She’s back! Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey returns from an extended year-long layoff to challenge current champ Amanda “Lionheart” Nunes for the 135-pound gold. The title matchup will take place in the main event of the evening for UFC 207 in Las Vegas on Friday, December 30th, 2016. The UFC 207 fight card is stacked with 12 scheduled bouts, with preliminary action getting underway at 6:30 p.m. (ET) on UFC Fight Pass and continuing on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. The main card will be live on Pay-Per-View at 10p.m., and all betting lines will be made available at Several Bookmakers. Kicking things off for the UFC 207 Fight Pass prelims will be a welterweight contest that sees Denver’s Brandon “Ruckus” Thatch battle promotional newcomer Niko Price, who is taking this bout on short notice, replacing an injured Sabah Homasi. “The Hybrid” is undefeated as a pro, with seven of his eight victories coming by way of finish; seven by T/KO and one via submission. He is 2-0 in 2016 and would like to end his year with a 3-0 mark by scoring an impressive victory over Thatch in his UFC debut. “Ruckus” has dropped three straight fights, being submitted consecutively by Benson Henderson, Gunnar Nelson and Siyar Bahadurzada. Many expected he would be receiving his pink slip from the promotion following the loss to Bahadurzada, so he definitely has his back against the wall heading into this one. Being demoted from main event to first fight on the Fight Pass prelims in three fights is a major drop for Thatch, who will be aiming to climb back up the ranks with a classic Brandon Thatch highlight reel finish in Las Vegas. Next up on the Fight Pass prelims will be a middleweight contest between Antonio Carlos Junior and Marvin Vetorri. “ACJ” was the victim of a big upset in suffering a third-round TKO loss against Daniel Kelly to start off the year, but he has since returned to the win column with a third-round rear-naked choke submission win over Leonardo Leleco. He plans to make it two straight when he squares off against the 23-year-old Vettori, who scored a first-round guillotine-choke submission win over Alberto Uda four months ago, which made for an impressive Octagon debut for the Italian. He enjoys a six-fight winning streak heading into this 185-pound contest and looks to make it seven by taking out the TUF: Brazil winner. Wrapping up the Fight Pass prelims for UFC 207 will be a barn-burner in the welterweight division between Tim “Dirty Bird” Means and Alex “Cowboy” Oliveira. Both fighters previously competed in the UFC’s 155-pound division and now have their sights set on cracking the welterweight rankings. Means is coming off a second-round TKO of Sabah Homasi while Oliveira had a third-round KO of Will Brooks, with both fighters searching for their third straight victory inside the Octagon.
