Official Women's Division Discussion #27

Tecia came out hot and put her opponent away quickly in impressive fashion. Hughes looked to be clearly overmatched.

Close fight for Dern, but she was able to secure the victory even with a broken nose it looked like. Would have been nice to see more of the fight play out on the ground, as both were winging shots on the feet.
 
I thought Dern won clearly enough, she was fighting to win while Jandiroba was fighting to survive. Now if she can just fix the takedowns.........

Tecia Torres showing Ilima-Lei how to deal with a larger opponent, via hand speed and, um, superman punches. Impressed with Hughes's corner, did they call in the doc? It looked like. Anyway Bisping with tweet of the year:

 
Quick thoughts on the fights last night.

I've always appreciated Tecia. She may not be the hardest hitter or finisher, but I've always felt she brought her own style and competed hard every time. I think two fights in Invicta (against Rose and Felice) made me a fan. I was glad to see her get the win. I'm not sure if she deserves Top 10 opponent yet after as she beat 2 unranked opponents. I wouldn't mind seeing her fight Angela Hill, or Claudia next.

I am also glad Mackenzie got the win. I've always thought she fought with heart as well. I don't love the whole "I'm a stand up fighter now" thing though. I'm no connoisseur but she didn't look that much better, and understandably so, as it takes time (sometimes years) to develop. She has had fights where shes stood up a lot in the past. She has good power, but she loads up a lot and also does not keep her hands up. Her defense is like stepping away out of range when she can see the opponents strikes coming instead of moving her head and or blocking with hands. My concern with her is shes basically a top 10 fighter (in ranking, i still would choose tecia and angela over her) and it gets really tough from here on out. If she has title aspirations I think she needs to improve her strength and takedowns. Maybe if she has some time to heal her nose she can improve in those areas.
 
Thoughts on the following categories?
KO of the year
Submission of the year
Breakout fighter
Prospect to watch in 2021
Fight of the year
Fighter of the year
 
Well this is fun, think I'll put in two lists, first off the UFC

KO of the year, Cachoeira saving her career by koing Dobson
Submission of the year, GDR putting the Venezuelan Vixen to sleep!
Breakout fighter, Ribas ☆
Prospect to watch in 2021, Murata ☆
Fight of the year, Weili v Joanna ☆
Fighter of the year, Mackenzie Dern, 3 x Ws including 2 bonuses and the first kneebar finish. ☆

The non-UFC list

KO of the year, Geltmacher koing my fave caber tosser Caitlin Sammons ☆
Submission of the year, the Demopoulos comeback against Sam Hughes ☆
Breakout fighter, Manon Fiorot
Prospect to watch in 2021, Juliana Miller
Fight of the year, Stoliarenko v Verzosa
Fighter of the year, Juliana Velasquez

Don't know much about the Asians, sorry.

Edit: In case these get totalled up and as it's unfair to have two votes, this side of the briny anyway, I've put a ☆ by my final choice.
 
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KO of the Year: Bianca Antman's headkick against Veera Nykanen at Brave 37
Submission of the Year: Vanessa Demopoulos putting Sam Hughes to sleep with an inverted triangle after getting dominated for most of their title fight at LFA 85
Breakout Fighter: Amanda Ribas
Prospect to Watch in 2021: Lupita Godinez
Fight of the Year: Zhang vs. JJ
Fighter of the Year: Mackenzie Dern
 
KO of the year: Antman vs Nykanen
reasoning:
i) it was a headkick that KTFO'd her opponent (always most important in this category)
ii) she was losing the fight and it was a last-round comeback KO
iii) it's not in a major org so makes me look like a know-it-all hipster... well it would have if @Larisa. hadn't just mentioned it (and my next few picks)
iv) all must kneel before the ANTMAN!!!!

Sub of the year: Demopolous/Hughes
I feel there is a dichotomy between skillz (eg a flyweight boxer piecing up their opponent with slick movement to a TKO) and 'holy shit bro' factor (eg two fatty HW behemoths swanging at each other till one of their heads pops off) when making these kinds of choices.
I was going to go with Lipski/Carolina for the 'holy shit bro' factor despite the mega-derp level of the whole sequence, but then @Askafan mentioned Demopolous/Hughes which ticks both the skillz and 'holy shit' boxes so is the clear winner to me.

BreakOut Fighter... Amanda Ribas
- I just want to force you to do a video segment singing her praises and hyping her future. That's two three votes now, you know it's coming.
t1429.gif
(but it was gonna be my pick before seeing anyone else's anyway)

Prospect to Watch in 2021: Erin BlanchField

Fight of the Year: Moroz vs Silva ( because I have to be different )

Fighter of the year: Carla Esparza (...what?)

