Despite losing her last fight, Penne’s comeback has gone much
better than expected. A former Invicta Fighting Championships
titleholder at atomweight, she was one of the top strawweights in
the UFC when the promotion launched the division in 2014. Coming
off her season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” all it took was a split
decision win over Randa
Markos for Penne to become Joanna
Jedrzejczyk’s top contender. That looked to be the beginning of
the end for Penne’s UFC success. Her loss to Jedrzejczyk was a
thorough beating that felt career-altering in the moment, and after
taking nearly a year to recover, she had the poor luck of welcoming
Jessica
Andrade to 115 pounds, which wound up as a one-sided thrashing.
After recuperating from that fight, Penne then lost in a flat
performance against Danielle
Taylor, at which point it looked like the sport had passed her
by. That may have been true at the time but never fully got
revealed, as Penne instead had her career railroaded by the United
States Anti-Doping Agency for the better part of four years. To her
credit, Penne put the time off to good use. She is in the best
physical form of her career at 39 years old and refocused on the
grappling skill that helped bring her to the dance. It remains
impressive given her historical issues with stronger fighters that
she was able to neutralize Lupita
Godinez and scrape out an ugly win, and a subsequent armbar
submission of Karolina
Kowalkiewicz somehow gave Penne the first winning streak of her
UFC career. She got little done in a July bout against Emily
Ducote—a reminder that Penne still struggles against consistent
and well-rounded athletes—but could easily rebound and stay a going
concern against Ricci. A talented grappler, Ricci’s main struggle
going forward figures to be that she is likely a natural
atomweight. Her UFC debut, a late-notice affair up a weight class
against hulking flyweight Manon
Fiorot, was a bit comedic in terms of the size difference.
However, in fighting opponents closer to her own size in Maria
Oliveira and Polyana
Viana, “Baby Shark” has impressed thus far behind a persistent
game built around her wrestling. Between Ricci’s squat frame and
her approach, there is a solid chance this looks a lot like Penne’s
fight against Godinez, which was a nip-tuck affair. Godinez got the
chance to get in on a lot of takedown attempts, but Penne used her
long frame to remain slippery, take her back and make things ugly
and razor close. Ricci is not as strong of a wrestler as Godinez,
but she is a much more confident grappler, so she could be able to
get more done if she finds some wrestling success; and despite her
small frame, she does appear physically strong enough to get
something done. It likely will not be pretty, but the pick is Ricci
via decision.
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