UFC 240 will highlight a women’s bantamweight match between Viviane “Viví” Araujo and UFC veteran Alexis “Ally-gator” Davis. Araujo is fresh off an impressive KO victory over Talita Bernardo back in May at UFC 237. Meanwhile, Davis is coming off two losses to Jennifer Maia and Katlyn Chookagian.
A post shared by Alexis Davis (@alexisdavismma) on Jul 26, 2019 at 4:04pm PDT
Viví Araujo has fought in her native Brasil, Japan, and the United States. Before she had her UFC debut against Talita Bernardo, Araujo fought in Pancrase where she dominated a lot of fighters on her feet. She has finished two competitors with doctors having to stop the fight and has a few submission victories to her name. Her only loss comes via a TKO loss to Sarah Frota in early 2017.
A post shared by Vivi Araujo (@viviaraujomma) on Jul 27, 2019 at 7:36am PDT
Alexis Davis is a long-time women’s MMA veteran being part of the first wave of women to fight in the UFC. Davis has fought in Strikeforce, Invicta, and various small promotions when it was difficult for female fighters to find matches. In that time, she has defeated many notable present-day fighters like current champ Amanda Nuñes, Julie Kedzie, Liz Carmouche and avenged losses against Shayna Baszler, Tonya Evinger and Sarah Kaufman. Davis received a title shot against the then bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey in 2014 but was promptly defeated and has gone 3-3 since that fight.
A post shared by Alexis Davis (@alexisdavismma) on Jul 20, 2019 at 9:01am PDT
On paper, Davis’s best chance to winning against Araujo is creating a grappling match where she would have the advantage of considering she holds black belts in both Japanese and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Araujo is a smart fighter when comes to offensive striking and has punches that can cause damage with footwork to complement her movements. In Araujo’s fights against both Emi Fujino and Ayaka Miura, the fight had to be stopped due to injuries from face punches. If Davis can shut down Araujo’s striking, she can force the fight on her terms and take away the knockout power of Araujo.
A post shared by Vivi Araujo (@viviaraujomma) on Jan 21, 2019 at 4:18am PST
This fight will be aired on regular ESPN before the beginning of the main card on Pay-per-view.
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