The UFC has just made a solid signing to add to the Women’s Bantamweight division, in the form of ADCC European Champion and Judo black belt Stephanie Egger. She booked a place at the ADCC 2019 World Championships by winning four straight matches against some of the best female grapplers from around the continent including a tough final with Julija Stoliarenko. She was unfortunate in her trip to the finals as she drew the virtually unstoppable Gabi Garcia in the opening match.
Despite being the clear underdog, Egger put up a tough fight against Garcia and took her all the way to overtime before eventually being knocked out of the tournament. This wasn’t her first experience against a high-level grappler as the Swiss 32 year-old has been a Judo black belt for quite some time now. She started her professional MMA career relatively late in life back in 2015 but quickly rattled off two first-round finishes on the regional circuit, earning a callup to Invicta.
Her Invicta debut didn’t go as planned as she was on the losing end of a close Split Decision to Alexa Conners. The next year of her career was characterized by unfortunate cancellations as three consecutive fights fell through and it would be 2018 before she could enter the cage again. She picked up another two first-round finishes sandwiched either side of a Unanimous Decision in the RIZIN ring to take her record to 5-1. It was thanks to a combination of her impressive grappling ability and a late withdrawal by Bea Malecki that led to Egger signing a UFC contract a little over her week for her first scheduled fight against Tracy Cortez (7-1, 1-0 UFC) at UFC Fight Island 5 on October 11th.
The full UFC Fight Island 5 event including the debut of Stephanie Egger will be streamed live on UFC FightPass, click here to subscribe and watch.