Singlet Award: Murata Canopener
 
I would add one if i Can Most Improved which would fittingly go to Mackenzie Dern since she
not only made weight every fight but at championship weight every time so she has made some
improvements in the last 14 months.
 
KO of the year: geltmacher over caitlin (I'm not sure I seen any other KOs this year that are memorable)
Submission of the year: Lipski that's a once in a lifetime sub.
Breakout fighter: yan xiaonan (alot of people are saying Ribas who really didn't do much (PVZ and Markos), but yan graduated from prospect to contender knocking off veterans like KK and Claudia.
Prospect to watch in 2021: Murata
Fight of the year obviously: Zhang vs jj
Fighter of the year: Tecia Torres, she looked like she was on the decline but 2020 she dominated 2 prospects and shows she's still at the top, no one really stands out val got some defenses, Ribas got some wins, Dern has 3 wins, Robertson can hit 3 wins with her next fight.
 
Quick sat thoughts:
Torres looked great but then it was expected fighting down.

While Dern and Jandiroba turned into the standup battle I was hoping we didn't see, I was pleasantly surprised both looked like they're working hard on being a good striker and enjoyed them banging. In the end Dern had an edge in both grappling and striking hard spot to be in for Jandiroba.
 
leto1776 said:
Thoughts on the following categories?
KO of the year
Submission of the year
Breakout fighter
Prospect to watch in 2021
Fight of the year
Fighter of the year
Click to expand...
KOTY - Andrade over Chookagian, Kielholtz over Jackson, or Blanchfield over Leonardo.
SOTY - Dern over Cifers or Lipski over Carolina.
Breakout fighter- Denice Zamboanga or Cory McKenna
Prospect - Bella Mir, Kana Wantanabe, or Claressa Shields
FOTY - Weill/Joanna is the only option
FOTY - I think it may be Lauren Murphy?
 
msm1981 said:
I would add one if i Can Most Improved which would fittingly go to Mackenzie Dern since she
not only made weight every fight but at championship weight every time so she has made some
improvements in the last 14 months.
Click to expand...
So, she did the bare minimum asked of her. Yay
 
KO of the year: Geltmacher over Caitlin
Submission of the year: Lipski because she had not shown much prior. Dern is supposed to be the ground wizard to end all grappling to hear her team talk but it does not show.
Breakout fighter: Yan Xiaonan
Prospect to watch in 2021: Bella Mir although I expect I am giving her extra regard based on her father and might be expecting too much.
Fight of the year: Zhang vs JJ
Fighter of the year: Dunno. Nobody really stands out. Some people are talking about Dern but her standup and takedowns are still terrible and she continues to look down when throwing an overhand right. So just because I am a crotchety old bastard I will say Ribas just to irritate Leto.
 
fifthletter said:
Quick thoughts on the fights last night.

I've always appreciated Tecia. She may not be the hardest hitter or finisher, but I've always felt she brought her own style and competed hard every time. I think two fights in Invicta (against Rose and Felice) made me a fan. I was glad to see her get the win. I'm not sure if she deserves Top 10 opponent yet after as she beat 2 unranked opponents. I wouldn't mind seeing her fight Angela Hill, or Claudia next.

I am also glad Mackenzie got the win. I've always thought she fought with heart as well. I don't love the whole "I'm a stand up fighter now" thing though. I'm no connoisseur but she didn't look that much better, and understandably so, as it takes time (sometimes years) to develop. She has had fights where shes stood up a lot in the past. She has good power, but she loads up a lot and also does not keep her hands up. Her defense is like stepping away out of range when she can see the opponents strikes coming instead of moving her head and or blocking with hands. My concern with her is shes basically a top 10 fighter (in ranking, i still would choose tecia and angela over her) and it gets really tough from here on out. If she has title aspirations I think she needs to improve her strength and takedowns. Maybe if she has some time to heal her nose she can improve in those areas.
Click to expand...

Tecia's kinda stuck in an awkward spot, and I guess it really depends on where she wants to go from here. If she wants a title shot she's gonna have to fight the top 10 and most of them are bad matchups for her or have beaten her already. If she's fine with just being in the cage and fighting there's a bunch of fun fights she can have.

As for Dern, some improvements early, but most of it went out the window as soon as Virna landed a few good ones on her. To be honest, I thought Dern's takedown attempts looked more improved than her standup, she was actually going for the legs and trying to lift instead of just pushing her opponent into the fence. She's not going to trouble the top fighters, but I can see her giving someone like Rodriguez some problems. Might be an interesting matchup for Carla as well since her power and aggressiveness can be a handful and Carla would have to think hard about panic wrestling her if she gets hit more than she likes.

Not sure where Virna goes either. Her grappling is solid, her takedowns are reasonably good, but she's on the smaller side and her striking needs a ton of work. Probably going to get stuck around where she is in the rankings right now.
 
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