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Gustafsson Out; Strawweight Title Fight Now Headlines UFC Berlin

Gustafsson Out; Strawweight Title Fight Now Headlines UFC Berlin

Alexander Gustafsson has been forced out of his UFC Berlin headlining role, so the UFC has enlisted Joanna Jedrzejczyk to make the first defense of her strawweight (115-pound) championship.

Early Friday morning, UFC officials announced that Gustafsson suffered an injury that would keep him out of a planned five-round light heavyweight main event bout with Glover Teixeira. No details of Gustafsson’s injury or prospects for his return to the Octagon were available at that time.

The promotion immediately turned to its women’s strawweight champ Jedrzejczyk to save the day. She steps into the June 20 main event to put her belt on the line against Jessica Penne.

It marks the first time that a UFC title fight has headlined a European fight card, outside of the U.K.

Jedrzejczyk (9-0) is coming off of her title win over inaugural champion Carla Esparza. The Polish fighter dominated the bout with Esparza, eventually stopping her via TKO late in the second round at UFC 185 in March.

RELATED > Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs. Carla Esparza UFC 185 Fight Highlights Video

Penne (10-2) is a former Invicta FC atomweight (105-pound) champion, who made her way to the UFC via the all-women strawweight season of The Ultimate Fighter.

She had been scheduled to fight Juliana Lima at UFC Fight Night 67 on May 30, but was pulled from that fight in order to make the new main event bout with Jedrzejczyk at UFC Fight Night 69.

Penne has one bout on her UFC resume, which was a split decision win over Randa Markos in a Fight of the Night winning effort at the TUF 20 Finale.

UFC Fight Night 69 takes place on June 20 at O2 World in Berlin.

As of the time of publication, there had been no word from UFC officials on what they planned to do with Teixeira.

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