Preview: UFC on ESPN 63 Prelims

Women’s Flyweights

Miranda Maverick (14-5, 7-3 UFC) vs. Jamey-Lyn Horth (7-1, 2-1 UFC)

ODDS: Maverick (-470), Horth (+360)

This appears to be a year of Maverick holding steady, which is a bit of a success in itself after an up-and-down few years. Maverick started young as a professional. She was signed by the UFC in 2020 at just 22 years old but already had four years of experience under her belt. She came to the promotion as a fairly one-dimensional wrestler, so a striking-heavy performance in her debut against Liana Jojua raised some hopes that Maverick could turn the corner towards contender status in short order. Instead, it has been a much slower rise. Losses to Maycee Barber and Erin Blanchfield, two of the other top young prospects in the flyweight division, showed that Maverick could struggle against other powerful wrestlers with much more aggression. While she has rebounded well, scoring five wins in her six fights since the loss to Blanchfield, there’s still a bit of aimlessness to her approach—a point further compounded by that lone loss to the much more focused Jasmine Jasudavicius. Maverick has continued to right the ship with wins over Andrea Lee and Dione Barbosa, and the time seems about right to test her once again with another step up in competition. That figured to come with a matchup against Tracy Cortez that has now fallen through twice, so instead, Maverick ends the year against a late replacement in Horth.

Horth got the UFC call in April 2023, and the Canadian has put together a solid three-fight campaign since, chugging along as a talent with a low ceiling and a high floor. Horth’s main strength is that she’s large for the flyweight division, enough so that she was able to outwork athletic bantamweight Hailey Cowan in her UFC debut. While her game is well put together, she has struggled to track down faster fighters like Veronica Hardy. A narrow win over Ivana Petrovic, another large flyweight, in November drove home the fact that taking Horth head-on isn’t the best proposition, which does make this matchup more interesting. While Maverick is a strong offensive wrestler, her takedown defense has been spotty and it’s possible to imagine her losing a grind. However, Maverick looks to be the much faster striker at this point, and with a wrestling match looking like a coinflip, the American seems to be the much safer bet. The pick is Maverick via decision.

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Maverick vs. Horth
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