Women’s Strawweights
No. 10 | Amanda Ribas (10-1, 4-0 UFC) vs. No. 8 | Marina Rodriguez (12-1-2, 2-1-2 UFC)ODDS: Ribas (-300), Rodriguez (+250)
Advertisement
Rodriguez has also affirmed herself as a prospect to watch, albeit in a much quieter fashion than Ribas. Her UFC debut—a draw against Markos—gives a solid outline of Rodriguez’s strengths and weaknesses. She was mostly helpless when Markos got her wrestling fully on track, but on the feet, she is a practiced and quite vicious muay Thai artist. Even though she is a late bloomer—her pro debut came at age 27—Rodriguez has done well to try and shore up her weaknesses. Just two appearances after the Markos bout, Rodriguez managed to stifle Tecia Torres and turn things into a striking match to earn her signature win. The UFC has not exactly done Rodriguez any favors with its matchmaking since, pitting her against two more talented grapplers in Cynthia Calvillo and Carla Esparza. Rodriguez held her own in both fights—they resulted in a draw and a split decision loss that each could have gone Rodriguez’s way—and seems poised for a breakout run with a bit more experience.
Ribas’ knockout loss to Viana is always going to loom somewhat large, but this looks like a bout where she is set up well to succeed. Again, Rodriguez’s clear weakness is her ability to fight off better wrestlers, and while she has done well to work on those parts of her game, Ribas still feels like too strong of a challenge to overcome. At this point, Ribas has proven she can bull around some physically strong opposition without much trouble. Add in that she seems to take an intelligent approach and also has a potent submission game to end the fight, and she should spend the entire bout working towards the finish. The pick is Ribas via second-round submission.
Finish Reading » The Prelims
« Previous Lightweights Alexander Hernandez, Thiago Moises Collide at UFC Event on Feb. 27
Next Prime Picks: UFC 257 ‘McGregor vs. Poirier 2’ »
More