bouts, and stopped her opponent in six of those eight. In fact, the only fighter to ever go the distance with Ladd was Sijara Eubanks, who did so twice.

Kunitskaya is riding a two-fight win streak with decision victories over Lina Lansberg and Marion Reneau. "Foxy" made her promotional debut against Cristiane Justino for the featherweight championship, losing by first-round knockout at UFC 222 in March 2018. Prior to joining the UFC, Kunitskaya won the Invicta Fighting Championships bantamweight belt against Raquel Pa'aluhi after a duo of unsuccessful attempts to wrest it from Tonya Evinger. The first time Kunitskaya faced Evinger, she won by armbar, although the commission overturned the result and stripped her title due to a bad call from the referee.

Former strawweight title challenger Gadelha has alternated wins and losses in her last five bouts, most recently scoring a decision win over Randa Markos at UFC 239. That scrap with Markos was Gadelha's 10th with the company, making her one of seven strawweights to have fought at least 10 times with the UFC. The original UFC strawweight, she was the first woman to ever win at 115 pounds when she defeated Tina Lahdemaki at UFC Fight Night 45 in 2014.

Calvillo has tasted defeat only once as a pro, losing by unanimous verdict to former champ Carla Esparza at UFC 219 in 2017. Since then, Calvillo has rattled off two straight wins, by tapping out Poliana Botelho and then beating Cortney Casey on the scorecards at UFC on ESPN 1 in February. When Calvillo appeared on the main cards of UFCs 209 and 210 in 2017, Calvillo became the first fighter since Tito Ortiz to compete on back-to-back pay-per-view main cards. Also of note, Calvillo faced Ladd in an amateur bout back in 2014, and Calvillo came out on top by decision.