Moving up to bantamweight agreed with Mayra Bueno Silva as she picked up a unanimous decision win over Wu Yanan at UFC Vegas 51.
With her fast hands and strong punches, Silva consistently landed the best shots throughout the fight. Wu missed far less than Silva over three rounds. When the fight ended, the judges scored the fight 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 with Silva getting the nod and her first win since September 2020.
“I felt that I got a lot of those strikes up,” Silva said about her performance. “She’s really tough. “She’s really tough. As I grow, I’m going be a problem in this division .”
Wu was very active, launching combinations of kicks and punches as well shouting at each other. After pushing ahead, Silva tried to stop Wu by launching several shots at once that cracked Wu’s skin and brought her down onto the ground.
Although Silva tried to get to Wu on the ground, Wu managed to avoid any further damage and got back on her feet.
While Wu continued to be active, she just wasn’t all that accurate with her strikes and that allowed Silva to pick and choose her shots in return. Late in the first round, the Brazilian blasted Wu with another stiff right hand that kept her in control as she continued to build confidence with each passing minute.
Silva’s assault continued with a nasty head kick in the second round but when she went back to that same strike again, Wu managed to snatch a takedown to bring the fight down to the ground. Even that nearly backfired, however, with Silva looking for a triangle choke from the bottom and then a kimura attempt that allowed her to work back to the feet again.
Although Wu was still very active, her accuracy was poor. Silva’s selection was better which enabled her to keep her target. As time was running out, Silva threw out a slick spinning backfist that clipped Wu as she secured her victory, which got her back on track following a loss to flyweight contender Manon Fiorot in her previous outing.
