Tabatha Ricci vs. Gillian Robertson is one of the most interesting UFC Jacksonville preliminaries. It’s a women’s strawweight fight between two fighters with championship ambitions. Tabatha “Baby Shark” is coming to VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, boasting an 11-1 record, with her only loss happening the one time she dabbled in the flyweight division.
Meanwhile, her opponent on Saturday, June 24, Gillian “The Savage” Robertson is 12-7, but most of her losses happened in the 125lb division. Since moving down a weight class, she’s fought only one fight – and won.
Before Betting on Tabatha Ricci vs. Gillian Robertson
Tabatha Ricci is a well-rounded fighter with a background in several martial arts. She used to practice Muay Thai in her youth, which explains why she lands 3.27 significant strikes per minute on average. In her teens, “Baby Shark” practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu in her home country of the US, as well as Judo in Japan. This explains why she makes 4.64 takedowns per fight in the UFC, which is among the highest numbers of all the fighters in the women’s strawweight division.
Speaking of the lightest division in the UFC, strawweight is where she’s 100%. She’s got a 3-0 record in the UFC strawweight division, while her overall record in this weight class is 11-0. Actually, Ricci’s only career loss thus far happened when she decided to give the flyweight division a try.
It happened on her UFC debut in 2021 when we saw her lose to Manon Fiorot by TKO. Her opponent completely destroyed her, landing 84 significant strikes in eight minutes before the referee stopped the fight. That’s nearly five times more strikes than Ricci landed that day.
Getting hit so many times by someone who’s big and strong as Fiorot sure isn’t pleasant. What’s got to worry her is that her opponent at UFC Jacksonville is almost as big as Fiorot. Gillian Robertson is a former flyweight fighter, who’s four inches taller than Ricci and has a two-inch reach advantage.
But unlike Fiorot, she’s not a great striker. Instead, she prefers wrestling and grappling. Her takedown defense isn’t great, but that’s why she doesn’t mind getting taken down to the ground. The thing is that Robertson has a 75% submission-to-win ratio, which shows how deadly she is on the floor.
Tabatha Ricci vs. Gillian Robertson Offshore Odds & Pick
| Offshore Sportsbook | Tabatha Ricci | Gillian Robertson |
|---|---|---|
| BetOnline | -130 | +110 |
| Bovada | -130 | +109 |
| BetUS | -130 | +100 |
| SportsBetting.ag | -130 | +110 |
| Pinnacle | -126 | +110 |
| MyBookie | -138 | +108 |
Tabatha Ricci is a skillful striker, but she just doesn’t have the power needed to turn the lights off for Gillian Robertson. “The Savage” did get TKO-ed once, but it happened against Maycee Barber who is undoubtedly a better striker than Ricci.
Actually, Ricci’s strongest weapon is wrestling/grappling, but taking the fight to the ground could be counterproductive. If she does it, the chance is that “Baby Shark” is gonna get put into submission. We have no doubts that Robertson is the better grappler of the two, the proof being that about half a year ago, she defeated Rose Namajunas by a rear-naked choke in Fury Pro Grappling.
Knowing all this, we think that the only way Ricci can win is to try and take the fight to the distance. She needs to try to outbox Robertson and hope for the best. Still, we do have faith in “The Savage” to get the job done earlier.
