Preview: UFC Fight Night 175 ‘Smith vs. Rakic’ Prelims

Women’s Strawweights

Mallory Martin (6-3) vs. Hannah Cifers (10-6)

ODDS: Martin (-330), Cifers (+270)

It certainly has been a rough 2020 campaign for Cifers. The North Carolina native came into the year with a surprising bit of momentum, owing to some solid but unspectacular wins over Polyana Viana and Jodie Esquibel. However, all of her issues have been laid bare in the three fights since. Cifers mostly gets by on a limited boxing game and some surprising natural strength, and Angela Hill, Mackenzie Dern and Mariya Agapova all completely overwhelmed her, the loss to Agapova coming in a move up in weight on a 14-day turnaround. Thankfully, this fight against Martin should be more her speed, even if the Elevation Fight Team rep will present her own problems. Martin is still raw, particularly as a striker, but she has been able to overwhelm a lot of her opponents with her wrestling. Virna Jandiroba made for a difficult opponent and a one-sided loss in her UFC debut, but Martin’s wrestling should be enough to get the win here, particularly since she offers some damaging ground-and-pound. However, if Cifers manages to stuff the first few takedowns, this could get interesting. The pick is Martin via decision.

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