A rare women’s featheweight bout has been announced as well as some lesser fights, and I’ll give my thoughts on all of these bouts in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Wu Yanan vs. Lauren Mueller, UFC Fight Night 141
Womne’s flyweights Wu Yanan and Lauren Mueller will meet at UFC Fight Night 141, which is set to take place Sunday, November 25 at Cadillac Arena in Beijing, China. Yanan (9-2) dropped a decision to Gina Mazany in her UFC debut but at 22 she is still one of the youngest prospects in the division. Mueller (5-0) beat Shana Dobson by decision in her UFC and she is undefeated in her career, though four of those wins have come by decision. Just based on her win streak alone I would expect Mueller to be the favorite.
Boston Salmon vs. Khalid Taha, TUF 28 Finale
Bantamweight prospects Boston Salmon and Khalid Taha are set to square off at the TUF 28 Finale which takes place Friday, November 30 at Pearl Theater at Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. MMA journalist Farah Hannoun broke the news. Salmon (6-1) earned his UFC contract after picking up a decision win on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series, but the fight was over a year ago now and he will have to battle ring rust in this fight. Taha (12-2) dropped a decision to Nad Narimani in his UFC debut and has actually lost two of his last three fights overall. Despite the long layoff for Salmon I just view him as a better prospect and would expect him to be favored to get the win in this fight.
Cat Zingano vs. Megan Anderson, UFC 232
An important women’s featherweight bout between Cat Zingano and Megan Anderson is the latest addition to UFC 232, which takes place Saturday, December 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Zingano (10-3) is 4-3 overall in the UFC but recently defeated Marion Reneau by decision to re-emerge as a contender. Instead of sticking around at 135lbs, where she was behind numerous other fighters in the title shot queue, she decided to move up to featherweight for this fight and it should be interesting to see how she performs at this new weight class. Anderson (8-3) is 0-1 in the UFC after having lost to Holly Holm in her Octagon debut but she’s still a highly-rated prospect. Tough one to call here considering how disappointing Zingano is at times and how poor Anderson looked in her UFC debut, but I’d hav to slightly lean towards Zingano to get the win.
Tom Duquesnoy vs. Nathaniel Wood, UFC 232
Also added to UFC 232 is a bantamweight bout between prospects Tom Duquesnoy and Nathaniel Wood. Duquesnoy (16-2, 1 NC) is 2-1 in the UFC and is coming off of a tight decision win over Terrion Ware in his last fight after a surprising loss to Cody Stamann before that. Wood (14-3) choked out Johnny Eduardo in a brilliant UFC debut and overall he’s on a six-fight win streak. I really like this matchup between two high-quality prospects but I’d have to favor Wood based on momentum alone.
