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#5 UFC Strawweight Division: Claudia Gadelha vs. Yan Xiaonan

Can Yan Xiaonan move up to the elite level by beating Claudia Gadelha?

Aside from the main event, this might be the fight on this card with the most implications for a UFC title picture. When all is said and done, Gadelha might well go down as one of the best fighters to never hold UFC gold.

The Brazilian entered the UFC as an undefeated prospect, and only a failure to defeat prime Joanna Jedrzejczyk stopped her from winning the UFC Strawweight title back in 2016.

In the years that have followed, though, she’s begun to look more vulnerable. Gadelha is a solid striker, but she’s not the most explosive on the feet and is largely hittable at times. That issue led her to losses against Jessica Andrade and Nina Ansaroff, and with different judges, it could’ve led to a loss to Angela Hill in May.

On the ground is where Claudinha really thrives, as she showed when she submitted Karolina Kowalkiewicz and dominated Jessica Aguilar. The problem is that while she’s a strong wrestler, she isn’t physically powerful enough to run through her opponents and take them down as easily as, say, Tatiana Suarez.

That could give her some serious difficulties against Xiaonan. Fury has a record of 12-1, but more impressively, she’s gone 5-0 in the UFC thus far. Sure, all of those wins came by decision, but in each of them, she’s shown some razor-sharp striking skills, particularly her use of a ramrod jab.

It was that jab that led her to her most recent UFC win over Kowalkiewicz. Essentially, Xiaonan smashed the Polish fighter’s face with her jab, keeping her at bay for the entire fight and never really letting her out of first gear. It was a fantastic showing that cemented Xiaonan as a UFC title contender.

Gadelha is undoubtedly Xiaonan’s toughest test yet. She’s more experienced, particularly at the top of the UFC, and has a better ground game than anyone Fury has faced yet. However, it’s also fair to say that Gadelha’s issues with technical strikers – particularly those who can keep her at distance – gives Xiaonan a great chance of winning here.

If Xiaonan can keep Gadelha at the end of her strikes as she did to Kowalkiewicz, this should be her fight to lose. And given the issues that Claudinha had against Hill, I suspect that Xiaonan is more than capable of carrying out that kind of gameplan.

I expect Gadelha to become highly frustrated in this one as she ends up stuck at the end of Xiaonan’s jab for 15 minutes. I’m going with Xiaonan by decision here – elevating her into UFC title contendership in the process.

The Pick: Xiaonan via unanimous decision