Gillian Robertson won five in a row to earn a shot at the UFC strawweight belt against Mackenzie Dern in the co-main event of UFC 330 on Aug. 15, and the last woman to beat her in the octagon wants to insert her name in the conversation for a shot at the gold with a win Saturday at UFC Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n
Tabatha Ricci, who won a decision against Robertson in June 2023, is set to take on hot prospect Fatima Kline on July 18. It\u2019s no easy task, she said, but one that could put herself in a good position in the 115-pound division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everything goes well in this fight and I come out without any injuries or anything,\u201d Ricci told MMA Fighting, \u201cI\u2019ll definitely ask to be the backup for the Gillian vs. Mackenzie fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricci believes Robertson \u201chas a great chance\u201d of winning the UFC title in Philadelphia, but gives Dern \u201ca slight edge because of her experience, her grappling background, and probably the confidence she has right now as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Gillian is also a dangerous fighter,\u201d Ricci added. \u201cI don\u2019t know how much she\u2019s improved, but she\u2019s definitely shown a lot of development. Gillian is very aggressive on the ground too and I don\u2019t know if Mackenzie has faced someone as aggressive on the mat as she is. Maybe that could surprise her. But Mackenzie\u2019s jiu-jitsu is also very good, so it\u2019s going to be a really interesting fight. Or maybe they\u2019ll end up keeping it standing the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Robertson can pull off the victory and bring the UFC belt back to Canada, Ricci hopes she decides to try to avenge her most recent octagon defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe if she wins, she\u2019ll call me out,\u201d Ricci said with a laugh. \u201cThat would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brazilian has to get herself back on the winning column first on July 18, attempting to rebound from an April decision defeat to Virna Jandiroba. The plan, she said, is to perform and impress \u201cso I can put myself back in line for the title.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of whether I get the next shot or not,\u201d Ricci said, \u201cI want this victory so I can return to the position I was in before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricci considers Kline \u201cvery dangerous on the feet\u201d after winning three in a row in the UFC against Victoria Dudakova, Melissa Martinez and Angela Hill, but feels experience and a well-rounded mixed martial arts game should give her the advantage come Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I have a lot more experience than she does,\u201d Ricci said. \u201cI\u2019ve fought some of the best athletes, especially in striking. I fought Yan, who I consider one of the best strikers in the division, and that gave me a lot of confidence going into this fight. I\u2019ve fought pretty much everyone near the top of the ranking, so that gives me a lot of confidence. Of course, she\u2019s a fighter who\u2019s getting a lot of attention, who\u2019s on the rise, and who\u2019s put together several UFC wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a striker versus grappler kind of fight,\u201d she continued. \u201cWhoever executes their game plan better will win. Whoever finds the better position and strategy early in the fight, early in the round. If she can keep the fight standing, that\u2019ll be good for her. If I can impose my grappling, I\u2019ll win the fight. It\u2019s going to come down to who can implement their game better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gillian Robertson won five in a row to earn a shot at the UFC strawweight belt against Mackenzie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-809018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}