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Women’s Flyweights

NR | Taila Santos (16-1, 1-1 UFC) vs. #15 FLW | Montana De La Rosa (11-6, 4-2 UFC)

ODDS: Santos (-210), De La Rosa (+175)

Talent is starting to rise through the UFC ranks at women’s flyweight, and Santos is certainly a prospect to watch. The Brazilian faced a particularly weak slate of competition before making her way to the Octagon, but she put that experience to the best use possible, building out a fundamentally sound—if slow-paced—power muay Thai game. Of course, the issue is that much of Santos’ style does not factor in her opponent’s ability to fight back, which came back to bite her a bit in her UFC debut in 2019. Mara Romero Borella, a physically strong neutralizer, managed to slow down their fight enough to steal a split decision. After a long injury layoff, Santos returned in July and showed what she can do against a lesser athlete, as she basically had her way with Molly McCann. Now with some momentum, Santos looks to repeat that performance against De La Rosa, who should provide an interesting challenge. De La Rosa was somewhat underrated coming off of the regional scene. At her best as a wrestler and submission artist, she had the poor fortune of being matched against Mackenzie Dern and Cynthia Calvillo in her pre-UFC days. However, De La Rosa has solidly improved from fight to fight and can now hold her own anywhere, as she has found the skill and temperament to become a more active boxer. The issue? She is not much of an athlete and can be at a loss when pitted against a much quicker or stronger opponent, and that strength differential should make this a tough outing against Santos. While De La Rosa is a much different fighter than McCann, she is in a similar spot. Even if Santos has some technical disadvantages, she should be able to take over in the clinch and control the fight whenever she gets uncomfortable. If De La Rosa can get a pace going, this could get interesting, but the pick is Santos via clear decision.

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