UFC Vegas 39 Prelim Breakout Star: Lupita Godinez

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UFC Vegas 39 Prelim Breakout Star: Lupita GodinezThe Prelim Breakout Star is a once-per-event article that helps fans get to know those who will be entertaining them from the undercard. The intention of the article is not to bring attention to the most talented fighter on the preliminary card, but rather one that the common fan may have overlooked or underestimated.

Lupita godinez

Nickname – Loopy
Affiliation – Titan MMA
From – Aguascalientes, Mexico
Height – 5’2″
Weight – 115 lbs (Strawweight)
Record – 5-1 (0-1, UFC)

 

What makes her impressive

The thing I really like about Godinez is her aggression. She moves forward at a great clip and puts the pressure on her opponents. She also has solid striking and a good level of output through all of this. In a division that doesn’t produce a lot of finishes, this can be really important. It certainly worked for her as she picked up the strawweight title in CFFC over eventual UFC signee Vanessa Demopoulos. Godinez showed that pressure for all five rounds of that fight and took it on the judges’ scorecards.

 

Why she has been overlooked

On one hand, she isn’t being overlooked all that much. The bookmakers all generally consider her a large favorite, coming in at -196 (Odds by FanDuel). However, she may not have the hype with the common fan due to losing her UFC debut. In that fight, she took on Jessica Penne. Despite making some bad choices with the grappling, she did seem to do enough to take the decision. Only one of the three judges saw it that way though and a split loss is never a good way to build hype. This is especially true when it was mired a bit by poor choices in the cage.

 

What makes this a good match-up

Silvana Gomes Juarez is a fighter who has fought a decent level of competition. She reached a title fight in Polish promotion KSW and fought Ariane Lipski. In that fight, along with her fight with Poliana Botelho, she had some issues with the pressure of the UFC veterans. It seems to be a theme that when she can move forward, it’s easy for her to get her striking going and even work in some takedowns. However, Godinez, as mentioned above, is excellent at applying pressure. I expect her to do so here and give Juarez a lot of issues.

Prelim Breakout Star Record: 228-108-1 (2 NC) (13 DNF) 

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