Natalia Silva among flyweight contenders helping shape rapidly evolving division

Every year in the UFC a division or two move to the fore with various matchups and talented fighters commanding the spotlight and serving as key talking points over the course of multiple months.

Featherweight and lightweight combined to dominate conversations in 2023, with the two bouts between champions Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski leading the way, and critical pairings behind each titleholder adding fuel to the fire and providing excitement inside the Octagon.

As we ready to dive head-first into the thick of the UFC's early 2024 schedule, it’s already clear one of the weight classes poised to be front and centre this year is the women’s flyweight division.

In less than two years, the 125-pound weight class has gone from a division dominated by a long-standing champion and featuring a host of established names serving as contenders to one of the most robust collections of talent and exciting matchup possibilities on the roster.

Between now and UFC 300, there are five fight cards that already feature critical pairings destined to have a major impact on the divisional landscape going forward, beginning with this weekend’s all-Brazilian battle between Viviane Araujo and Natalia Silva.

Araujo serves as the physical entrance exam to the top five at flyweight, a well-rounded and well-tested competitor significantly better than her 6-4 UFC record indicates. Last time out, she out-hustled former title challenger Jennifer Maia, while three of her four setbacks have come against championship contenders, including current titleholder Alexa Grasso.

Silva is one the weight classes top emerging talents — a soon-to-be 27-year-old with four straight victories to begin her UFC career, 10 consecutive victories overall, and a wealth of upside with an as-yet undefined ceiling. Saturday’s pairing with Araujo is her chance to prove she’s ready to hang with the elite in the weight class, and if she falters, it could serve as a critical junction in her continued development as a fighter.

KEY FIGHTS ALREADY ON TAP

In addition to this weekend’s top-10 clash, each of the next two pay-per-view events feature comparable contests with UFC 298 boasting Andrea Lee vs. Miranda Maverick and UFC 299 featuring an important fixture between perennial contender Katlyn Chookagian and constantly improving hopeful Maycee Barber; veterans Joanne Wood and Maryna Moroz are also set to face off in Miami in March.

On Tuesday, the UFC officially declared the previously announced matchup between Amanda Ribas and former two-time strawweight queen Rose Namajunas as a five-round March 23 main event, while the following week in Atlantic City will feature a massive battle between top contenders Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot.

Those seven bouts will bring eight competitors ranked in the top 15 into the Octagon, and how they play out will have a considerable impact on both the title chase and the overall construction of the divisional pecking order as we head towards the back half of the year and a massive championship contest that most assume is coming.

TIME TO SETTLE THINGS

While the two-fight series between Makhachev and Volkanovski garnered the most attention last year, the tandem contests between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko wasn’t far behind.

In March, the 30-year-old Mexican pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the year, pouncing when the long-reigning titleholder threw a spinning back kick late in the fight, using the opportunity to take her back and ultimately squeeze out a championship victory. They ran things back in the main event of Noche UFC in September with Grasso retaining the title following a controversial split draw verdict.

Both came out of their second encounter dealing with injuries, and a third meeting between the two has yet to be officially announced, but most believe it is guaranteed to happen at some point this year.

Each of the first two contests were competitive, entertaining affairs where Grasso lived up to the massive amounts of promise she showed during her days as a highly regarded prospect fighting under the Invicta FC banner, and, despite suffering her first loss in the division, Shevchenko continued to exhibit the multitude of skills that have made her one of the top female fighters on the planet for the better part of the past decade.

With the next three months poised to establish who is next in line to challenge for the title and help delineate things throughout the rest of the rankings, the date of the trilogy bout between Grasso and Shevchenko stands out as another key marker on the divisional slate and 2024 UFC calendar and an announcement for when they’ll settle things in the Octagon can’t come soon enough.

MAJOR CHANGES INCOMING?

Part of what brings the flyweight division into the spotlight this year is that there is significant potential for massive change depending on how the various matchups discussed above pan out.

Regardless of how things between Grasso and Shevchenko are resolved, a tested, talented fighter will sit upon the throne, ready to battle the pack of advancing contenders working forward over the next three months.

Neither Blanchfield nor Fiorot have fought for the title or shared the cage with many of the other top names in the division, creating fresh matchup possibilities at both the championship and contender level.

But most of all, this feels like a year where the remaining established names in the division — mainstays like Chookagian, Jessica Andrade, Araujo, and Lauren Murphy if and when she returns — will cede ground to the gathering hoard of ascending talents currently nipping at their heels that includes Silva, Barber, Tracy Cortez, Ariane Lipski, and Canadian Jasmine Jasudavicius, who got things moving in the right direction again with a dominant showing at UFC 297 a couple weeks back.

That group has been gaining experience and building momentum, and after standing as the future of the weight class for the last couple years, it feels like that group’s time and the future is now.