With Daniel Marcos vs. Carlos Vera falling apart just as quickly as it came to be, the penultimate Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event of 2023 features just two newcomers. On this edition of New Blood — the series UFC does its level best to make me regret creating — we checkout a pair of debuting Strawweights who fell short on Contender Series.
As always, all episodes of the most recent Contender Series season are on ESPN+.
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Rayanne Amanda
Weight Class: Atomweight/Strawweight
Age: 28
Record: 14-6 (2 KO, 8 SUB)
Notable Victories: Jillian DeCoursey
Amanda battled her way to a career-long, four-fight win streak from 2021 to 2022, only to suffer a one-sided loss to Denise Gomes on Contender Series. She rehabbed with an easy win in Brazil, then kicked off her 2023 with two wins in Invicta, including a decision over Jillian DeCoursey to claim their Atomweight title.
Amanda didn’t have much to offer Gomes and didn’t particularly impress in her Invicta debut against Katie Saull. I was prepared to write her off, but that win over DeCoursey showed a staggering level of improvement over just a few months, presumably thanks to her move from Brazil to Texas.
The current Amanda is a powerful and light-footed combination striker, skipping around the ring and snapping out jabs before stepping in with nasty flurries. She does a great job of mixing her punches to the head and body, showing a particular fondness for leading with a right straight or one-two combination downstairs before coming up with a thudding left hook. An impressive gas tank keeps her volume high well into the championship rounds and her low knockout percentage belies some genuine snap in her right hand, which floored Saull as the latter tried to change levels.
Amanda fixed a lot of her most significant issues between the Saull and DeCoursey fights, notably tightening up her punch technique to an impressive extent, but she does still have some lingering flaws. The most prominent of them is her habit of dropping her non-punching hand when she throws and bringing said punching hand back at her waist, leaving her chin vulnerable to counters. While she’s made strides there — especially in keeping her right hand tucked to her chin as she jabs — someone willing to slug it out with her will find it worryingly easy to land a counter.
She also seems to struggle a bit with Southpaw body kicks and low kicks, which produced the bulk of DeCoursey’s limited success, and can slap a bit with her left hook instead of landing with the correct knuckles.
Though generally content to strike, Amanda is a willing grappler if her opponent tries to initiate or if she just decides to switch things up. She showed off very stout takedown defense against DeCoursey, limp-legging out of most of her shots and immediately popping back up the one time DeCoursey got her down. She’s slick enough with her transitions to take dominant position off of her opponents’ bad shots and score takedowns of her own off of caught kicks or reactive shots.
Despite that gaudy submission record, which includes seven armbars over limited opposition, she’s generally more of a ground-and-pounder on top outside of occasionally threatening arm triangles. Much of her work comes from half guard, though she rides well and can take the back if the opportunity is there.
I came away much more impressed with Amanda than I thought I’d be. She’s entertaining, genuinely skilled, and has an admirable mean streak. Her biggest hurdle will probably be the fact that she’s, well, an Atomweight fighting at 115 pounds. We’ve seen other women her size find success such as Loma Lookboonmee, but it’s definitely an uphill battle. Luckily for her, debut foe, Talita Alencar, is similarly tiny. I like Amanda’s chances of sprawl-and-brawling to victory.
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Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Talita Alencar
Weight Class: Strawweight
Age: 33
Record: 4-0-1 (3 SUB)
Notable Victories: None
Three straight submission wins under the Titan FC banner carried Alencar to Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA), where she cruised past Kelsey Arnesen in her lone appearance. She looked poised to claim victory on Contender Series after two dominant rounds against Stephanie Luciano, but ran out of steam and barely scraped out a unanimous draw.
With three world no-gi gold medals under her belt alongside dozens of other accolades, Alencar boasts one of the strongest Brazilian jiu-jitsu pedigrees in the division. She primarily utilizes double-legs and run-the-pipe single-leg takedowns (both impressively quick) to drag her opponents to the mat and get to work. Her balance, pressure, riding and back takes are all as smooth as you’d imagine and she’s taken to ground-and-pound remarkably well, hammering opponents with punches and elbows as she works her way into dominant positions. She doesn’t neglect the body, either, and seems to have a particular knack for pinning her opponents’ hands in compromising positions to facilitate further face-punching.
Her striking remains her weak link, though it does seem to be improving. She can throw a nice one-two combination and clinch knee, but she gives ground easily. More pressingly, she seems to get caught up in the moment when pressured, either knuckling down to trade heat or shooting panicked takedowns. That’s what really did her in against Luciano; she still had a bit of juice left early in the third, but burned out the last dregs with ugly level changes that Luciano saw coming a mile away.
It also doesn’t help that she’s 5’1” with a 58.5-inch reach, the latter of which ties Cory McKenna for the shortest in UFC history if I’m not mistaken.
Alencar is a wizard on the mat and, unlike many of her contemporaries, has a powerful wrestling game with which to take it there. At 33, though, there might not be quite enough time for her to develop into a true contender. What she’s got should still be sufficient for a solid UFC career, albeit one that starts poorly thanks to Rayanne Amanda’s superior striking.
Her Titan FC and LFA bouts are on Fight Pass.
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 83 fight card right here, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (also on ESPN+) at 10 p.m. ET.
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