Point of interest: Wrestling wears
Considering where Spencer’s strengths reside, many will be curious to see if she can get Nunes to play her style of grappling game.
The Canadian-born American resident may not come from a wrestling background, but I love how consistently hard she gets after it in both the takedown and scrambling departments. Spencer can either change levels in the open or hustle for doubles along the fence, and is not afraid to drop back for deep-half-style scrambles that allow her opportunities to sweep and steal positions.
With that in mind, Nunes will need to be on point with her defensive tactics.
Coming from a background in judo, Nunes has made noticeable improvements to her wrestling – both defensively and offensively – since moving shop to American Top Team. Whether she is shooting in for her own takedown or shucking off deep doubles, Nunes displays solid defensive wherewithal and grip awareness.
Nevertheless, if Nunes does get taken down in this fight, then she’ll need to mind her propensity to turtle/tripod back up to her feet, as these will be prime spots that Spencer typically makes her money off of.
A superb back-taker who can secure back-mount in tight and steal spots on the fly, Spencer is not afraid to make her hips heavy, sinking her weight into her opposition. And with her opponent’s typically acknowledging the difference of Spencer’s game through their defensive actions, the 29-year-old usually has carte blanche in these situations.
That said, Spencer is not beyond being put on her back, as we could see Nunes wrestle or scramble her way to topside just as easily in this fight.
The sitting champ has a legitimate Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt to go along with her brown belt in judo and has proven to be a nightmare whenever working from top position, showing both brutal ground striking and submission savvy. Nunes did show a couple of lapses on concentration in her last outing that put her in some briefly precarious positions – something that she probably can’t afford here.
Spencer parlays her leg dexterity from taekwondo nicely into her grappling game and will likely offer a lot of submissions and scramble looks from this position, which that could ultimately force Nunes to play much more conservative than usual.
Next point of interest: Odds, opinion and prediction
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