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Women’s Bantamweights

Julia Avila (8-1) vs. Sijara Eubanks (5-4)

ODDS: Avila (-310), Eubanks (+255)

When the UFC announced the field for its inaugural women’s flyweight title tournament, Eubanks was mostly an afterthought, outside of the surprise that the career bantamweight was making the cut to 125 pounds. That made it a shock when Eubanks made her way to the final. However, things quickly went sideways, as “Sarj” had issues making weight and did not even make it to the title fight. Since then, Eubanks’ career has been an exercise in frustration. Against flyweights, she managed to rely on her wrestling and grappling to control her fights, but her struggles on the scale persisted and forced her back to 135 pounds, where she has been unable to fall back on those skills against larger opponents. Add in Eubanks’s cardio issues, and the whole package is disappointing, particularly since she has obviously been improving her striking and overall game in the moments before she tires. Whenever Eubanks turns a corner, she should be able to rocket up the division. She will need that turn to happen if she wants to outlast Avila, whose style is based around aggression and a surprisingly vicious clinch game; and while she is still relatively untested against stronger and more durable athletes, she has shown more than enough tools to have success in as thin a division as women’s bantamweight. The first round or so of this fight should be instructive as far as Avila’s viability going forward, but it is almost a foregone conclusion that Eubanks will eventually fade and allow “The Raging Panda” to take over. The pick is Avila via decision.

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