After punching her ticket to the UFC with a hard-fought victory on Dana White’s Contender Series last fall, Jasudavicius made her debut in January and turned in a comparable effort opposite Kay Hansen at UFC 270, registering a unanimous decision victory to push her winning streak to three and force one of her best friends to get a tattoo of her face on her person.
Seriously.
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Quick version: years ago, when Jasudavicius was starting out in MMA, her best friend told her if she got to the UFC, she would get a tattoo of her face on her body. Jasudavicius could have asked for “payment” after winning on DWCS, but instead wanted to actually compete inside the Octagon first. She did, she won, and an awesome story got its permanent ink happy ending.
That friend and any of Jasudavicius’ other friends may want to temper their betting ways with the UFC flyweight, because through eight fights, the Niagara Top Team representative is showing signs of upside in the 125-pound weight class.
The 33-year-old is 7-1 in her career and riding a three-fight winning streak since her split decision loss to Elise Reed two summers ago. In each of her last two outings, Jasudavicius has displayed the kind of tenacity and grittiness that can’t be taught, as well as improving hands and strong work in the clinch. She started competing a little later than most emerging talents but has reached this level in a short amount of time, which underscores her upside and gives a reason to be optimistic about what she could do in the coming years.
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Silva has significantly more overall experience, but the quality of her competition is hard to define, as the 25-year-old has largely faced opponents with limited experience. She’s won nine of her last 10 outings after starting her career with a 3-4-1 mark — the lone setback coming against strawweight contender Marina Rodriguez —and her record is flecked with finishes that should give Jasudavicius reason to be wary when the fight hits the canvas.
This is a quality second assignment for the promising Canadian and if she can cruise past Silva this weekend, she’ll head into the second half of the year assured of a spot on the mid-year list of the top newcomers and ready for another step up in competition.
