Preview: UFC on ESPN 49 ‘Holm vs. Bueno Silva’

Women’s Featherweights

#13 WBW | Norma Dumont (9-2, 5-2 UFC) vs. #15 WBW | Chelsea Chandler (5-1, 1-0 UFC)

ODDS: Dumont (-140), Chandler (+120)

If the UFC women’s featherweight division has any sort of future, Dumont figures to be involved as the closest thing the promotion has to a full-time 145-pound fighter at the moment. Initially, Dumont figured to eventually slot into the bantamweight scene after making her UFC debut at featherweight. She had spent most of her regional career at 135 pounds, and her aggressive style hit a clear wall as she got quickly obliterated by Megan Anderson in her first trip to the Octagon. For whatever reason, Dumont suddenly found herself unable to make it back down to bantamweight afterwards, eventually forcing her hand to compete back up at 145 pounds. Dumont also lost her aggression somewhere along the way, to the point that she chugs along as a solid but unspectacular fighter. That also makes her fights more or less a referendum on her opponents, with surprisingly few able to take the initiative and outwork Dumont through either pace or physical strength. Chandler is the latest to step up and try, seemingly putting off what appeared to be an intended move down to bantamweight coming out of her last fight. Chandler was fairly unproven heading into her UFC debut in 2022, though she also had little left to prove by the standards of the regional scene. If the Californian could not knock her opponent out, she had a decent wrestling game and some strong grappling in her back pocket to ride things out from there. Surviving armbar specialist Julija Stoliarenko and pounding out a stoppage win in her UFC debut was a promising sign, but this could be where Chandler’s run of success ends. Dumont looks stout enough to survive Chandler’s pressure early, and from there, this looks like another bout where she can coast things out as her opponent slowly fades out of the fight. The pick is Dumont via decision.

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Holm vs. Bueno Silva
Park vs. Duraev
Dumont vs. Chandler
Prado vs. Azaitar
Sadykhov vs. McKinney
The Prelims