Former WBC and IBF boxing champion Ava Knight is making the leap to the world of mixed martial arts.
On Saturday afternoon, Bellator officials confirmed an initial report from the Chico Enterprise-Record that they had inked the woman known as “ Lady of Boxing” to deal.
Knight (18-2-5 boxing, 0-0 MMA) joins fellow boxers Ana Julaton and Heather Hardy as the three major female pugilistic champions to don the Bellator gloves. As for her debut, Knight is expected to make her first walk to the cage against Shannon Goughary at Bellator 228 in September.
Goughary (3-3 MMA) will be looking to to right the ship after coming up short to Cristina Crist at Peak Fighting 2 in July. Prior to this, the Tennessee native scored a stoppage win over Tabatha Ann Watkins in April.
Bellator 228 is set to go down on Sept. 28 inside The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. With this latest addition, here is how the entire card stands:
- (c) Patricio Freire vs. Juan Archuleta – for Bellator featherweight championship
- Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi
- Darrion Caldwell vs. Henry Corrales – featherweight tournament opening round
- Saul Rogers vs. Daniel Weichel – featherweight tournament opening round
- Georgi Karakhanyan vs. A.J. McKee – featherweight tournament opening round
- Jason Edwards vs. Adrian Najera
- Ian Butler vs. Emilio Williams
- Weber Almeida vs. Castle Williams
- Antonio McKee vs. William Sriyapi
- Dominic Clark vs. Joshua Jones
- Jonathan Santa Maria vs. Jay Viola
- Osman Diaz vs. Andre Walker
- Ava Knight vs. Shannon Goughary