Preview: Noche UFC Prelims

Women’s Bantamweights

Montserrat Rendon (6-1) vs. Alice Pereira (6-0)

Odds: Pereira (-160); Rendon (+130)

The first Mexican to take the cage at Noche UFC, Rendon will be tasked with welcoming a young woman barely half her age to the promotion in the teenaged Brazilian phenom.

Rendon figured to have a limited upside, or limited window of opportunity in which to show it at least, when she arrived in the UFC as an undefeated but mostly untested late bloomer with only five career fights at age 33. She has made things worse by losing her perfect record, but more importantly by fighting just twice in three years. Even in the never-say-never world of the UFC women’s bantamweight division, it’s go time if “Monster” wants to be a contender.

Unfortunately, even after two UFC bouts and one in Invicta, it is still difficult to point out what Rendon does at an elite level. She is big for the division with an imposing frame, but while she is quite physically strong, her subpar athleticism limits her opportunities to show it, and she does not have especially big power on the feet.

Her lack of any finishes as a professional is testament to her limitations: a solid fundamental striker but without much speed or pop; a problem in the clinch and a decent offensive grappler, but who struggles to stay active and do damage even when she gets the fight into her wheelhouse. That dynamic came to a head in her loss to Darya Zheleznyakova last year, where Rendon came up against a woman with many of the same assets and liabilities, and ended up being out-grinded in a dreary fight.

Despite being just 19 years old, Pereira has nearly as much MMA experience as her opponent. The “Golden Girl” turned pro the month before Rendon’s UFC debut, which means she has six fights in the same amount of time that Rendon managed just two.

Having said that, Pereira’s level of opposition up to this point has been about as low as it gets. I remember having a laugh at the expense of UFC bantamweights Ailin Perez and Tamires Vidal, who came to the UFC out of Samurai Fight House, a promotion where they had fought on interlocking foam rubber mats that looked like a daycare. Compared to some of the events where Pereira has fought, SFH might as well be New Year’s Eve in Tokyo, 2004.

That makes it difficult to get a read on how good Pereira actually is. She is good-sized for the division as well, though she may not be quite as burly as Rendon, and she is very athletic. Most of the tape shows her blowing through ultra-low level women in Brazil and the Middle East, with big power in her right hand in particular.

Pereira has a reckless approach that has not cost her yet, but is likely to catch up with her against UFC bantamweights, and the one time she had to fight past the seven-minute mark of a fight, in her December title fight with Samara Santos, she slowed down badly against a woman she had been outclassing.

Those are problems for later, however. This debut, while it represents a big step up in competition, still features a foe in Rendon who seems unlikely to catch Pereira with a pinpoint counter and knock her silly. And while Rendon could certainly grind on Pereira and slow things to a crawl, even if Pereira gets tired in the final frame, she is likely to have two rounds safely socked away by then. The pick here is Pereira by decision, and the hope is that the fight at least teaches us something about both women.



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Hernandez vs. Ferreira
Medina vs. Todorovic
Puelles vs. Silva
Suarez vs. Lemos
Aguilar vs. Gurule
Reese vs. Dumas
Costa vs. Coria
Rendon vs. Pereira
Sezinando vs. Donchenko