Saturday in Australia is ladies night in the UFC. The main event and co-main event will feature both women’s champions in action and defending their belts.
The Ronda Rousey Show returns as the UFC women’s bantamweight champion defends her title against Holly Holm. Just before that intriguing battle, UFC women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk will defend her title against Valerie Letourneau.
Here’s a look at the full card, schedule and predictions for each fight:
Holm‘s Chance to Shock the World
If Holm can’t beat Rousey, chances are, the latter will retire from mixed martial arts undefeated. That’s not a prediction in favor of Holm, but the former boxing champion and all-around superb athlete has a better chance to beat Rousey than any of the previous opponents, and anyone that figures to come along in the next three to five years.
Per Fox Sports UFC, veteran fighter Matt Brown agrees:
Rousey has a head start in grappling on most every woman in the world. She’s an above-average natural athlete, and she’s obsessed with success. The combination makes her almost the perfect storm.
Holm has the physical attributes to weather Hurricane Ronda, but completing the feat will be difficult to say the least. Holm is an inch taller. She also has long and powerful legs that allow her to keep fights at a range with more than just her renown boxing skills. It would seem Holm should have the decided advantage in stand-up.
Rousey could be looking for challenges and variety. Don’t put it past her to try to beat Holm at her own game.
After being known primarily for her signature armbars, Rousey has worked on her striking. The results have been spectacular, as she flattened Bethe Correia and Sara McMann without taking the fight to the ground.
Can she do that to Holm? Don’t bet on it. Holm is a better striker than Rousey, and she’ll prove it early on. She won’t land anything that troubles the champion, but after the first round, Rousey will know that pursuing a stoppage via strikes is probably a bad idea.
In the second round, Rousey will go back to her bread and butter, She’ll look to counter a kick from Holm, take her down and have her way on the mat. Holm has probably been working on submission defense since the fight was signed, but that doesn’t matter against Rousey.
It’ll only be a matter of time before Rousey earns the win by tapout. For the sake of variety, let’s say she uses a rear-naked choke this time.
Jedrzejczyk Will Smash Letourneau
With all due respect to Letourneau, Jedrzejczyk is going to roll in her title defense. The women’s strawweight champion is the best striker in women’s MMA, and Letourneau is a grinder who usually takes a lot of shots in her fights.
Per FightMetric.com, Letourneau absorbs 3.73 strikes per minute in her fights. Against a powerful and prolific striker like Jedrzejczyk, that’s not a winning profile. Letourneau’s wrestling isn’t dominant enough to dictate the identity of the fight, and she doesn’t have the power to offset the champion’s edge in speed and quickness.
Bet on a second-round TKO in a one-sided beatdown.
The Super Samoan Will Stomp Bigfoot
The first fight between Mark “Super Samoan” Hunt and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva ended in a draw, and it was the greatest heavyweight bout in UFC history. The rematch will take place on Saturday, and it will again be contested in a phone booth.
Both men seemed to give as good as they received in the first fight, but this time, Hunt will be too quick and accurate with his strikes. Silva failed a post-fight drug test after the first meeting, and he’s just 1-2 since. The only win came over the one-dimensional and overrated Soa Palelei.
Hunt has lost both of his fights since the draw with Bigfoot, but the competition has been elite. Stipe Miocic and UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum both stopped him. In a battle between worn-down veterans, Hunt will prove to have more left in the tank.
Expect a first-round finish from the Super Samoan.
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