There is a very solid strawweight contest on tomorrow night’s UFC Vegas 13 main card. Top ten contenders Claudia Gadelha (18-4) and Yan Xiaonan (12-1) will go to war. Both of these ladies are looking to take one step closer towards the UFC title.
Yan Xiaonan is a big time prospect for the UFC. The Chinese strawweight has come out swinging in her UFC career thus far. She’s won all four of her fights inside the octagon which includes victories over Angela Hill and former title challenger, Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
The UFC is becoming increasingly popular in China. The current strawweight champion, Weili Zhang, was the first Chinese born fighter to claim gold inside the octagon. Xiaonan could be the next great fighter from China.
Standing across from her will be former title challenger Claudia Gadelha. Gadelha comes into this contest after going 3-1 in her last four fights. However, many people believe that she actually lost two of the fights that she won.
Gadelha is coming off of a very close split decision victory over Angela Hill back in May. A good amount of people do not believe that Gadelha should have had her hand raised that night. Nevertheless, she did and a win tomorrow would mean three straight wins.
UFC Vegas 13 Prediction
This is such an interesting matchup between these two ladies. It almost seems a little like the bull and the matador. To me, Gadelha has to come right out and try to pressure Xiaonan. Gadelha doesn’t do extremely well with fights that are fought at range.
She has to get on the inside if she wants to hand Xiaonan her first loss in the UFC. Likewise, Xiaonan has to keep the fight at a distance. She’s very good at striking from range and she does a fantastic job of working off of her jab.
I would expect that Gadelha will try to get this fight to the mat. While she might have a power advantage, I don’t see her having the striking advantage. In the end, I think this one stays on the feet enough over three rounds to see Xiaonan remain unbeaten in the UFC.
Prediction: Yan Xiaonan by Unanimous Decision