Preview: UFC 292 Prelims

Women’s Flyweights

Karine Silva (16-4, 2-0 UFC) vs. Maryna Moroz (11-4, 6-4 UFC)

ODDS: Silva (-155), Moroz (+130)

Long stretches of inactivity have dulled most of her momentum, but Moroz has developed into a solidly well-rounded fighter when she actually makes it to the cage. Moroz was a complete afterthought ahead of her UFC debut in 2015, seemingly signed just as a stay-busy fight for potential strawweight title contender Joanne Wood. Moroz instead scored one of the biggest upsets in UFC history and did so in stunning fashion, catching Wood in an armbar for the tap in just 90 seconds. Moroz’s career mostly crashed down to earth from there, as some middling performances against lower-tier opponents exposed the lack of depth to her game and some moves up the ladder led to some one-sided losses. However, everything clicked in tandem with her move up to flyweight in 2019. The work on her boxing that had previously proved ineffective suddenly reaped some rewards, in turn unlocking a lot of the wrestling and grappling from which she had previously turned away. A March 2020 win over Mayra Bueno Silva has aged particularly well, and Moroz has generally looked sharp during her fights. The issue has been getting there, as she has fought roughly once per calendar year with a lot of cancelled matchups in between. A November loss to Jennifer Maia was another solid performance in a setback that did not do much to hurt her stock, outside of the fact that her inactivity meant there would be a long wait for her attempted rebound. It comes nine months later against Silva. This is actually a rematch of the 2014 fight that earned Moroz a UFC contract and saw her take advantage of Silva’s aggression to find an early armbar. While the Brazilian has honed her craft, it is hard to say much has changed in terms of Silva’s approach. Silva’s style can be a bit ponderous at times, as “Killer” has little interest in winning rounds, instead focusing on finding singular moments of offense to finish her fights. It feels like it should not work, but it has earned Silva her current seven-fight winning streak and some impressive performances; she pulled out a kneebar to shred Ketlen Souza’s knee in June. It may take a bit longer to get there than it did the first time, but the dynamic from the 2014 fight feels the same. Moroz should be able to survive some early trouble and get Silva in a poor enough position to find a finish of her own. The pick is Moroz via second-round stoppage.

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Silva vs. Moroz