UFC president Dana White praised women’s flyweight contender Amanda Ribas and said she will return to the Octagon this fall.
Ribas is coming off of a first-round armbar submission win over Paige VanZant in the main card pay-per-view opener at UFC 251. The win upped Ribas’ record in the UFC to 4-0 with wins over VanZant, Randa Markos, Mackenzie Dern, and Emily Whitmire. White and the UFC are always looking for the next big thing, especially in the women’s weight divisions, and Ribas appears like she could break out and become a massive star for the promotion.
Speaking to reporters following UFC Fight Island 2, White glowed about what Ribas has accomplished inside and outside of the Octagon in such a short period of time in the UFC.
“Huge,” White said of Ribas’ potential. “Overnight, she got 100,000 new followers on social media and everybody was talking about her. When you go out — you couldn’t perform better than she did. In the fight, in the interview, and just doing the things you need to do when you’re in that position. I mean, that’s why we put her on the main card.”
With 1.3 million fans purchasing the UFC 251 pay-per-view, which featured Kamaru Usman defending the UFC welterweight title against Jorge Masvidal in the main event, Ribas’ flawless performance over VanZant was seen by far more people than usual. It was arguably the most dominant win of her unbeaten UFC career to date, with White saying that Ribas “smoked” VanZant in the UFC 251 post-fight press conference.
According to the UFC president, the promotion has been alerted by Ribas that she wants to return to the Octagon in the next few months. White was non-committal about when and where she would be fighting but said the matchmakers plan on talking about her next opponent once they return home to Las Vegas following their month-long trip to Abu Dhabi.
“She wants to fight again in the fall. Again, we’ll get home, we’ll get her figured out, and we’ll see her again soon,” Dana White confirmed.
Although the 26-year-old Brazilian Ribas defeated VanZant in a flyweight bout, she has fought the majority of her UFC career as a strawweight. The matchmakers essentially have free reign to book her in either weight class at this point. Ribas is currently unranked at strawweight and is the No. 12 ranked women’s flyweight in the UFC right now.
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