Julija Stoliarenko vs Alexis Davis: Julija will win but in a boring way

Another UFC tournament will take place on February 6. In one of the preliminary rounds, Lithuanian fighter Julija Stoliarenko will meet a representative of Canada, Alexis Davis.

The fight will take place in the bantamweight division. None of the fighters is in the top 15 of the official UFC contenders' rankings. The favourite of the bookmakers is Alexis Davis.

Julija is called the second Ronda Rousey, as she wins the vast majority of her victories by submission, or to be even more accurate, by leveraging her elbow. She came to professional MMA, bypassing amateur competitions, but she mastered her striking technique on the fly. In principle, she was so good that she won the Invicta FC belt and got a contract in the UFC.

Her fight with Lisa Verzosa for the title went down in history as one of the bloodiest and cruellest fights between women.

But in the UFC, it did not work out - two fights and two defeats, plus obvious weight-lifting problems.

Alexis has been in MMA so long that it seems like she's been around forever. After starting professionally in 2007, she won the right to fight for the UFC belt in 2014 but was brutally destroyed by Ronda Rousey in the sixteenth second. Davis has had several pauses and comebacks in her career and is currently experiencing perhaps the toughest times. In her last five fights, Alexis has only managed to pick up one win.

In her last appearance, Davis lost to Pannie Kianzad by unanimous decision.

For Stoliarenko, this is an important moment. There is no way to lose, and the opponent is quite tough. Alexis Davis does not have a great punching technique that she can use to baffle Julija, nor powerful cardio to withstand the pressure until the very end of the fight.

The opponents are similar in many ways. They will rely on their skills on the ground, where, supposedly, the youth should win. We hope for Stoliarenko and believe her over-the-top motivation will help her. Bet365 gives 3.00 for her win, which is another reason to believe in upsets.

But the fight is unlikely to turn out bright. Most likely, Stoliarenko will win in a hard-fought referee's decision.