Victoria Souza has really started to find her feet in ONE Championship's atomweight MMA division.
At the start of her run in the promotion, the Brazilian contender alternated wins and losses for the first few fights. Though there is no shame in losing to the late Victoria Lee and Noelle Grandjean, Souza appears to have turned a corner.
She earned back-to-back victories when returning at ONE 168, capitalizing on the momentum she gained from ONE 167. In a hard-fought clash with Alyse Anderson at the Ball Arena in Denver, Souza got her hand raised via unanimous decision.
To secure the win on Sept. 6, she needed to battle through several submission attempts that looked like they could end the fight.
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In an interview with ONE Championship, Souza broke down both of her escapes, stating that she combined technique and heart to overcome this adversity:
"I escaped her triangle with a technique that my coach taught me and, from the armbar, I just spun to escape.
"But it was also a bit of heart there, because, oddly enough, I don't have much elasticity."
Victoria Souza can keep building from this point
Consecutive wins over Alyse Anderson and Itsuki Hirata have set Victoria Souza up well in this division.
Against Hirata at ONE 167, it was her own opportunistic submission ability that was the story of the fight after she got the victory in just over 90 seconds. This time around, she was able to demonstrate her ability to counter that exact pattern by remaining safe through Anderson's attempts to secure the tap.
Souza will once again look to keep this ball rolling by returning to the circle in the near future, where a big atomweight clash could await her.
The full replay of ONE 168 is available on demand for Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.