Preview: UFC 258 Prelims

Women’s Flyweight

NR | Miranda Maverick (8-2, 1-0 UFC) vs. NR | Gillian Robertson (9-5, 6-3 UFC)

ODDS: Maverick (-140), Robertson (+120)

Robertson has certainly been an overachiever given where she started in her UFC run. From a resume standpoint, there was not much to recommend Robertson being on “The Ultimate Fighter” season that served as an inaugural women’s flyweight title tournament. While “The Savage” was quickly eliminated from the proceedings by Barb Honchak, her proper UFC career has seen her make a name for herself as a talented and vicious submission artist. Robertson has obviously put in the work to improve over the last few years, but she has some clear weaknesses. Her striking still is not particularly effective, and there have been some clear struggles against better athletes: Maycee Barber ran her over in 2019, and Taila Santos controlled a one-sided fight in December. That makes for an interesting matchup against a rising prospect. Maverick has gotten a considerable amount of hype due to her talent and youth, but she is still raw and somewhat limited. The effective parts of her game essentially boil down to her powerful wrestling and some solid grappling, which has usually been enough to get some impressive wins given her relative inexperience. After Maverick scored a victory over Liana Jojua in her UFC debut, Robertson seems like a huge next step up for a prospect who needs some development time. Nevertheless, a lot of factors in this fight actually favor Maverick. While Maverick’s striking is still fairly rote and one shot at a time, Robertson does not figure to challenge those deficiencies; and Maverick should still be the much harder hitter. Plus, Maverick’s clear strengths match up almost perfectly to stifle what Robertson will look to do, as she should be able to get the initiative on the mat to either pin down the Canadian or work for submissions herself. Robertson is skilled enough that it will be difficult to count her out over the course of the fight, particularly since Maverick will likely take her to the mat. Even so, the pick is Maverick via decision.

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