Rodriguez (16-1) has the UFC women’s strawweight championship firmly in her sights. Rodriguez, deemed by many as a viable title challenger, has looked promising since her audition on “Dana White’s Contender Series Brazil 2” in 2018. The only imperfection in her nine UFC appearances is a split decision loss to Carla Esparza. That blemish looked a lot better when Esparza captured her second UFC title two months later. Rodriguez (No. 3) is certainly taking Lemos (No. 7) seriously but sees the fight as an unnecessary detour to a world title.
“I’m very confident that I defeat Amanda, no matter how, I’m going to be the next challenger,” Rodriguez said at Wednesday’s media day. “If everything goes perfectly I’m going to be there to see this fight (UFC 281 bout between Carla Esparza and Weili Zhang). I know she’s really tough. She’s got good victories — she’s got really good victories in the UFC. But we are both aggressive strikers, so I’m 100 percent confident that our fight has everything to be Fight of the Night.”
Lemos (12-2-1) is looking to cause a little mayhem on Saturday night. The reliable finisher expects to disrupt the pecking order at 115 pounds with a win over Rodriguez. Lemos was developing a reputation as the division’s dark horse before getting steamrolled by former champion Jessica Andrade in April. A second-round submission win against Michelle Waterson in her subsequent fight was the recalibration she needed. Lemos, who was unusually absent from media day, expressed her displeasure earlier this week with being overlooked by Rodriguez.
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“If it doesn’t make sense for her, she shouldn’t have taken this fight. She turned down a fight previously [vs. Zhang Weili], a fight that would have been crucial for her to go to the belt, and she turned it down,” Lemos told MMA Fighting. “That’s on her – I have nothing to do with that. People saying [fighting me] doesn’t make sense – nobody forced her to take the fight. I’m a professional, I’m here.
“I’m not going to wait years to fight for the belt. The belt is something I want, it’s a goal, but my main goal is to provide to my family. I’m here to fight whoever agrees to fight me. That’s on her and her team, I won’t criticize that because I know about my life and what I go through, but saying it doesn’t make sense is not cool because nobody forced her to take this fight. I didn’t call her out, I was offered this fight.”
Saturday’s co-main event has stakes in the UFC records book. Neil Magny looks to separate himself from Georges St-Pierre, the former UFC welterweight champion and all-time great, by securing his 20th win in the UFC welterweight division. Interestingly, Magny could also reach two slightly less desirable milestones: tying the record for most UFC decision wins all-time (11) and/or setting the record for most UFC split decision wins (4). Magny will have his hands full against Daniel Rodriguez, a hard-hitting welterweight riding a four-fight winning streak. Rodriguez is coming off a competitive win over Li Jingliang in September. What followed was a nasty infection that delayed his turnaround. Absurdly, Rodriguez considers the two-month layoff a long one.
“About a couple of weeks ago, I had a staph infection in my elbow. I had a little cut on my elbow from the last fight. I jumped right back into camp, and facing Neil Magny, I jumped back on the wrestling mats and got a little infection on my elbow,” Rodriguez said at media day. “It was actually really bad. I never had an infection like that or anything like that.”
Below is the rest of the fight card for Saturday night with the latest odds from Caesars Sportsbook before we get to a prediction and pick on the main event.
UFC Fight Night card, odds
| Favorite | Underdog | Weightclass |
|---|---|---|
| Marina Rodriguez -210 | Amanda Lemos +175 | Women’s strawweight |
| Neil Magny -120 | Daniel Rodriguez +100 | Welterweight |
| Tagir Ulanbekov -210 | Nate Maness +175 | Flyweight |
| Grant Dawson -220 | Mark Madsen +180 | Lightweight |
UFC Fight Night viewing information
Date: Nov. 5 | Start time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: UFC Apex — Las Vegas
TV channel: ESPN+
Prediction
Marina Rodriguez vs. Amanda Lemos: Rodriguez and Lemos often exercise their height and reach advantages against the strawweight division — not this time. Both women possess a 65-inch wingspan while Rodriguez has a two-inch height advantage. Rodriguez likes to pick apart opponents at range while Lemos welcomes chaos to introduce her vicious knockout power. Lemos is the more accurate of the two, but she also absorbs more strikes and lands less frequently. When Lemos does land, she lands big as she holds the strawweight record for knockdowns. I just don’t think she will be able to crack Rodriguez clean. The most valuable statistic in this fight is the average fight time of each woman. Rodriguez clocks in at No. 3 all-time among strawweights for longest average fight time at 15:07. Lemos has the shortest average fight time of all eligible strawweights at just 6:51. Rodriguez has two successful five-round fights under her belt; meanwhile, Lemos has never gone past three. Expect a competitive first three rounds before Rodriguez takes over late. Rodriguez via UD
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Source CBSSports.com Headlines
