Fast facts
- Division: Women’s strawweight (UFC)
- Record: 17-6
- Nationality: Brazil
- Team/gym: Carioca Academy
- Notable wins: Kristina Williams (vacant Invicta FC flyweight title), Yazmin Jauregui (Round 1 rear-naked choke, Performance of the Night), Ariane Carnelossi (Round 1 knockout), Bruna Brasil, Gisele Moreira (SFT women’s bantamweight title)
Ketlen Souza has won championships at bantamweight and flyweight, in two different promotions, and she still has to go out on a Saturday night at the Apex and fight her way onto the strawweight rankings. That’s the sport. Belts in the regional and feeder leagues buy you a contract and a little respect. They don’t buy you a number next to your name.
The 31-year-old Brazilian, born Aug. 18, 1995, and nicknamed “Esquentadinha,” meets Loopy Godinez on Oct. 10 at UFC Fight Night 290, the card headlined by Brendan Allen and Christian Leroy Duncan. Our Cagefile-driven board at Knockout Daily has Souza at No. 26 among women’s strawweights. Stadium Rant, in a takeaways piece that ran on Yahoo Sports after UFC 332, framed the Godinez bout as Souza’s shot at cracking the official rankings. Both readings point to the same conclusion. This is the fight that decides whether she’s a name on the list or a name the list keeps stepping over.
Built in Brazil
Souza turned pro in 2016 and did most of her early work at home in Brazil, going 11-3 before Invicta came calling. The last stop on that road was SFT 28 on Aug. 5, 2021, where she took a unanimous decision over Gisele Moreira and walked out with the SFT women’s bantamweight title.
Remember that weight class, because it matters later. A woman who won a bantamweight belt in 2021 is now fighting at 115 pounds. Few fighters move down two divisions over a career and get better along the way, and fewer still keep winning while they do it.
The Invicta Detour
Her Invicta run got off to a false start. Souza was booked to challenge reigning flyweight champion Karina Rodríguez at Invicta FC 46, then pulled out four days before the event. Daiana Torquato took the spot.
When she finally debuted for the promotion on Sept. 28, 2022, at Invicta FC 49, she beat Maiju Suotama by unanimous decision. Less than four months later, on Jan. 18, 2023, she outpointed Kristina Williams at Invicta FC 51 to claim the vacant flyweight title. Two fights, one belt. On May 2, 2023, the UFC announced it had signed her.
The UFC, the Hard Way
The welcome party was rough. Souza drew Karine Silva at UFC on ESPN 46 on June 3, 2023, lost by kneebar and hurt her knee in the process. Nobody likes to see a debut end in a leg lock, and an injury on top of it makes the loss heavier.
She didn’t fight again until April 27, 2024, roughly 10 months later, when she beat Marnic Mann by unanimous decision at UFC on ESPN 55. I’m on record as allergic to backing fighters off long layoffs, but this one had the decency to come back with a clean win, so I’ll allow it.
Then came the night that made people pay attention. At UFC 306 on Sept. 14, 2024, Souza submitted Yazmin Jauregui with a rear-naked choke in Round 1 and banked a Performance of the Night bonus. A decision grinder doesn’t do that. Her UFC résumé now reads like someone who can win anywhere: two decisions on the cards, a first-round choke, and a first-round knockout.
Two Splits That Should Have Broken Her
This is where the profile turns into a story about judges, and I promise to keep my blood pressure in check.
On Feb. 15, 2025, at UFC Fight Night 251, Souza lost a split decision to Angela Hill. Eight of 10 media outlets scored the bout for Souza. When 80 percent of the people paid to watch closely have you winning, and two of the three people whose opinions actually count disagree, you’ve been dealt a bad hand. I’ve lost tickets on worse fights, but rarely with that much company in the press row.
Six months later, on Aug. 2, 2025, at UFC on ESPN 71, she dropped another split, this time to Piera Rodríguez. The sources don’t give a media tally for that one, so I won’t invent one. What I can tell you is that two split losses in a row left her at 2-3 in the UFC, and 2-3 is the record where matchmakers start looking at the cut list with a pencil in hand.
Three of her UFC fights through that stretch had been decided by one judge’s opinion or a single scramble. Losses like that tell you more about how close the fights were than about how good she is. A fighter who keeps losing close ones is usually a fighter who’s one adjustment away.
The Adjustment
Whatever she changed, it worked. Souza beat Bruna Brasil by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 266 on Feb. 7, 2026, which took the judges out of it entirely. Then on June 6, 2026, at UFC Fight Night 278, she knocked out Ariane Carnelossi in Round 1.
That’s two straight wins, the second one a first-round finish, and a UFC record that has flipped to 4-3. Overall she sits at 17-6. Both of her UFC finishes have come in Round 1, which is the kind of stat I like when I’m looking at props, because it means she can end things early on the ground or on the feet.
Where the Value Lives
This is why Souza interests me. Her official UFC record undersells her, because the Hill result is a coin flip that came up wrong in the eyes of almost everyone covering it. Books and casual bettors price fighters off the win-loss column, and the win-loss column here is lying a little. If she gets listed as an underdog against Godinez, I’ll be looking hard at it. If she’s a favorite, I’ll be looking hard at the round props instead.
She’s also a different size of fighter than most of the women she’ll see at strawweight. She was a bantamweight champion in 2021 and a flyweight champion in 2023. Carrying that frame down to 115 pounds is either an edge or a weight-cut risk, and the Carnelossi knockout suggests it’s been the former so far.
The Allen vs. Duncan card on Oct. 10 is the one Stadium Rant called light on relevance. For Souza, it’s the most relevant night of her UFC career so far. A third straight win and she has a real argument for a ranked opponent next. A loss and she’s back to 4-4, explaining to everyone that the Hill fight should have gone her way, which is true and also worth exactly nothing at the payout window.
