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Women’s Strawweights

NR | Ashley Yoder (8-7, 3-6 UFC) vs. NR | Jinh Yu Frey (10-6, 1-2 UFC)

ODDS: Yoder (-130), Frey (+110)

It is difficult to know what to make of Yoder at this point in her career. She came into the UFC as a fairly one-dimensional grappler, and the promotion surprisingly stuck by her after she lost her first three bouts inside the Octagon; she did impress by taking Mackenzie Dern to an ugly split decision. She has obviously put in the work to become a better striker and is a much more effective overall fighter than she once was, but she has also rarely been able to separate herself from her opponent over the course of 15 minutes, win or lose. Her willingness to try a bit of everything while sticking to a limited game plan leads to a lot of back-and-forth moments over the course of her fights, in turn leading to narrow decision victories or losses. Her last bout, a rematch of one of her early UFC losses against Angela Hill, was her most one-sided fight in the while—in a negative way—and led to a feeling that Yoder is still way away from being any sort of contender. At any rate, she looks to rebound here against Frey, who looks to build on her first UFC victory in March.

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Frey had a successful career at atomweight prior to getting the late-notice call from the UFC as a full-time strawweight, and she did so on the back of a low-output style that leveraged her considerable strength and physicality for the division. Frey encountered some clear struggles up a weight class. She was already walking a bit of a tightrope at 105 pounds, but larger and better athletes at strawweight were able to make more of an impact and cleanly beat her on output. That was the case until Frey’s last bout against Gloria de Paula. Frey had enough of a strength advantage that she managed to control the fight at will. Yoder should take this, but as with most of her victories, it seems unlikely to result in a clean or dominant performance. If nothing else, her willingness to grapple with her opponents figures to lead to at least one moment in which Frey can gain an advantageous position and attempt to lock down the fight. Given Yoder’s output and the fact that she seems to clear the bar of being physical enough to hang with Frey, the pick is for “The Spider Monkey” to take a decision.

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