Luana Pinheiro came into Dana White’s Contender Series 35 one of the more hyped women’s prospects in the show’s history, and boy did she live up to it on Tuesday night.
The Brazilian strawweight is a decorated judoka, but she turned heads with her fists at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
Pinheiro (8-1) swarmed Stephanie Frausto at the outset and never let her get untracked. A huge left hook, immediately followed by a right which landed on the button, dropped Frausto (8-7). Then Pinheiro landed ground-and-pound strikes until referee Jason Herzog waved things off at 2:38 of the opening round.
“I’ve been training a lot in boxing,” Pinheiro said through an interpreter. “You can expect a lot of this moving forward.”
That’s six straight wins for Pinheiro, and the seventh finish in her eighth career victories.
You can see her finishing work below:
BIG SHOTS Luana Pinheiro doesn’t need the ground game tonight!
[ #DWCS continues on #ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/pvYYQlcyLp
— UFC (@ufc) November 11, 2020
Video: Luana Pinheiro scores furious finish at Dana White’s Contender Series 35
