Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Cynthia Calvillo vs Amanda Bobby Cooper

Here's the match video of Cynthia Calvillo vs Amanda Bobby Cooper from last night's UFC show in Las Vegas. This fight was supposed to be on the UFC Fight Pass prelims but it was moved up to the main card when the Khabib vs Ferguson match was scratched. I thought that was unusual because normally they would move a fight up from the FS1 prelims. My guess is that matchmaker Sean Shelby really likes Cynthia and he convinced UFC president Dana White to move it up. I'm sure White and most fans and journalists at the show had never heard of her. Cynthia is 3-0 and she trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento. But she has extensive amateur experience and she beat Invicta's Aspen Ladd as an amateur. I watched Cynthia's last fight when this fight was announced a couple of weeks ago and though I thought she was impressive, I didn't think much of her opponent. Amanda was in TUF 23 and she lost to Tatiana Suarez in the final. Most of the women who were on TUF 23 weren't very good. Amanda won over Anna Elmose in Nov. and the UFC promptly released Anna. The fight was a coming out party for Cynthia. After an initial exchange, Cynthia took Amanda down and after a scramble, she attempted an anaconda choke. That's usually a low percentage submission that can lead to disaster if a fighter spends too much time trying to apply it. Cynthia quickly abandons it and slickly transitions to a rear naked choke which is a high percentage submission. That was a very smart move and Cynthia hooked it and Amanda tapped out. So a big win for Cynthia in her UFC debut. The next move is to have her fight a ranked opponent. She's 29 years old so the UFC may want to move her up quickly to see if she can be a contender. One plus is Cynthia is fluent in Spanish. Check out the fight for yourself.