The ardent Amanda Ribas – the tenth female strawweight in the ranking – sought to keep her perfect record within the octagon (4-0) intact at the expense of sixth-placed Marina Rodriguez, who accepted the challenge when Michelle Waterson retired from the event pay-per-view (PPV) for undisclosed reasons. And after the unbeaten feeling of lightweight Ottman Azaitar made the stupidest mistake, the £ 115 clash was promoted to UFC 257’s PPV main card, which took place inside the Ethiad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Ribas controlled the action at the start, but after less than a minute to the second stanza, Rodriguez scored an outstanding finish to register the turnaround.
Ribas, the soil specialist, pressured Rodriguez, the striking specialist, in hopes of shortening the distance and avoiding the big shots. Ribas continued to chase Rodriguez early, firing low kicks and trying to cut the cage and arrest it. About 90 seconds later, Ribas managed to secure a takedown, which Rodriguez defended at his side for a minute before Ribas finally managed to enter his closed guard. Ribas tried to rain a bit of ground and pound, but Rodriguez did a good job of keeping his head on his chest. Rodriguez tried to run towards the fence to try to get up, but Ribas was able to keep her exactly where she wanted … close to the center of the octagon. Ribas landed a nice elbow and a few short punches to the body, while Rodriguez was content to just catch a body triangle underneath and leave the opening frame.
Ribas’ corner kick advised her to make sure she reached half-guard so she could do more damage, while Rodriguez’s team pleaded with her to continue. Then Rodriguez dropped it with a strong kick and started to deliver more blows without an answer … it looked like Ribas was over, but referee Herb Dean didn’t say … yet. Rodriguez left, thinking she had won, but Dean informed her that she was not finished. But Ribas was clearly on his feet – so Rodriguez hit him with an elbow, then two straight, stilted hands and Dean finally waved out of the action as Ribas rocked back and forth.
It looked like Dean touched Rodriguez during his initial attack, which was why she probably pulled away. Anyway, it didn’t matter, Rodriguez scored a big victory over an emerging one who still has a bright future ahead of him.
That’s how you start a PPV.
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