The UFC is going international with a Fight Night event once more with a visit to Southeast Asia. With a successful event last time out in Singapore, Dana White and Co. would be looking to maintain that success rate with UFC Macau, which will have two women, Yan Xiaonan and Tabatha Ricci, butting heads in the co-main event this weekend.

Yan Xiaonan’s already established herself as a top strawweight contender, having fought for the title once in her UFC run so far. For Tabatha Ricci, she’s had a great run so far in the UFC since she signed with the promotion back in 2021 and is yet to hit her prime. So, let’s make a close analysis of these two strawweight contenders, starting with the statistics.

UFC Macau: Yan Xiaonan vs. Tabatha Ricci stats

If fans and pundits ever need an indication as to who’s got the upper hand heading into a matchup, statistics certainly help in getting that done. Between Tabatha Ricci and Yan Xiaonan, it’s the latter that takes the charge here, especially due to the Chinese star having almost a dozen more in-cage encounters than her Brazilian counterpart under her belt.

Yan Xiaonan has competed in a total of 23 fights in her MMA career so far, registering wins in most of them. With the record of the second-highest winning streak in Dana White’s promotion, ‘Fury Nine’s record currently looks like 18 wins, 4 losses, and 1 no-contest. Among those triumphs, Xiaonan’s knocked out her opponents on 8 occasions. while earning 1 submission win as well. Tabatha Ricci, on the other hand, her career seems to be going on a decent trajectory with an 11-wins-and-2-losses record, with 1 knockout and 3 submissions, at 29 years of age.

Moving over to the fight statistics, Yan Xiaonan seems to have an edge when it comes to takedown accuracy, as she’s found success in 73 percent of all her attempts (in the UFC). When we take a look at Tabatha Ricci’s record, ‘Baby Shark’s 81 percent success rate in defending takedowns is not only impressive, it was more than most fighters on the UFC roster. This shows that we can expect a tug-of-war kind of scrap when these two women get inside the Octagon. It’s just three percent less than ‘The Eagle’ Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Now, let’s make an assessment of Yan Xiaonan and Tabatha Ricci’s fighting to conclude the analysis with a proper prediction.

Xiaonan vs. Ricci breakdown and prediction

Experience-wise, obviously, Yan Xiaonan’s the pick of the two, but that doesn’t take away that fact after all her impressive outings, Tabatha Ricci has this one big opportunity to launch herself into title contention and establish herself as a credible threat if she can grab that massive win over the former title challenger. Moreover, she has all the momentum in the world with her, being on a 2-fight winning streak, but the same can’t be said for Xiaonan, who’s coming off a huge loss against strawweight champion, Zhang Weili, in her first and only attempt at 115-pound gold.

Yan Xiaonan, however, is still a top 3 contender, nonetheless. Possessing an unmatched prowess in her accuracy and efficiency, with a lot of power in her strikes, the 35-year-old isn’t, by no means, an easy fight. Meanwhile, the UFC’s first Chinese female fighter signee will be butting heads against Ricci, who has similar skills, but also has an advantage with her ground game. However, training with Team Alpha Male has helped Xianon improve her defensive grappling skills, which could come in pretty handy. Taking all things into consideration, the former title challenger seems to be in a better position to emerge victorious this weekend.

Understandably, the oddsmakers have Yan Xiaonan as a -110 favorite heading into UFC Macau, while Tabatha Ricci will come into the fight as a +160 underdog. But it’s important to note that anything can happen in an MMA fight. Who do you see winning? Let us know in the comments down below.