Bia Mesquita made quite an impression in her Octagon debut after smothering Irina Alexeeva for a lopsided victory at UFC Rio.
Mesquita, a multiple-time grappling champion, stuck to her best weapon, bringing Alexiba to the canvas multiple times and on the verge of an early finish after taking some really bad elbows to the ground. In the end, Mesquita took what Alexeeva gave her and won, hugging her back and delivering the deciding rear-naked choke at 2:14 of the second round.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be here in Brazil,” Mesquita said after the win. “I have the best coaches by my side and I know it’s going to be no different. Come here and show me what I’m ready for and why I’m the Lady GOAT. I want to stay as active as possible. That’s the Lady GOAT mentality. I’m here to stay.”
Despite her best efforts, Alexeeva was only able to dodge attacks and grapples from Mesquita, defending from the jump. Alekseeva was able to catch Mesquita coming forward and close the distance, but soon found herself locked and thrown to the ground.
From there, Mesquita moved to mount almost immediately and began raining down brutal punches and elbows with over two minutes left in the opening frame.
Mesquita continued to attack, methodically trapping arms and hitting more elbows as Alexiva tried to avoid damage. The attack didn’t slow down, but Alekseeva did enough to prevent the game from being stopped before time expired.
On the restart, Mesquita wasted no time in getting Alexieva back to the canvas and once again began tearing through her opponent’s defense. This time, instead of being mounted, Alexieva sat down and Mesquita slipped an arm under her neck and locked in a rear naked choke to initiate the submission.
Moments later, Alexiba tapped, and Mesquita improved to 6-0 in his mixed martial arts career, adding another submission to his resume.
The 34-year-old Mesquita is late to the UFC, but there’s no doubt that she’s a fighter to watch moving forward in her career in a bantamweight division that is in desperate need of new talent.