Tabatha Ricci discusses her upcoming UFC 295 fight against Loopy Godinez
Tabatha Ricci has been slowly climbing the UFC strawweight rankings and at UFC 295, she has a chance to set herself up for what could be a huge 2024.
When the “baby shark” first came into the UFC back in 2021, she did so by taking a short notice fight in the flyweight division. That fight didn’t go as planned, but that has been her only blemish in her professional career.
After that fight, Ricci returned to her natural weight class of strawweight and she’s been on fire has she’s now 4-0 at 115 pounds.
The winning streak has been impressive, especially since it has been against great competition.
Ricci’s first really big win came at the begging of this year at UFC 285 when she submitted former title challenger Jessica Penne.
After that win, Ricci fought Gillian Robertson, who had moved down to flyweight after setting UFC records for submissions and wins in the flyweight division. That fight was expected to be a matchup and in that fight, Ricci got the better of Robertson to get a unanimous decision win.
With four straight wins over that type of competition, Ricci is now ranked No. 10 in the official UFC strawweight rankings and at UFC 295 she’ll have another big fight.
Interview below:
Up next for Ricci is Loopy Godinez, who has been on a nice run herself as she’s won her last three fights and in that stretch she earned a split decision win over fan favorite Cynthia Calvillo.
Godinez is ranked behind Ricci at No. 13, but its clear that the winner of this fight is in prime position to get a top 10 fight in 2024.
As far as 2024 goes, Ricci isn’t looking too far into it or what would be next. Instead, she knows Godniez is a very tough opponent from back when they were both in the LFA.
All what’s on Ricci’s mind right now is leaving New York City with a win.
Prior to UFC 295, Ricci spoke with MyMMANews to discuss her matchup with Godinez, her plans for being in New York City and showing off her strength on Instagram by squeezing open a pumpkin.
You can watch her full interview in the video above.
A full list of fights for UFC 295 are listed below:
Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira – vacant light heavyweight title fight
Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich – interim heavyweight title
Jessica Andrade vs. Mackenzie Dern
Kevin Borjas vs. Joshua Van
Stephen Erceg vs. Matt Schnell
Jared Gordon vs. Mark Madsen
Diego Lopes vs. Pat Sabatini
Nurullo Aliev vs. Mateusz Rebecki
Dennis Buzukja vs. Jamall Emmers
Matt Frevola vs. Benoit Saint-Denis
Viacheslav Borshchev vs. Nazim Sadykhov
Loopy Godinez vs. Tabatha Ricci
