Preview: UFC 258 Prelims

ABSOLUTE PRECISION

@Polyana_VianaDF locks in the armbar to close in RD 1.

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— UFC (@ufc) August 29, 2020

Women’s Strawweight

NR | Mallory Martin (7-3, 1-1 UFC) vs. NR | Polyana Viana (11-4, 2-3 UFC)

ODDS: Martin (-155), Viana (+135)

It is difficult to know exactly what to make of Viana. Her resume heading into the UFC was solid enough by Brazilian regional standards and included a knockout win over Amanda Ribas that has aged well. After a scintillating promotional debut over Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson, it looked like “Dama de Ferro” had some star potential. Then things took a clear nosedive. J.J. Aldrich and Hannah Cifers stifled Viana’s path to her best weapons, and a quick armbar loss to Veronica Macedo looked like it would be her last fight with the promotion. However, the UFC surprisingly gave her one more shot, and Viana repaid the promotion’s faith handsomely with an impressive submission of Emily Whitmire in less than two minutes. Whether Viana has turned any sort of corner remains to be seen, but she will look to get her first UFC winning streak going against Martin. The Invicta Fighting Championships veteran is a solid prospect thanks to her wrestling and some vicious ground-and-pound, but her 2019 win on Dana White’s Contender Series showed she still needed some development time to make a real impact at the UFC level. With that said, injuries always open up spots on the UFC roster, and Martin instead wound up signed for a fight with Virna Jandiroba a few months later. It ended in an expected loss, and what looked like an easy win on paper against Cifers proved much more difficult than expected, as Cifers nearly scored a knockout before Martin managed to take the fight to the mat and turn the situation in her favor. Martin should be able to dictate this fight and take it to the mat, but that approach also gives Viana a path to the submissions that are the best part of her game. It is difficult to have much faith in Viana given her inconsistency in the UFC. However, with Martin likely to give her so many opportunities at a finish, the pick is Viana via second-round submission.

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