Prospect in the Spotlight (May 1-2): Sabrinna de Sousa

Introduction

Saturday, May 2nd, Brazilian flyweight prospect Sabrinna de Sousa will be in action for the PFL, where she will be looking continue her winning ways against Cheyanne Bowers. She will be looking for another win, as de Sousa looks to inch closer to a UFC contract. She represents KHK MMA Team, a respected camp in MMA. Let’s take a closer look at this prospect as this week’s “Prospect Spotlight.”

Strengths

Jiu-Jitsu: On the mat, de Sousa is a black belt jiu-jitsu artist who is top-notch on the mat. Most of her wins come by way of submission, with her favorite techniques being the armbar first and the rear-naked choke second. Her transitions and positional skills are hard to match. She’s a wizard that bides her time, finds openings and works her way toward the finish. Her ground-and-pound is solid as well and can open things up for her, though technique alone is usually enough for her.

Experience: Despite just five pro MMA fights, de Sousa remains one of the more experienced flyweight prospects in the world due to her extensive and impressive amateur career. There, she went 15-0 including ammy wins over now-UFC fighters Klaudia Sygula and Michelle Montague. That means she is going on her 20th high-level fight, as many of her amateur fights came with the most prestigious ammy organization, the IMMAF.

Needs Improvement

Extended Stand Up: The hole we have seen in de Sousa’s game is when she’s unable to get the takedown on somebody who is ready to defend her wrestling and takedowns. Because she’s no “All-American” in the wrestling category, she will run into closer fights when her opponents are able to sprawl-and-brawl, where her striking can be exposed. That will be further seen as she continues to move up the ladder against more wrestling-disciplined fighters.

Outlook

PFL Title Challenger: I don’t think it’s a matter of if de Sousa challenges Dakota Ditcheva for the PFL title, but when. Her ground game is elite and she showed in her win over Paulina Wisniewska, that despite the closeness of that fight, there likely is not a better 125er in the company that hasn’t been near the title than her. With the company looking for new and fresh faces to fight Ditcheva, one of their stars, they will be looking for a fellow youngster like de Sousa, who is just 25 years old. She will be a contender for some years to come.