Two strawweight fighters who earned UFC contracts via Dana White’s Contender Series will battle it out in the main card of UFC Fight Night: Hall vs. Strickland. Check out out preview of Cheyanne Buys vs. Gloria de Paula below.
Buys failed to secure a win in her UFC debut, as she lost to Montserrat Cornejo via unanimous decision back in March 2020. She struggled against defending the takedown attempts of Cornejo, though, she more than doubled her lead significant strikes landed, 31-15. Prior to that, Buys won via unanimous decision in a fight in the Dana White’s Contender Series over Hilarie Rose in August 2020 via unanimous decision. The 26-year-old fighter of Team Fortis MMA has gone the distance in all but one of her seven career pro fights, dating back to his days in the Legacy Fighting Alliance. Including her fight in the Dana White’s Contender Series, Buys is averaging 4.10 strikes landed per minute in the UFC with a 65 percent striking defense.
De Paula will look to recover from her unanimous loss to Jinh Yu Frey last March, which was also her debut in the UFC. Before that, she scored a win over Pauline Macias in Dana White’s Contender Series: Season 4, Week 10 in November 2020. Although de Paula slightly lags behind Buys in UFC?DWCS fights in terms of strikes landed per minute and striking accuracy, she will be enjoying a huge four-inch reach advantage on Saturday. That length will be crucial for de Paula, who’s won three fights in her career via T/KOs without getting stopped so far in her MMA career. Both de Paul and Buys don’t seem to have good takedown defenses, but that might not matter that much in this fight that pits together two strikers.
