Herrig has won four straight bouts, defeating Cortney Casey, Justine Kish, Alexa Grasso, and Kailin Curran. Kowalkiewicz recently defeated Jodie Esquibel by unanimous decision at UFC Gdansk to improve to 11-2. Her two losses have come against Claudia Gadelha and former strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk, the latter occurring in a strawweight championship bout at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
UFC 223 will be headlined by a title bout between interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Strawweight champion Rose Namajunas will also be in action as she looks to defend her title against Jedrzejczyk in a rematch from UFC 217.