Women’s Strawweights
Jessica Penne (12-5) vs. Jodie Esquibel (6-4): It has been a hard fall for Penne. The former Invicta Fighting Championships atomweight queen was Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s first strawweight title challenger back in 2015, but one-sided beatings at the hands of Jedrzejczyk and Jessica Andrade have highlighted her current three-fight losing streak. Penne’s best skill is her submission grappling, but her wrestling is not particularly powerful up at 115 pounds. Add in that she tends to favor an outside striking attack that often leads to her back being against the cage, and her game is a mess that does not play to her strengths much. Esquibel’s structureless game leaves her in a similar boat. She can do a little bit of everything on paper, but without a standout skill to rely on, her UFC career has been unsuccessful thus far. Penne’s losses to Jedrzejczyk and Andrade have left her unable to deal with taking damage all that well, but Esquibel is not much of a finisher, so that should not be a concern here. Even so, there are still concerns that Esquibel might just be the physically stronger fighter, and without Penne being able to get much grappling done, this becomes anyone’s fight. Still, Jessica Aguilar enjoying success against Esquibel suggests that Penne’s lack of athleticism will not be much of an issue. It is hard to have confidence in either fighter, but the pick is Penne via decision. ODDS: Penne (-160), Esquibel (+140)Bantamweights
Renan Barao (34-7) vs. Luke Sanders (12-3): Given his current skid, it is a bit shocking that the UFC is still in the Barao business. Barao was considered one of the best fighters in the world before T.J. Dillashaw broke his nine-year undefeated streak and took his bantamweight title; that loss seems to have completely destroyed the Brazilian’s confidence. Barao would have his issues anyway -- as the overall level of striking in MMA has improved, he has looked increasingly slow-footed -- but the last few years have been a disheartening string of bouts in which he shows flashes of his prior self early on, only to gas out and implode as soon as the fight turns against him. He gets another shot here against Sanders, who has dealt with his own bad luck. A debut win over Maximo Blanco made Sanders someone to watch, but his UFC career has been a series of crushing comeback losses. He was handily winning bouts with Iuri Alcantara and Andre Soukhamthath before suddenly getting finished in the second round, though his last bout just saw him get immediately tapped by Rani Yahya. Barao may look good early, but between how much this weight cut to 135 pounds appears to be destroying him and the fact that Sanders has both the power and grappling skills to turn the tide as soon as he slips, this figures to be another depressing loss for the former champ. The pick is Sanders via decision. ODDS: Sanders (-175), Barao (+155)Women’s Strawweights
Aleksandra Albu (3-0) vs. Emily Whitmire (3-2): Behold, the amazingly rare Albu sighting. Albu has only had two fights since being signed in 2013 -- for reasons that become immediately apparent with one Google image search -- and those fights have made for some decent entertainment, even if she is still not all that good. Albu is physically powerful and extremely aggressive, so while her style is a technical mess, she has managed to overpower the bottom rungs of the UFC strawweight roster. She will take on an “Ultimate Fighter 26” alum in Whitmire, who has a solid but nondescript game and stuck on the roster thanks to a workmanlike win over Jamie Moyle in July. This fight could easily just be Albu charging over and over into the same few strikes, but nothing about Whitmire suggests that she will do any better in the face of the Russian’s bricked-up physique and wild aggression. The pick is Albu via decision. ODDS: Albu (-155), Whitmire (+135)Related Articles
