Preview: UFC 285 Prelims

Women’s Strawweights

Tabatha Ricci (7-1, 2-1 UFC) vs. Jessica Penne (14-6, 3-4 UFC)

ODDS: Ricci (-230), Penne (+195)

It is nice to see the UFC revisit an interesting matchup that was a late scratch in October. Even coming off a loss, Penne’s comeback has gone much better than expected. A former Invicta Fighting Championships titleholder at atomweight, Penne was one of the top strawweights in the UFC when the promotion launched the division in 2014. As a result, she quickly found herself as a title challenger against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. However, her highly ranked status seemed to be more of a curse than a blessing. She suffered what seemed like a career-altering beating against Jedrzejczyk, and upon her recovery was tabbed with welcoming Jessica Andrade to strawweight—itself another one-sided destruction. After a loss to Danielle Taylor in 2017, it seemed like the sport had clearly passed Penne by, so when she finally returned to competition in 2021, expectations were not particularly high. However, Penne apparently put the time off to good use. She is somehow in the best physical form of her career at 40 years old and has found a ton of success refocusing on her grappling game in wins over Lupita Godinez and Karolina Kowalkiewicz. A July loss to Emily Ducote served as a reminder that Penne can still be outmaneuvered by opponents unwilling to march into her best weapons, but that might not be a factor here against Ricci.

Brazil’s Ricci checks a lot of boxes as a prospect with some high-level athleticism and a grappling background, but her main issue figures to be that she is a natural atomweight. With a tightly packed 5-foot-1 frame, Ricci is going to be at a size disadvantage against almost all opposition, a point driven home by the comedic size mismatch in her late-notice UFC debut against flyweight Manon Fiorot. Ricci has subsequently looked excellent against opponents her own size, but this pairing does raise those concerns once again. Penne’s win over Godinez serves as a bit of a cautionary tale, as her grappling ability and slipperiness was able to neutralize most of her counterpart’s takedown attempts. Still, the bet is that while Ricci is not the same level of wrestler as Godinez, she is a confident enough grappler to keep working for something and be able to get more done when this actually goes to the mat—not to mention the potential success she could find with her aggressive striking. It could be a struggle, but the pick is Ricci via decision.

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