Preview: UFC Fight Night 183 Main Card

Ground game on point! @Savage_UFC puts the finishing touch on a dominant performance.

#UFCVegas3 continues on @ESPN and E+. pic.twitter.com/PK9UIw0AaJ

— UFC (@ufc) June 20, 2020

Women’s Flyweights

#13 WFLW | Gillian Robertson (9-4, 6-2 UFC) vs. NR | Taila Santos (16-1, 1-1 UFC)

ODDS: Robertson (-110), Santos (-110)

Given that this fight was thrown together after both women lost their opponents on recent cards, the UFC did well to deliver an intriguing matchup. Robertson is putting together an interesting game. It comes down to how much is too much too soon for “The Savage” over the next few years. Coming into the UFC, Robertson obviously had something special in her sneakily violent submission game, but everything else has been a clear work in progress. She is still a developing striker, and her loss to Maycee Barber in late 2019 served as a reminder that Robertson will likely always hit an athletic ceiling against the absolute strongest women in this division. To her credit, Robertson is obviously improving by leaps and bounds, so it is just a matter of benchmarking her move up the ladder every time out. Santos should provide an interesting challenge, particularly in terms of the athletic gap. Santos faced a notably weak level of competition on her way to the UFC, but she put her time to good use, developing a technically sound and powerful muay Thai game. As expected for someone who came up essentially crushing cans, there is not much thought given to what her opponent presents in return. That came back to bite her in her UFC debut against Mara Romero Borella. Faced with another strong athlete for the first time, Santos did not have much an answer for when Borella decided to play neutralizer and turn things into a slow-paced slog. Santos rebounded in impressive fashion against Molly McCann, however, showing the full range of her skills and proving that she can leverage all of her tools when given a sizable athletic advantage. Robertson is a better athlete than McCann, but this should follow a similar dynamic, with Santos being able to dictate the terms of this fight without much trouble. The concern—and it is a sizable one—is that while Santos may be able to control the fight, Robertson is her first opponent who can end the fight in just one moment, owing to her grappling savvy. The pick is for Santos to make it to a decision win, but Robertson suddenly turning around the situation for a submission victory would be far from a surprise.

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