“Child Shark” Tabatha Ricci paddles again into the UFC highlight this weekend, circling for an announcement win in Abu Dhabi. Ricci faces fellow Brazilian Amanda Ribas at UFC Battle Night time: Whittaker vs. de Ridder, a bout with implications for the strawweight pecking order and the following rung of contenders. Two athletes with bounce-back on their minds: Ricci is aiming to rebound from a razor-thin resolution loss to a top-five opponent, whereas Ribas is attempting to shake off her personal setbacks and reassert standing among the many elite.
Tabatha Ricci Weigh-ins Physique
On the official UFC weigh-ins, Tabatha Ricci shocked the Abu Dhabi followers, leaving them speechless together with her physique.
Ricci’s preventing fashion is like her namesake – all hustle and stress. A lifelong martial artist, she boasts a black belt in judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu and enhances them with a splash of Muay Thai. Her cage manner is persistent: Ricci prods, closes distance behind fundamental however efficient hanging, then drags the battle into her world – the mat. As soon as there, she dishes out floor management and positional dominance, working submissions or searching the ground-and-pound. Not flashy, however ruthlessly sensible. Her 11-3 professional file, together with wins over names like Jessica Penne, Angela Hill, and Tecia Pennington, marks her as a grappling-first risk who’s shrugged off greater, flashier strikers on multiple event.
Background? Ricci hails from Birigui, Brazil – the land the place judo and BJJ get you observed in class sooner than algebra abilities. She was on the tatami by age six, cross-training in Muay Thai by 15, and already testing her mettle in professional fights as a young person. Ricci migrated to Japan for custom-rules bouts, then landed in California to beef up her submission arsenal earlier than her UFC shot in 2021. “Child Shark” is now an everyday within the UFC’s strawweight prime 10 and even teaches jiu-jitsu on California’s Central Coast when she’s not bear-hugging octagon rivals.
The stakes? Excessive as ever. This isn’t a title eliminator, however a winner right here will get pole place for a spot among the many division’s most harmful. Lose, and your path to the belt begins trying extra like a treadmill than a ladder.
For Ricci, it’s easy: drag Ribas into tough waters, swallow her up, and remind everybody why you by no means, ever ignore the “Child Shark” circling simply beneath the floor.
