Preview: UFC Fight Night 223 Prelims

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will return to the UFC Apex with UFC Fight Night 223 on Saturday in Las Vegas, and it comes with a solid undercard attached. The featured prelim pits Karolina Kowalkiewicz against Vanessa Demopoulos in an intriguing women’s strawweight pairing in which each woman will look to build on a successful 2022 campaign. More recognizable names than one might expect surface further down the lineup, with Ilir Latifi and Chase Hooper in action; and flyweight Natalia Silva sticks out as the most interesting prospect in this batch of fights.

Now to the preview for the UFC Fight Night 223 prelims:

Women’s Strawweights

Karolina Kowalkiewicz (14-7, 7-7 UFC) vs. Vanessa Demopoulos (9-4, 3-1 UFC)

ODDS: Kowalkiewicz (-130), Demopoulos (+110)

She is still clearly past her peak, but it has been nice to see Kowalkiewicz turn things around and find some surprising momentum in the later stages of her career. Kowalkiewicz had a shockingly quick rise through the UFC ranks thanks to a game that was more than the sum of its parts. She never read as much of an athlete and did not have a particular standout skill, but her combination of durability, persistence and some underrated strength led her to a title shot less than a year into her UFC career. After losing to countrywoman Joanna Jedrzejczyk in that title fight, Kowalkiewicz hung around the fringes of the strawweight elite up until a 2018 fight against Jessica Andrade, which saw her quickly eat a brutal knockout that altered the course of her career. From there, Kowalkiewicz seemed both slower and less confident, as the Andrade loss started a run of five straight losses during which she looked worse and worse, including suffering a career-threatening eye injury after getting brutalized by Xiaonan Yan. A quick armbar loss to Jessica Penne in 2021 was the clearest sign yet that Kowalkiewicz had hit the end, but to her credit, she took a year off and switched up her training in a last-ditch effort that has paid off nicely. In June, she scored a submission win over Felice Herrig that was somehow the first finish of her UFC career, then followed it with a decision over Silvana Gomez Juarez that, while ugly, saw her continually bounce back and regain her confidence to grind out a win. She looks to make it three straight victories against Demopoulos, who turned her own corner in 2022.

Demopoulos has an odd set of skills. Muscled-up and one of the stockier women on the UFC roster, “Lil Monster” has the type of powerful but awkward striking game that you would expect but backs that up with a surprisingly flexible grappling game that allows her to grind out opponents that she is able to track down. Demopoulos’ own durability and persistence makes her harder to outmaneuver than expected, and she has been able to ride her improvements to three consecutive wins in the last year and a half. She should be able to make it four straight in this assignment. Kowalkiewicz’s game has pivoted to becoming more and more about pressure, which plays right into Demopoulos’ hands. Kowalkiewicz still needs to regroup over the course of her fights, and Demopoulos is the much more confident and aggressive grappler, leaving the possibility of a submission win quite open. This does not even mention the possibility that Demopoulos simply clocks the former title challenger with something powerful but messy when Kowalkiewicz attempts to close the distance. The pick is Demopoulos via decision.

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Kowalkiewicz vs. Demopoulos
Cosce vs. Urbina
Nascimento vs. Latifi
Fiore vs. Hooper
Silva vs. Leonardo
Sato vs. Gorimbo