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Women’s Strawweights

Emily Whitmire (4-3) vs. Polyana Viana (10-4)

ODDS: Whitmire (-120), Viana (+100)

Whitmire’s UFC career has been a pleasant surprise thus far. She was part of the mostly anonymous roster on the women’s flyweight season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but after dropping down to strawweight, she has done a solid job to round out her game and pick up some wins. “Spitfire” is not much of an athlete, so there is a clear ceiling for her, but on the plus side, her blowout loss to Amanda Ribas in 2019 has aged quite well in retrospect. She was slated to face Viana in March before falling ill due to weight-cutting issues, so hopefully she has figured out the process since. Viana has had a frustratingly disappointing UFC run, to the point that it is a bit of a surprise to see her still with the promotion after three straight losses. She ran through overmatched competition in her native Brazil and looked excellent in her UFC debut against Maia Kahaunaele-Stevenson, but Viana’s aggression has gotten her nowhere in every fight since. Viana’s best skills are her submissions, and even when she has been able to get the fight to the ground, it has not been particularly promising; she even got tapped by Veronica Macedo in her most recent outing. Viana could certainly catch Whitmire in a scramble, but her game looks broken to the point that it is difficult to have faith in that happening. The pick is Whitmire via decision.

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