Aspen Ladd will make her PFL debut against a former Bellator champion next month.
Ladd (9-3) is slated to meet Julia Budd (16-4) in a women’s featherweight matchup at the 2022 PFL Championships event on Nov. 25 at Hulu Theater in New York City. The main card airs on pay-per-view.
MMA Junkie confirmed the booking with two people close to the situation Wednesday following an initial report from MMA Mania. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the promotion has yet to make an announcement.
Ladd, 27, signed with PFL earlier this month after parting ways with the UFC following a seven-fight tenure. UFC president Dana White said positive things about Ladd following her release, but said her well documented weight-cutting issues as a bantamweight could not be overlooked.
It’s now a new chapter in Ladd’s career, and she’ll fights one of the more decorated fighters in women’s 145-pound history. Budd, 39, is a former Bellator titleholder who signed with PFL in 2021, but she lost her promotional debut against Kaitlin Young in October 2021. She was scheduled to fight Kayla Harrison in July but was forced to withdraw due to injury.
The latest 2022 PFL Championships lineup now includes:
- Kayla Harrison vs. Larissa Pacheco – for women’s lightweight championship
- Bubba Jenkins vs. Brendan Loughnane – for featherweight championship
- Olivier Aubin-Mercier vs. Stevie Ray – for lightweight championship
- Sadibou Sy vs. Dilano Taylor – for welterweight championship
- Omari Akhmedov vs. Rob Wilkinson – for light heavyweight championship
- Ante Delija vs. Matheus Scheffel – for heavyweight championship
- Shane Burgos vs. Marlon Moraes
- Julia Budd vs. Aspen Ladd
- Biaggio Ali Walsh vs. opponent TBA