Aguilar-Lima, Fili-Rodriguez, de Lima-Hester all added to UFC 197 “Cormier vs. Jones II”

By Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC has added three new fights to April’s UFC 197 pay-per-view event, with Jessica Aguilar vs. Juliana Lima, Andre Fili vs. Yair Rodriguez, and Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Clint Hester all officially announced for the card.

Aguilar-Lima was originally reported as being in the works for UFC 198 in Brazil in May, but has been shifted up a few weeks to take place in Las Vegas. Aguilar, who entered the UFC as the WSOF Women’s Strawweight Champion, dropped a decision to Claudia Gadelha in her debut last August. Lima enters the event on a two-fight winning streak, defeating Nina Ansaroff and Ericka Almeida in consecutive fights after a loss to current champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk in her UFC debut.

Fili gets back into the Octagon for the first time since a November highlight-reel win, as he took out Gabriel Benitez with a head kick at UFC Fight Night 78. That bout took place in Mexico, home country of his next opponent Rodriguez, who heads to Las Vegas having won each of his three UFC appearances to date. The winner of “TUF: Latin America” followed up his victory on the reality show with wins over Charles Rosa and Dan Hooker.

Finally, light heavyweights de Lima and Hester both come to the event in need of a win. De Lima had a two fight winning streak in the UFC snapped in his last outing, as he was submitted by Nikita Krylov last August. As for Hester, he’s lost two straight, getting stopped by both Robert Whittaker and Vitor Miranda.

UFC 197 hits pay-per-view on April 23, headlined by the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones.

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