(Exclusive): "I love his style" - Tabatha Ricci reveals who she'll support in upcoming UFC title fight between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira
UFC strawweight Tabatha Ricci is set to fight on the upcoming UFC 295 card and had a prediction for the main event of the night.
The penultimate pay-per-view of the year will be headlined by a light heavyweight bout between former returning champion Jiri Prochazka and former middleweight champion Alex Pereira.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA's Andrew Whitelaw, Ricci weighed in on the fight and responded to which of the two light heavyweights has her backing. She stated that she would be supporting 'Poatan' and highlighted his striking prowess and imposing approach as her reasons.
She said:
“I'm with Poatan. I love him. His striking is amazing and I love his style, so yeah, I'm (rooting for him).”
Tabatha Ricci and Alex Pereira both hail from the same state in Brazil, the state of Sau Paulo, and will be looking to impress on the same card for the first time in their UFC careers.
Tabatha Ricci names her dream opponent
Tabatha Ricci has steadily built up her record in the UFC octagon after losing her debut fight against Manon Fiorot at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Sakai. The flyweight debut did not exactly go to plan for Ricci and she made the decision to move back down to strawweight.
She is on a four fight winning streak since and has broken into the top 10 of the women's strawweight division. She has beaten the likes of Jessica Marie Penne and Gillian Robertson enroute.
In the exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA's Andrew Whitelaw, Ricci named her dream fight and chose strawweight champion Zhang Weili. She outlined her goal of winning the championship and also praised the Chinese fighter as the current best strawweight in the world and for being a well-rounded figter.
She said:
“Weili. I need to fight her so I can get my belt. One day it's coming. I feel like she's the best in the world… she's definitely a well-rounded fighter. I think she's the best in the division so far. I want to be the best so I need to fight the best.”
Tabatha Ricci is scheduled to face Lupita Godinez at UFC 295 in a strawweight bout. Godinez is currently ranked No.13 in the division and has won three fights on the trot, all within this year.