Macy Chiasson to fight Nicco Montano at UFC Rio Rancho

Macy Chiasson will look to get back to climbing the bantamweight rankings as she faces a former UFC flyweight champion in New Mexico.

Officials announced Tuesday that Chiasson (5-1) will take on Nicco Montano (4-3) in a bantamweight bout at the UFC’s upcoming Fight Night at Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, scheduled for Feb. 15. A light heavyweight bout between Devin Clark and Gadzhimurad Antigulov, and a flyweight bout between Montana De La Rosa and Mara Romero Borella were also added to the card.

Montano and Clark are both based out of New Mexico.

This will be Chiasson’s first fight coming off of a loss as she dropped a unanimous decision to Lina Lansberg at UFC Copenhagen in September. Prior to that, the Ultimate Fighter 28 featherweight tournament winner had finished her first three opponents inside the Octagon.

Montano became the UFC’s inaugural women’s flyweight champion by winning season 26 of TUF, but quickly fell out of favor with the promotion after weight-cutting issues forced her out of a scheduled championship defense against Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 228. She was stripped of the title shortly after and would later receive a six-month suspension from the USADA after testing positive for trace amounts of ostarine.

In her return to action this past July, Montano lost via unanimous decision to Julianna Pena in a 135-pound bout.

Clark (10-4) will be searching for consistency after alternating between wins and losses in his past six bouts, while Antigulov (20-6) looks to end a two-fight skid.

De La Rosa (10-5) and Borella (12-6, 2 NC) both lost in their most recent appearances, with De La Rosa losing a unanimous decision to Andrea Lee, and Borella being finished in the third round by Lauren Murphy.