Preview: UFC Fight Night 184 Prelims

Women’s Flyweight

NR | Molly McCann (10-3, 3-2 UFC) vs. NR I Lara Fritzen Procopio (6-1, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: McCann (-160), Procopio (+140)

McCann did well to rebound from a UFC debut that went about as poorly as possible. After making her name on the European scene as a scrappy striker, McCann’s first UFC fight saw her get taken down and basically run through by Gillian Robertson, a reality made all the worse by the bout taking place in her hometown of Liverpool, England. However, that gave way to a breakout 2019 campaign for “Meatball,” who managed to take over fights—and even show some offensive wrestling—against Priscila Cachoeira, Ariane Lipski and Diana Belbita to go undefeated on the year. Unfortunately, a July loss to Taila Santos proved that McCann is essentially always going to struggle to get much done against elite athletes, but she should find much more success here against Procopio. This might be the rare fight where McCann is actually the better athlete, but while Procopio does not stand out physically, her UFC debut against Karol Rosa was an underrated gem, as the two women threw down for over 600 combined strikes across three rounds. While Procopio is willing to have an entertaining fight, it is also hard to see how she will find much success at the UFC level, given that the best parts of her game involve submission skills she does not have much of an avenue towards. There are some minor worries for McCann—forcing some takedowns could lead to Procopio catching her in something, and there is a chance the Brazilian looks much better athletically down at 125 pounds—but the Brit should be able to win this on the feet without much difficulty. The pick is McCann via decision.

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