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#3 Montana De La Rosa vs. Mara Romero Borella
Outside of the almost DOA Women’s Featherweight division, it’s hard not to feel like the female Flyweight division is currently the weakest in the UFC. Case in point, neither De La Rosa nor Borella feel that far away from title contention at 125 lbs, and yet they’re both coming off losses. That’s largely because of the way in which champ Valentina Shevchenko keeps dispatching of her challengers, but also because they’re generally solid enough fighters.
Both women are primarily grapplers, first and foremost. All 3 of De La Rosa’s UFC wins came by submission, while Borella made her presence known in her UFC debut by submitting the favored Brazilian Kalindra Faria. On the other hand, evidence would suggest that neither woman is the greatest striker – particularly De La Rosa, who’s honestly shown very little in terms of a kickboxing game thus far in her career.
This could well be a close fight, but I’m favoring Borella for a couple of reasons. Firstly while she’s not the most natural striker, she seems more comfortable on her feet than De La Rosa, and was doing fine against Lauren Murphy before the veteran caught her with a huge knee for a third round TKO. And secondly, De La Rosa might’ve impressed in her 3 UFC wins, but they were against opponents that were inexperienced and largely overmatched.
Against the more experienced Andrea Lee on the other hand, she couldn’t really get her grappling game going, and ended up being largely outworked on the mat by ‘KGB’, particularly when it came to giving up top position. The likely cause? She’s just not the most physically powerful fighter.
With that in mind, I think Borella might struggle to impose herself early on, but eventually her physicality and overall skills will take over, allowing her to do enough to take a clear-cut decision.
The Pick: Borella via unanimous decision
