This past Saturday on the main card of UFC 262, we saw a pivotal matchup in the flyweight division. Consensus top contender Katlyn Chookagian (16-4) was taking on the surging Viviane Araujo (10-3).
Araujo made the walk at UFC 262 riding a two-fight win streak. In her last win, she defeated the tough Roxanne Modafferi by decision. That was a big win that got her going in the right direction.
However, fighting Katlyn Chookagian was a big step up. Chookagian is considered by everyone to be the third best flyweight in the world. In my opinion, she’s going to end up turning into the UFC‘s gate keeper of that weight class.
This fight was going to tell us a lot about where Viviane Araujo is. Well, in my opinion, she looked great for the first couple of rounds. The first round was competitive between the two flyweights, but I thought Araujo landed the bigger shots.
In the second round, Araujo got the fight to the ground and had Chookagian mounted. She was attacking submissions, but the UFC‘s second ranked flyweight contender wouldn’t go away easy and fought her way out.
After Araujo couldn’t finish the fight on the ground, she was gassed. From there, Chookagian cruised the rest of the fight. However, I personally scored the first two for Araujo. To me surprise, not a single judge gave her the fight and one judge gave all three rounds to Chookagian at UFC 262.
What’s next after UFC 262?
Despite it being a unanimous decision loss at UFC 262, I really don’t think Araujo loses a lot here. I think there are a lot of people who can watch that fight back and think it was either razor close or Araujo won.
It was not a robbery and it was a close fight. However, there’s no way that Viviane Araujo lost all three rounds of that fight. So, with that loss, what does the UFC do with Araujo next?
Well, I think there’s an opponent that’s actually lined up perfectly for her. Araujo is ranked eighth at flyweight and I think she should be paired up with tenth ranked Alexa Grasso (13-3) next.
Grasso has looked great since moving up to flyweight. She had an incredible performance at UFC 258 against Maycee Barber and I think pairing these two up would be the wise move for the promotion.