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Women’s Strawweights

NR | Vanessa Demopoulos (6-4, 0-1 UFC) vs. NR | Silvana Gomez Juarez (10-3, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: Demopoulos (-140), Gomez Juarez (+120)

This is an interesting striker-versus-grappler matchup between two strawweights looking to rebound from disappointing UFC debuts. There is much to like about Demopoulos, mostly in terms of her physical attributes. She is a bricked-up athlete with impressive power for the division, and she has shown an ability to keep eating damage in the name of finding a victory. However, Demopoulos has an approach that leaves her a narrow path to victory, particularly against better competition. While she has some knockout power, she is at her best and most comfortable hunting for submissions on the mat. Demopoulos is legitimately creative with what she manages to find—witness her inverted triangle choke submission of Sam Hughes in July 2020—but she is much too prone to wasting time trying to find a finish from her back and she was much too passive in pursuing a takedown to begin with. Demopoulos got a rough late-notice assignment for her UFC debut, moving up a weight class against J.J. Aldrich and suffering a one-sided loss. She will look to rebound against Juarez. Argentina’s Juarez made it to the UFC after a decade as a professional, during which she has fought intermittently. “La Malvada” is a sharp boxer, but she has historically struggled against her better competition over the years, which includes her UFC debut in October, when Lupita Godinez was quickly able to take down Juarez and score an armbar submission. This should be rough going early for Demopoulos, who is quite hittable and takes a while to pivot towards her wrestling. Once she does so, she is powerful enough that she should get this to the mat with little trouble and find a finish there. The pick is Demopoulos via first-round submission.

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