Marina Rodriguez vs Amanda Lemos moved from UFC 280 to UFC FN 214
UFC 280 is right around the corner, and it couldn’t be a more stacked card.
We have a pair of back-to-back title fights in the main and co-main events, as Charles Oliveira battles Islam Makhachev for the UFC lightweight championship in the main event of the evening, and Aljamain Sterling aims to defend his UFC bantamweight championship against former champion TJ Dillashaw in the co-main event.
We also have a feature bout between former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan, who faces no. 12 ranked Sean O’Malley in a three-round affair.
But we did lose a couple fights that were slated to go down at UFC 280, one of which coming in the strawweight division between a pair of 35-year-old Brazilian talents in no. 3 ranked Marina Rodriguez and no. 7 ranked Amanda Lemos.
Rodriguez has been nothing short of astounding since coming over to the UFC in September of 2018 with a record of 10-0, fresh off her Contender Series victory where she TKO’d her opponent in the opening round.
Rodriguez would go 2-0-2 through her first four promotional bouts. To our surprise, she battled to two majority draws against Randa Markos and Cynthia Calvillo. No one was even deducted a point in either of those encounters, which makes it ironic she had two draws in her first four UFC bouts.
Nonetheless, she’d lose her next fight to two-time, current UFC strawweight champion Carla Esparza via split decision, before going on her current win streak of four-straight fights.
This includes wins over Amanda Ribas (TKO), Michelle Waterson (UD), Mackenzie Dern (UD), and Yan Xiaonan (SD). Two of those went the five-round distance; she also defeated the first woman to defeat Dern in Ribas, as well as the latest woman to defeat Dern in Xiaonan, if that means anything to you.
Then we have Amanda Lemos, who’s one of the more dangerous female fighters on the planet.
Lemos came over to the UFC in July of 2017 as the Jungle Fight bantamweight champion with a record of 6-0-1.
She’d debut in the UFC at 135 lbs, losing to Leslie Smith via TKO, before she’d drop down to strawweight where she’s since gone 6-1.
This began with a five-fight win streak where she secured three finishes, before she was handed her second loss against former champion Jessica Andrade (arm-triangle choke).
Lemos did however rebound from this defeat earlier this year in July, where she submitted (guillotine choke) BJJ brown belt Michelle Waterson.
Rodriguez comes into the bout with a record of 16-1-2, while Lemos comes in with a record of 12-2-1.
Who do you see coming out on top in this epic strawweight encounter?
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