Preview: UFC Fight Night 203 Prelims

Women's Flyweights

NR | J.J. Aldrich (10-4) vs. NR | Gillian Robertson (10-6)
Odds: Robertson (-140), Aldrich (+120)

This should be a fun fight between developing flyweight prospects. JJ Aldrich isn't a particularly dynamic fighter - eight of her nine UFC bouts have ended in a decision - but she's quietly been a success story during her five-plus years on the roster. Aldrich always had a solid sense of her skills and a lot of the right ideas, but the worry was always that she'd be undone by her lack of high-level athleticism. After some lower-level UFC wins, Aldrich had a bit of a breakout in a 2018 win over Polyana Viana, which if nothing else showed that she had the skills to stifle a much more athletic and dynamic opponent. And Aldrich appears to have been helped a ton by a subsequent move up to flyweight; without draining herself, she's obviously filled out to the point that her physical strength is no longer a liability. Aldrich probably still has a clear ceiling in a flyweight division quickly filling up with young and athletic prospects, but she's put up the work to set herself up for success for years to come. Here, she'll face Gillian Robertson, who steps in on late notice for an interesting bout. Robertson has an obvious skill to hang her hat on; while she was relatively unknown coming off her 2017 season of TUF, "The Savage" quickly marked herself as an impressively vicious submission artist. When Robertson can get the ball rolling, she's a pleasure to watch with the way she's able to run through her opponents on the mat, but there have been some rocky moments during her evolution as a fighter. While Robertson's put in obvious technical improvement as a striker, she's still not all that comfortable when things start going against her on the feet; combined with the fact that she's also not an elite athlete, and she's suffered some frustrating losses against stronger opponents who are able to pressure and take her down. Thankfully for Robertson, there's much more athletic parity here, which should lead her to a win; Aldrich may be the better striker, but she's not the type of force to throw Robertson completely off her game, which means Robertson should be able to find a path to her wrestling sooner rather than later. Aldrich has the chops on the mat to survive, but the pick is Robertson via second-round submission.

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