Preview: UFC Fight Night 235 Prelims

UFC Fight Night 235 does not necessarily boast the most stacked undercard—the Ultimate Fighting Championship did well to put its best bouts on the main draw this time around—but it does offer a solid batch of fights featuring a few fighters worth watching on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The top prelim sees a rematch with just enough intrigue to be worth it, as Molly McCann and Diana Belbita run back their 2019 encounter in a clash that doubles as the former’s first cut to strawweight. Other highlights include the return of 2023 featherweight “Road to UFC” winner Jeong Yeong Lee in a potential banger against Blake Bilder and top flyweight prospect Azat Maksum in a potential showcase against Charles Johnson.

Now to the preview for the UFC Fight Night 235 prelims:

Women’s Strawweights

Molly McCann (13-6, 6-5 UFC) vs. Diana Belbita (15-8, 2-4 UFC)

ODDS: McCann (-285), Belbita (+230)

McCann’s UFC career has been marked by ups and downs, and it will be interesting to see if a cut down to strawweight turns things around for “Meatball.” Her UFC debut came with some hype, partially because it was in her hometown of Liverpool, England, which made it a disappointment when Gillian Robertson quickly took her to the mat and scored a submission. Yet McCann persevered. Matched with some opponents who could not take her to the ground, she was able to carve out a niche as a hard-nosed scrapper who could entertain the crowd with 15 minutes of hard work. McCann’s breakout 2022 campaign still came as a shock. Wins over Luana Carolina and Hannah Goldy were not surprising in and of themselves, but the fact that McCann managed to finish both with spinning elbows in front of the London faithful made her a minor star whenever the UFC swung by England. However, McCann has gotten bullied in her last two fights, with Erin Blanchfield and Julija Stoliarenko taking her to the mat and scoring a tap in short order. She looks to alleviate those issues by cutting down to 115 pounds. In an interesting move, she meets an old foe in Belbita, who lost her UFC debut to McCann back in 2019.

Romania’s Belbita hit an expected wall against McCann. “Warrior Princess” rode a particularly weak record to her UFC signing and seemed out of her depth once McCann started to provide some resistance. To her credit, Belbita has put in some hard work—including moving to Canada—and become a greatly improved fighter during her four and a half years under the UFC banner. She has fought with a much more patient and intelligent approach in her last handful of fights, and her October bout against Karolina Kowalkiewicz showed the first signs that Belbita might be developing some effective takedown defense. There are still a lot of holes left for Belbita to fill, particularly defensively, but she is still just 27 years old, improving rapidly and now has the level of skill to stick in the UFC and continue learning on the job. That might be enough to avenge her previous loss to McCann, who took advantage of that subpar wrestling defense in an entertaining but ugly fight. McCann’s cardio was also a clear advantage in that fight, and there is some worry that her gas tank could be affected in this first trip down to 115 pounds. There is still enough of a gap that McCann earns the benefit of the doubt in a close call. The pick is McCann via decision.

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McCann vs. Belbita
Maksum vs. Johnson
Gorimbo vs. Rodriguez
Lee vs. Bilder
Stoliarenko vs. Carolina
Mederos vs. Quinones
Petersen vs. Pogues