UFC 306 takes place this weekend and we’ve got some exciting women’s fights coming up, including a strawweight bout between two newcomers, Ketlen Souza and Yazmin Jauregui. The former will compete in her third outing in Dana White‘s promotion as she hopes to continue her winning ways since her debut was a disappointing 1st-round submission loss.

Ketlen Souza is a highly experienced contender on the rise, who’s fought most of her fights outside the UFC. She’ll have the spotlight this weekend at the $2.3 billion Sphere, and ‘Esquentadinha’ will have the chance to shine in her first-ever UFC pay-per-view fight.

Where is Ketlen Souza from? Background and early life

Ketlen Souza was born in the largest city in the northern part of Brazil, Manaus. She has Brazilian citizenship, but details about her ethnic background have never surfaced in the public domain. But if we had to guess, we can talk about the city of Manaus being home to people of African, European, Native American, and some indigenous groups. Souza could belong to any one of these communities.

There’s a scarcity of information about Ketlen Souza’s personal life as she’s a relatively new face in the UFC. But her professional life is there for all to see as she started training during her late teenage years, making her professional debut at 22 years old. For many fans, that might appear to be a bit late to enter into the fight game.

As years went by and she kept competing, Ketlen Souza acquired the ‘Esquentadinha’ moniker, which translates to “hot-headed” in English. The funny thing about that name is that it took shape after an interviewer told her about her angry demeanor. “I was getting myself re-hydrated, so I was a little stressed. And he kept bothering me. I said: ‘Bro, I don’t feel like it right now! Just leave me alone sitting here on the floor.’ He said, ‘You’re really hot-headed!’ and it caught on to this day,” Souza told the UFC. But now that she’s in the UFC, let’s take a look at the journey before that.

Ketlen Souza’s MMA journey before the UFC

‘Estaquentadinha’ has competed in a total of 18 MMA fights so far, with most of them taking place in Brazilian promotions. From 2016 to 2021, Ketlen Souza lit up the regional scene, earning an 11-3 record before moving to fight in Invicta FC. She would extend her record to 13-3 as she’d earn two unanimous decision victories and leave the promotion undefeated before making the big jump to the UFC.

Before her UFC debut, Ketlen Souza had amassed 8 knockout wins, a submission win, and a 69 percent finish rate. But when she came to the UFC, she was finished in her first fight. Souza would fight back to earn a win in her last outing as now, she’s up against Yazmin Jauregui, who’s won three of her four UFC fights and is also heading into the Sphere with a win.

What are your thoughts about Ketlen Souza? Let us know in the comment down below.