Preview: UFC on ESPN 27 Prelims

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Women’s Strawweights

NR | Hannah Goldy (5-1, 0-1 UFC) vs. NR | Diana Belbita (13-6, 0-2 UFC)

ODDS: Goldy (-120), Belbita (+100)

Two fighters drop down to strawweight here in search of their first UFC win. Goldy made it to the roster a year or two early, and the promotion basically admitted as much. Goldy did not earn a contract after her 2019 win on Dana White’s Contender Series—she was deemed to be in need of more seasoning—but the promotion’s need for a late-notice replacement meant she got signed about a month later. Goldy has an interesting style, focusing on a powerful and counter-heavy boxing game, but it remains unclear how well that will work going forward, mostly because her short and muscular frame conflicts with her preference to stay at range. In that UFC debut, Miranda Granger managed to find success keeping Goldy at bay, and the Floridian has not been seen in the two years since due to various injuries. She will face Romania’s Belbita, who came to the UFC in 2019 with about as weak a resume as possible.

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Belbita ran over opponents with little if any professional experience and fell short against any step up in competition. To her credit, “The Warrior Princess” has some tools to work with, since she has the type of aggressive mindset that can overwhelm opponents once she develops her skills. However, her two UFC bouts thus far have been rude awakenings. Molly McCann beat her in every phase of the fight, and Belbita’s aggression instantly led her into a Liana Jojua armbar. Belbita is going to force the issue and prevent Goldy from staying patient and at range, but it is hard to bet on the Romanian doing much with that aggression. While Goldy is not particularly spectacular, she is a powerful athlete with enough command of the basics that she should be able to stifle Belbita and return fire with some hard punches. This figures to be messy, but the pick is Goldy via decision.