Two-division boxing champion Kenia Enriquez is set to make her MMA debut with Combate Global on March 13, sources confirmed with Uncrowned on Wednesday.
Enriquez (28-1, 11 KOs boxing) is the current WBC interim flyweight champion, as well as a former WBO flyweight champion (112 pounds) and WBC interim super strawweight champion (108 pounds).
A 31-year-old veteran who’s been fighting professionally since 2012, Enriquez will debut with 4-ounce gloves against undefeated English prospect Hayley Valentine (5-0) in a strawweight bout at Combate Global’s all-women’s card, Combate Female, from TelevisaUnivision’s studios in Miami. The event will air live on both Combate Global’s Spanish-language and English-language YouTube channels.
Enriquez has prepared for her MMA debut out of Guadalajara with Mexico’s decorated Lobo Gym MMA team, the home gym of former UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and top UFC featherweight contender Diego Lopes. She captured her first boxing title in 2015 and most recently defended her WBC interim flyweight championship with a unanimous decision over Maria Salinas in February 2024.
Enriquez is not the first women’s boxing champion to try her hand in MMA with Combate Global. Seven-division champion Amanda Serrano, Uncrowned’s No. 3 pound-for-pound women’s boxer in the world, notably competed twice for Combate Global in 2018, fighting to a draw with Corina Herrera in her MMA debut before scoring a first-round submission of Erendira Ordóñez to notch her first in-cage win.
Uncrowned’s No. 1 pound-for-pound women’s boxer, Claressa Shields, has also competed three times in MMA with the PFL, most recently winning a split decision over Kelsey DeSantis in February 2024 to push her MMA record to 2-1.
The news of Enriquez’s debut comes shortly after Combate Global announced plans to air events moving forward live on YouTube, beginning with Combate Female in March and continuing with shows on April 10 and April 24.