UFC: A. Ribas (-160) Vs V. Jandiroba $$
This is a rebound fight for Ribas who lost her last fight in January against the surging Marina Rodriguez. That loss no longer seems as prominent as it did early in this year prior to Rodriguez completing two more quality wins and before the public understood how goo Marina truly is.
These two fighters do have a common opponent in MacKenzie Dern so I went back to rewatched these two contests. Ribas secured a fairly solid win over Dern in what was mostly a striking match. Dern is not known for her stand up, so barring that fight being on the ground for the majority, it was a fairly predictable result.
Despite her deficiencies, Dern was still able to get a three round decision against Jandiroba without being able to get Virna to the mat. This to me is the key point in this matchup. Amanda should have a clear advantage in the striking department. She is quicker and has better timing than Jandiroba who just seems a bit too stationary a target to be dominant.
Both of these woman are competent on the ground so don’t see a big advantage either way, but I do not expect this fight to contested on the ground regardless. Also I do not think it very likely that Jandiroba can knock out Ribas, while the opposite is possible. But the majority of the fights in the lighter women’s divisions do go to the judges scorecards, so typically the fighter with the better striking can win these decisions.
This should just be a tune up fight for Ribas to get her back on track and up the standings coming off a difficult loss and a long lay off. If she does happen to lose this fight, her career could spiral downwards but I do not expect that from the very talented and spirited Ribas. I predict a three round unanimous decision for Amanda being the most likely outcome.
My UFC picks for the year are 52-21 (71.2%) +15.8 Units.
