Strawweights Rayanne dos Santos and Talita Alencar kicked off the UFC Vegas 83 preliminary card at the UFC Apex on Saturday night, a card originally slated for Shanghai, China.
Alencar was making her full UFC debut after being awarded a contract from Dana White’s Contender Series earlier this year, despite drawing her fight. Amanda was also making her first UFC outing after a successful stint with Invicta.
The fight began with both ladies looking to get their striking game going, despite both being jiu-jitsu specialists. Alencar was the first to test the waters with a takedown attempt, but her single leg was unsuccessful. Amanda’s height and reach advantage began to play its part in the fight as she began landing her right hand whilst staying out of Alencar’s power range.
Halfway through round one and “The Problem Child” once again looked to land a single leg takedown, but was once again stuffed. On the break she did well to land a big knee, but Amanda wasn’t too fazed by it. Rayanne Amanda began to run away with round one with a few big right hands, along with keeping her foot on the gas. Throughout the first five minutes, Talita Alencar looked extremely uncomfortable in the striking exchanges, similar to her Contender Series fight with Luciano.
Round two began with it likely being 10-9 to Amanda. Early in the second round Alencar slipped and looked to entice Amanda to the ground, but the 28-year-old was wise to it and called Alencar back to her feet. Similarly to round one, Alencar looked as though she was struggling with fighting on her back foot against someone with a big size advantage over her. Midway through round two, Amanda caught Alencar with another right hand as the 33-year-old looked to close distance, but Alencar did well to secure double under-hooks and push Amanda up against the fence.
From there she finally got the fight to the ground which is something she looked to do several times in round one. Whilst on the ground, she looked for a potential kimura as she isolated the arm of Amanda, but Rayanne did well to stay composed and kicked Alencar off. In the final moments of round two, Alencar utilised the stack position well as she looked to land some heavy hammer fists.
Going into round three, it was likely 19-19 with Alencar having a more successful round two. Despite that, she looked far more fatigued than Amanda and looked as though she was going to slow down rather quickly into the final round. After having a little bit of success with her takedown in round two, Talita looked for another 1:30 into the final round, but Amanda stuffed it again. Although Alencar was looking more fatigued, she was the one who was putting on the forward pressure through the last five minutes. Amanda really struggled to land anything of note for the majority of the final round, but in the final proceedings she landed a few more right hands, making for a very close decision.
Official Result: Talita Alencar def. Rayanne Amanda via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
