UFC Fight Night 154: Moicano vs. Korean Zombie - Predictions and Picks

#6 Ashley Yoder vs. Syuri Kondo

Ashley Yoder has had some hard luck thus far in her UFC career

Okay, so given the cumulative UFC record of these two Strawweight fighters is 2-5, I’m honestly not sure how it’s made the main card of this show. Perhaps I’m being unfair and the UFC matchmakers know more than me about which fights will be exciting – admittedly, that’s quite often the case – but it’s honestly tricky to justify the position of this one.

To be fair, Yoder could perhaps claim she’s had a raw deal throughout her UFC career. Debuting back in 2016 following a failed run on TUF, ‘Spider Monkey’ was outpointed by Justine Kish in a fight that Kish came into over the Strawweight limit. She then lost a pair of split decisions to Angela Hill and Mackenzie Dern, both of which could’ve gone to Yoder on different days, before outpointing Amanda Cooper to pick up her first UFC win in November.

From what I’ve seen of her, Yoder is a functional striker who’s pretty good at countering an onrushing opponent, but her grappling might be her bread and butter. Obviously she didn’t attempt to use it against Dern – a notable BJJ artist – but it was the area that gave her success against Hill and led her to the win over Cooper.

Kondo meanwhile – usually better known by her first name Syuri – is apparently a pro-wrestler of some regard in Japan. Unfortunately, her MMA career hasn’t gone that well thus far. She won her first 5 fights, all in Pancrase, and then edged her UFC debut against Chan-Mi Jeon, but was destroyed by Polania Botelho via TKO in less than a minute and then comfortably lost to Xiaonan Yang, too.

Kondo does have an impressive background in Shoot Boxing – she’s 13-1 in the sport – but it’s very different to full-contact MMA and to be honest, she hasn’t shown me that she’s a UFC-level fighter thus far in her Octagon stint.

I like Yoder here; Kondo has only been fighting since 2016 and hasn’t shown anything to suggest she can hang at the elite level, and while I wouldn’t class Yoder as a top-level opponent just yet, she’s shown flashes of potential and the fact that she was able to do well against the likes of Hill and Dern who are certainly well-regarded suggests to me that she’s got enough to deal with her Japanese foe here.

The Pick: Yoder via unanimous decision