Preview: UFC Baku Prelims

Women’s Bantamweights

Irina Alekseeva (5-2, 1-1 UFC) vs. Klaudia Sygula (6-2, 0-1 UFC)

ODDS: Alekseeva (-270), Sygula (+220)

The UFC women’s bantamweight division is always in need of talent, so two of the promotion’s relatively recent signings square off to see if someone can build some momentum. Despite closing in on 35 years of age, Russia’s Alekseeva probably has the higher upside of these two prospects since “Russian Ronda” at least has some athletic potential while still being fairly raw in mixed martial arts. Alekseeva is a wild fighter who mostly looks to get her opponent to the ground and then see what happens, which overwhelmed a lot of regional competition and quickly found her a kneebar against Stephanie Egger in her UFC debut. She then got little done against the wrestling-heavy approach of Melissa Mullins before failing a drug test, which has kept her out of action for nearly two years. She looks to make a successful return against Sygula, who still feels somewhat undercooked as a fighter. Sygula looked like a solid enough scrapper regionally, but she was untested in terms of any level of real competition—which didn’t make it a shock when she herself got handled rather easily by Mullins in her own UFC debut in November. Alekseeva looks to have the physicality to impose her game here, though there’s always the chance she gets too messy for her own good. The pick is Alekseeva via first-round submission.

Jump To »
Ko vs. Elliott
Park vs. Naurdiev
Mullins vs. Zheleznyakova
Alekseeva vs. Sygula
Ulanbekov vs. Maksum
Abdelwahab vs. Usman