UFC Vegas 16: Taila Santos vs. Montana De La Rosa Picks, Odds, and Predictions

Montana De La Rosa and Taila Santos fight Saturday in UFC Vegas 16 at the UFC APEX.

Montana De La Rosa enters this fight with a 11-6 record and has won 73 percent of her fights by submission. De La Rosa has won five of her last seven fights and is coming off a September loss to Viviane Araujo. De La Rosa is averaging 3.03 significant strikes per minute with an accuracy percentage of 35 percent. De La Rosa is averaging 1.96 takedowns with an accuracy percentage of 30 percent. De La Rosa is coming off a decision loss at UFC Vegas 9 where she landed 88 total strikes, 39 percent of her significant strikes and had one takedown. De La Rosa is now 4-2 under the UFC banner and hopes to avoid back-to-back losses for the third time in her career. De La Rosa is most effective in the clinch or on the ground, as she comes from a wrestling background and is a bitemn belt in BJJ. De La Rosa doesn’t have a knockout win on her resume and eight of her wins have come by submission, with five of those coming via armbar. De La Rosa wants to get her hands on her opponent and kind of muck things up, but her strike attempts in her last fight were improved from previous bouts. This will be De La Rosa’s fourth career fight in Las Vegas.

Taila Santos enters this fight with a 16-1 record and has won 63 percent of her fights by knockout. Santos has won six of her last seven fights and is coming off a July win over Molly McCann. Santos is averaging 4.09 significant strikes per minute with an accuracy percentage of 46 percent. Santos is averaging 2.33 takedowns with an accuracy percentage of 77 percent. Santos is coming off a decision win at UFC on ESPN 13 where she landed 75 total strikes, 39 percent of her significant strikes and had five takedowns. Santos is now 2-1 under the UFC banner and looks for her second victory of the year. Santos has a brawler feel to her fighting style, as she thitems heavy hands with legit knockout power, she’ll mix in some kicks here and there and some of her fights have ended in brutal finishes. Five of Santos’ last eight victories have ended in knockouts. Santos has some wrestling ability and has won two fights by submission, but she’s most comfortable on the feet where she can push the pace and let her hands go. Santos also has good stamina that’s helped her win four of her five career decisions. This will be Santos’ second career fight in Las Vegas.

This fight all comes down to who can dictate pace and force their style on her opponent, and De La Rosa has a clear edge if she can get Santos against the fence or on the ground. However, this feels like a points fighter against somebody who looks to be the aggressor and land hard shots. Santos is long, has a variety of strikes to her game and isn’t afraid of takedown attempts where she can go to work with the ground and pound. Santos should win this fight either by knockout or simply by landing more.

Santos wins her second fight of the year.