NEW YORK – Viviane Araujo beat Karine Silva with a unanimous decision Saturday on the main card at UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Take a look inside the fight with Araujo, who has not been a betting favorite in nearly four years, but has upsets in two of her past three fights.
Viviane Araujo def. Karine Silva
Result: Viviane Araujo def. Karine Silva via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Updated records: Araujo (14-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) def. Karine Silva (18-5 MMA, 4-1 UFC)
Key stats: Araujo landed all three of her takedown attempts and stuffed six of Silva’s seven tries. She also landed nearly 70 percent of her overall strikes against the 3-1 favorite.
Araujo on the fight’s key moment
“We study Karine a lot. I’ve had 12 fights in this octagon, so I’ve seen a thing or two. I’ve got the experience. But we studied her, and we studied her fights, and we realized that she tends to get tired as the fight progresses. We saw that. We knew that was going to happen.
“We know that she always goes for it very early. She tries to get that knockout, and some people just get carried away and get into her game. We said that we can’t do that. We can’t fall for that trap, so we’re going to be really patient, be calm and be in our game. With that, you continue to frustrate her throughout the fight and you’re able to come out with a great win that we have.”
Araujo on empowering women and her future daughter
“The happiness that I had being in the octagon and getting the win – my wife and I have been expecting a baby for the past eight months now. My daughter is going to be named Lua, which means ‘moon’ in Portuguese. This is a moment for us. It’s very special, and it just adds on to the motivation and inspiration for me to continue this for my girl.
“My grandma has been someone that’s passed on a lot of teachings to me – my mom has, as well. It’s the image of a fearless, empowered woman, and those are the things that they brought to me, and I want to take and bring that to my daughter.”
Araujo on what she wants next
“I’m not one to call out names. I don’t go out there and just call out and ask for people. I think I leave it for my manager, who goes out there and actually gets the person that I need, the girl that I need to fight to actually get closer to the belt.”
To hear more from Araujo, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.
