Bantamweights
BETTING ODDS: Pereira (-120); Cowan (+100)
Pereira (6-1; 0-1 UFC) and Cowan (7-4; 0-2 UFC) are both still in
search of their first UFC win, but in the ultra-depleted women’s
bantamweight division, it probably won’t be the last opportunity
even for the loser. Pereira made some waves last September when she
was signed as a 19-year-old to face Montserrat
Rendon at Noche UFC. That’s the good news; the bad news is that
she lost to Rendon and did not look great along the way. Now 20,
the “Golden Girl” has a chance to bounce back from that
inauspicious debut. There is still plenty to like; physically, she
is big for the division and a good athlete, and against the
ultra-low level competition she faced in South America before the
Rendon fight, she used her physicality and aggression to blow away
overmatched opponents. She has good power in her hands, especially
her right, though she does not throw in combination enough, and her
kicks are powerful as well, if a bit telegraphed. The concerns
about Pereira come down to footwork, cage control and fight IQ—and
those are very big concerns. Against Rendon, who is big but slow
and plodding by bantamweight standards, Pereira nonetheless
couldn’t keep her foe at her preferred distance, and as a result
she ended up fighting Rendon’s fight. Worse, she made some odd
showboating-type moves in Round 2 of a fight she appeared to be
losing at the time.
Cowan has been similarly disappointing since joining the UFC out of
Dana White’s Contender Series. She is also big for the division
and is a standout athlete—while success in non-combat sports isn’t
always a predictor of MMA-effective athleticism, Cowan’s background
as a nationally ranked college gymnast is an obvious positive. She
is quick, powerful and a bear to deal with in close quarters.
However, at this point she feels like a case of arrested
development; in LFA and on the Contender Series, she showed that
her physical gifts could power effective wrestling and solid clinch
work, and lent power to her otherwise rudimentary striking, but
five years later, the same scouting report holds true. Fighters who
aren’t physically overwhelmed by Cowan physically can take
advantage of her basic striking and, especially, her lack of
defensive awareness on the ground.
This fight is one of the closest on the card in terms of betting
odds, and both women have multiple avenues to victory. For as much
as Pereira looks the part of a powerful athlete, Cowan is one, and
Pereira simply hasn’t shown she can deal with someone her own size.
Conversely, Cowan’s losses have usually been precipitated by major
mistakes and while it’s anyone’s guess whether Pereira will be able
to exploit those errors like Nora
Cornolle or Kelly
Clayton did, she will have her chances. The lean here is mostly
down to Pereira being over a decade younger and still very much in
her learning curve as a fighter, where Cowan appears to be a mostly
finished product, for better or worse. If either woman is
substantially better than she looked in her last fight, it’s more
likely to be the Brazilian, but even if they are more or less the
same, the pick is Pereira by decision.
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Pat vs. Petersen
Delano vs. Ruchala
Costa vs. Nicoll
Vannata vs. Flowers
Barbosa vs. Gatto
Bekoev vs. Gore
Pereira vs. Cowan
Kamaka vs. Hope
