Although many were excited to see Felice transfer over to the MMA world, the XFL were unable to find the Lil’ Bulldog an opponent. Fortunate for her she was still able to fight that weekend in Florida in the well-renowned “Shin Do Kumate XIV” against New Mexico’s Jessica Sanchez.
Herrig won unanimously, scoring 30-26 on all judges’ scorecards and dropped Sanchez in the first round. Herrig’s pro Muay Thai record is now 3-1.
Herrig launched a local Chicago MMA television show, “CombatWire,” earlier this year on CLTV.
After years of climbing the ranks, winning professional kickboxing titles and fighting with various MMA promoters, the pace of Felice Herrig’s breakthrough onto the big stage of the UFC ended up being unsustainable.
Since her first two UFC fights, Herrig hasn’t fought in more than a year – something she had done only once previously in her seven-year MMA career and something that will change this weekend.
On Saturday, Herrig, who trains out of the Team Curran MMA gym in Crystal Lake, will return to the octagon for the first time since April 2015.
Herrig is set to face Kailin Curran of Hawaii in a strawweight bout on the main card of Saturday’s “UFC Fight Night Chicago” at the United Center. The event, which features Holly Holm fighting Valentina Shevchenko, will be broadcast on Fox at 7 p.m.
“Right now, she’s in a great place,” her trainer Jeff Curran (unrelated to Kailin) said. “She’s just trying to keep her focus on fighting since she’s been off for a little over a year, and that last fight took it out of her. She went and made some changes to her lifestyle a little bit to bring herself healthy again. Not that she wasn’t healthy before, but all that weight cutting and all the fights and training takes its toll on you. So she just wanted to take some time to reboot mentally and physically, and this training camp has been great. She’s feeling good and in good spirits.”
An accomplished kickboxer turned MMA fighter in 2009, Herrig joined the UFC in 2014 for Season 20 of its reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter.” After reaching the show’s quarterfinals, Herrig won her first official UFC match and four months later accepted her next. That second fight ended up being her last for a while after Herrig lost to Paige VanZant (now the 10th-ranked fighter in the class) by unanimous decision. She left feeling burnt out.