Song Yadong-Kyler Phillips, Livinha Souza-Amanda Lemos Added to UFC 259

The massive UFC 259 card just picked up two more intriguing matchups.

A bantamweight matchup between Yadong Song (16-4-1, 1 NC) and Kyler Phillips (8-1) has been added to the year’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view on American soil, as first reported by Bloody Canvas on Friday. Song fought most recently at UFC on ESPN 8 last May, winning a unanimous decision over fellow bantamweight Marlon Vera in a short-notice featherweight booking, and bringing his record in the UFC to 5-0-1. The 25-year-old Phillips is 2-0 in the UFC since making his Octagon debut last year, having defeated Gabriel Silva by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 169 on Feb. 29, and ground-and-pounded Cameron Else for a second-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 16 on Oct. 3.

Strawweight up-and-comers Livinha Souza (14-2) and Amanda Lemos (8-1-1) are also set to square off at UFC 259, with both women looking to keep their positive momentum going in the new year. Combate was the first to announce the matchup on Friday. Former Invicta FC strawweight champion Souza defeated Ashley Yoder by unanimous decision at UFC 252 on Aug. 15, bouncing back from her first Octagon loss and bringing her UFC record to 3-1. Lemos is 2-1 since joining the UFC in 2017, having defeated Miranda Granger and Mizuki Inoue after being punched out by a much larger Leslie Smith at flyweight in her debut.

UFC 259 takes place on March 6 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is scheduled to be headlined by a title tripleheader, as light heavyweight kingpin Jan Blachowicz defends against middleweight counterpart Israel Adesanya in a champ vs. champ superfight in the main event. The co-main event features a current two-division champ, with Amanda Nunes set to stake her featherweight belt against Megan Anderson, and before that, Petr Yan will defend his bantamweight belt against Aljamain Sterling.