Preview: UFC on ABC 5 ‘Emmett vs. Topuria’

Women’s Flyweights

#9 WFLW | Amanda Ribas (11-3, 6-2 UFC) vs. #11 WFLW | Maycee Barber (12-2, 7-2 UFC)

ODDS: Ribas (-195), Barber (+165)

This has the potential to be quite messy and quite entertaining, as these two flyweight prospects lean on aggression and physical talent to get things done. Thanks to a drug test suspension, Ribas had to wait two years before making her UFC debut, but the Brazilian made up for lost time. She looked like an absolute superstar in running over Emily Whitmire, then took a clear decision win over the much more hyped Mackenzie Dern to mark herself as a top prospect. After wins over Randa Markos and Paige VanZant in 2020, Ribas looked ready to make a charge towards strawweight contender status in 2021. Instead, her year kicked off with a surprising knockout loss to Marina Rodriguez. That highlighted the overzealousness that Ribas sometimes brings to her game, but it has paid dividends in her last two fights, which saw her take a late notice assignment up at flyweight and then stay at 125 pounds. Ribas did well in one of the rougher matchups for her in the division against Katlyn Chookagian, then spent the better part of 15 minutes handling Viviane Araujo with her pressure and physicality. At only 5-foot-3, Ribas’ move to flyweight seemed ill-advised given how much her style relies on her physicality, but she seems to have the requisite power to hold her own even against larger women, which makes this matchup against Barber particularly interesting.

Barber made her UFC debut in 2018 at just 20 years old, and there was immediately talk of her as a future champion. A lot of it came from Barber, who is among the most vocally self-confident fighters on the UFC roster. She is also an athlete with plenty of horsepower, which, when combined with her sheer determination, has done a lot of the work for “The Future.” In her first two fights at flyweight, she was able to run through the much more technically sound J.J. Aldrich and Gillian Robertson when she decided to flip the switch and start fighting with some aggression. Things went disastrously in what figured to be a showcase fight against Roxanne Modafferi in 2020, as Barber tore up her knee while getting outgrappled by the crafty vet. When Barber lost another decision to Alexa Grasso upon her comeback, the worry was that she would go down as a prospect bust. However, Barber has since rattled off four straight wins, even if her progress has been a bit choppy. She has obviously made some attempts to become a more technical fighter that have not really paid off, but she is at least self-aware enough to pour on the pressure in the later rounds in order to clinch a victory—an approach which has paid off multiple times. If Barber was more aggressive from the jump, there is a decent chance she could swamp Ribas early and stay ahead for the rest of the fight, but the bet is that things go the other way. Ribas should be the more aggressive fighter to start and seems to have enough physicality to hang even with Barber’s considerable amount of strength; and she seems stout enough to survive whatever comeback Barber tries to stage. This is a close one, but the pick is Ribas via decision.

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Emmett vs. Topuria
Ribas vs. Barber
Tafa vs. Lane
Santos vs. Onama
Allen vs. Silva
The Prelims