Preview: UFC on ABC 5 Prelims

Women’s Strawweights

#15 WSW | Tabatha Ricci (8-1, 3-1 UFC) vs. Gillian Robertson (12-7, 9-5 UFC)

ODDS: Ricci (-130), Robertson (+110)

Robertson has done well for herself in the UFC thus far, but it feels like “The Savage” still has not put together a true breakthrough performance. Robertson is the most prolific submission artist among all women in the UFC, but getting there has often been an adventure. She is an absolute terror when she can get on top of an opponent and go to work, but some obvious progress as a striker has tended to go out the window if an opponent can find some success on the feet. Even in a lot of Robertson’s victories, she tends to take some early abuse before locking into the fight and tapping out her opponent, while her losses have mostly seen her start out cold and simply get stalled out by stronger athletes. That latter point made her cut to strawweight earlier this year an interesting gambit. There is the chance that Robertson just gets shellacked by quicker strikers, but so far so good, as she was quickly able to get to her game against Piera Rodriguez and work for yet another submission win. Ricci makes for an interesting next test, as the Brazilian is another standout grappler with a much different set of positives and negatives. Ricci is an excellent athlete who, unlike Robertson, is rarely taken out of a fight thanks to her opponent’s success, as “Baby Shark” is constantly aggressive and looking to make something happen. The main issue for Ricci is that for all her acumen, she is likely a natural atomweight thanks to her 5-foot-1 frame and figures to have some issues bullying opponents once she reaches a certain level of strawweight competition. It is unclear if that level includes Robertson, who is nowhere near the athlete Ricci is but brings a considerable size advantage to go along with her own grappling acumen. This is a fascinating pairing given that both women are at their best working on top of their opponents and could waste their time ineffectively hunting for submissions on the bottom. Ricci figures to waste less time in looking for a takedown but may just hit a wall against Robertson’s intersection of size and skill. This is one of the hardest calls on the card, but the lean goes to the Brazilian in a fight that could go extremely well or extremely poorly for each woman. The pick is Ricci via decision.

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