UFC Vegas 39 at the Apex this Saturday is headlined by a pivotal strawweight bout between Marina Rodriguez and Mackenzie Dern. The card is mainly filled with fighters coming in off some momentum and aiming to build a name for themself. At strawweight, Lupita Godinez was supposed to fight Sam Hughes but Huges pulled out due to COVID-19 protocols, after a coach tested positive. The UFC will now bring in Silvana Gomez Juarez who was supposed to fight on the Contender Series next Tuesday.
Silvana Gómez “La Malvada” Juárez
Standing at 5’3″
Fighting at 11 5lbs (strawweight)
36-years-old
Fighting out of San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina
Training out of Elevate MMA
A pro record of 10-2
6 KO/TKOs, 2 Submissions
How will Juarez fare in the UFC:
Juarez is hardly a prospect at 36-years-old. Despite her age and debuting in 2010, she doesn’t have a lot of fights for being in the sport for almost a decade. Her best win is against UFC fighter Vanessa Melo. On the other side, her two losses are to Poliana Botelho and Ariane Lipski who are both UFC fighters. Juarez is deserving of this opportunity though if she were to fall short on the regional scene we would likely never see her in the UFC.
Where Juarez falls short is that she’s never the aggressor. She’s always fighting off her back foot. Nor is she too hard to hit, because her movement is rather repetitive. Yet in spite of Juarez frequently going backwards, she draws women into her power. She is both tactical and wild in her striking. She likes to tuck her chin and throw overhands and a lot of times connects but is still sloppy. Juarez does throw a good jab and chopping leg kicks, the latter being probably her best weapon. She doesn’t throw a lot of output, only throwing one to two punches at a time. I do like her one-two and a lot of the times she goes body head. Another one-two she throws well is a leg kick to a hook up high.
Juarez does have a ground game but likes to stand and trade. She would only excel against the weakest in the division in terms of grappling, and it’s where she’s going to struggle mostly. Overall, a good signing who at least will be competitive. At her age though it’s probably too late to make a serious run.
How she matches up with Godinez:
Godinez is solely a striker who really hasn’t used much wrestling. She does have it in her back pocket, but she’d rather just catch kicks and dump her foes on their rears. So both these ladies prefer this style of fight. Godinez is someone that’s going to stay in your face throwing her hands, staying active, and throwing to the body perfectly. Although she doesn’t have a stoppage by KO/TKO, Godinez does indeed have some pop behind her hands. She is more modeled as a pressure striker who will batter women en-route to a decision. Godinez is the better striker between the two and that should be what wins the fight. She has a significant output advantage and is much faster and durable.
