Preview: UFC on ABC 7 Prelims

Women’s Strawweights

Victoria Dudakova (8-0, 2-0 UFC) vs. Sam Hughes (8-6, 3-5 UFC)

ODDS: Dudakova (-175), Hughes (+145)

If nothing else, it will be interesting to see Dudakova continue to develop her game. Dudakova was a solid enough flier for the UFC coming off the 2022 edition of Dana White’s Contender Series, but she was raw even by current standards, scoring a handful of wins against overmatched competition. The Russian’s Contender Series victory at least showed a ton of heart—Dudakova scored a wrestling-heavy decision win despite tearing her ACL early in the fight—but that recovery time meant it’d be nearly a year until she returned to competition, and even that fight ended after only 34 seconds due to an injury to her opponent. As a result, the first real high-level fight footage of Dudakova came in her win over Jinh Yu Frey in October, which was promising, even if it was a mixed bag. Dudakova did well to pump out striking volume against an opponent capable of matching her wrestling, but it’s also a low bar to clear the output of a late-career Frey. A weight miss ahead of the Frey fight prompted a move up to flyweight in March that was scrapped due to medical issues, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see Dudakova attempting to make 115 pounds once again for this fight. Hughes was in a similar spot to Dudakova when the UFC picked her up late in 2020. “Sampage” was a bit more focused with her pressure-heavy approach but was generally way out of her depth at the UFC level to start, needing four tries to earn her first UFC win. Since then, Hughes has slotted in as one of the UFC’s top prospect-testers at strawweight. A former track athlete, Hughes is a cardio machine with some deceptive strength but lacks the explosive athleticism to ever be truly dangerous. Hughes can be neutralized by opponents with a clear strength advantage, but it doesn’t seem like Dudakova is quite at that level. Even if she is, Hughes’ relentlessness in terms of pace and pressure figures to be scored favorably on the scorecards if Dudakova attempts to turn this into a pure grind. The pick is Hughes via decision.

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