UFC Kansas City – New Blood!

Women’s Strawweight and men’s Bantamweight are already two of the deepest divisions Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has to offer, but they can always get deeper. On this edition of “New Blood,” the series where I treat long layoffs that ruin my analysis as personal offenses, we look at a pair of top-notch strikers.

As always, all episodes of the most recent Contender Series season are on ESPN+.

Bruna “The Special One” Brasil

Weight Class: Strawweight
Age: 29
Record: 8-2-1 (3 KO, 2 SUB)
Notable Victories: Marnic Mann, Yasmin Castanho

“The Special One” started her professional career 1-2-1, including a loss to future UFC competitor, Ariane Carnelossi, in her debut, before embarking on her current seven-fight win streak. Her two-fight 2022 campaign saw her upset unbeaten Yasmin Castanho in her Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) debut, then finish Marnic Mann with a head kick to claim a UFC contract on Contender Series.

Brasil is reportedly a very decorated kickboxer, and while I can’t find her official record or a list of achievements, she certainly knows what she’s doing on the feet. She’ll stand at the very edge of kicking range with her hands low, flicking out quick, powerful kicks from a square stance with equal dexterity in both legs. Though she’s quite fond of throwing spinning back kicks, her best weapons are her leg kicks, her snap kicks to the midsection, and her head kicks, which work well in tandem with the aforementioned body attack.

When she does elect to use her hands, it’s usually on the counter, but she’ll occasionally send out heavy single punches followed by a kick. The lead right to switch head kick looks like a particular favorite and the right hand can be substituted with an elbow if needed.

Her speed, power and distance management are all quite good. That said, she could definitely serve to set up her kicks with more than just feints, as Castanho caught her body kicks twice. On top of that, she can get overly wild with jumping and spinning techniques at times, especially when she’s got her opponent hurt.

Those hands also stay low even when backing up under fire, which is all fine and dandy until her back hits the fence.

On the grappling side, Brasil is actually a surprisingly solid offensive takedown artist. A feinted low kick allowed her to take Castanho down via double-leg and she punished Mann’s overeagerness in the clinch by hitting a huge hip toss. She’s a bit more mixed defensively, owing in no small part to those naked kicks and tendency to back herself to the fence, but is adept at getting back to her feet and using her long limbs to sweep into top position.

Submission-wise, she’s not much of a threat and has been taken down chasing a guillotine before. She doesn’t offer a ton of ground-and-pound, either, seemingly preferring to hang out on top until her opponent gets too squirmy before posturing up and standing.

Brasil has the striking to hang with UFC-quality Strawweights, although she could definitely use a jab and some better movement when opponents commit to chasing her. As-is, I’d say she could get a top 15 ranking and should take home the win in her debut against Denise Gomes, whose lack of height and reach combine with her shaky takedown defense to give Brasil plenty of options.

Her LFA victory over Castanho is on Fight Pass.

---

Gaston “The Dreamkiller” Bolanos

Weight Class: Bantamweight
Age: 30
Record: 6-3 (6 KO)
Notable Victories: Nathan Stolen

“The Dreamkiller” — a successful kickboxer outside of the cage — has spent the entirety of his professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career under the Bellator banner. He last saw action in April 2022, when he ended a two-year layoff by knocking out Daniel Carey to snap a two-fight losing streak.

If I had to compare Bolanos to other kickboxing imports, Brad Riddell seems like a decent analogue. Bolanos is a close-quarters monster, tearing up the head and body with rapid-fire boxing combinations alongside good low kicks and the spinning back elbow that’s secured a frankly unreasonable number of his knockout finishes. He’s fast, he’s got great killer instinct, and his power is absolutely legit.

Things are a bit shakier at a distance. He moves well and switches stances fluidly, but seems to lack setups for actually getting into the pocket. He’ll lean way in when chucking 1-2s or looping haymakers as leads, and as heavy as his low kicks are, he’s been punished more than once for throwing them nakedly. This is exacerbated by a general lack of head movement even at close range, which allowed the much more limited Carey to pop him with multiple clean counter rights.

He was at his worst two fights back against Solo Hatley Jr. Whether it was Hatley’s constant takedowns throwing him off or some other issue, Bolanos spent much of the first two rounds hurling ugly, loaded-up shots. He looked a fair bit more composed against Carey two years later, but Carey also isn’t much of a wrestler, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Frankly, his game cries out for a jab.

In terms of getting back to his feet, his takedown defense is alright, especially against the fence. The problem is that his bad striking habits make him much easier to take down than he should be, as he’ll put his head way in front of his hips when leaning in with punches and throw naked kicks directly into his opponent’s waiting arms. He also struggled to break Hatley’s grip when standing, which allowed Hatley to repeatedly dump him back to the mat anytime Bolanos got his feet under him.

Off of his back, he generally does a good job of getting out of bad spots and setting up knee shields. He’s not any sort of submission threat or consistent sweep machine, however.

We haven’t seen anyone test his grappling in a long time, so there’s no telling where it stands right now. Honestly, the same could be said for a lot of his game, has he’s only fought once in the last three years. Based on what I’ve seen so far, though, he strikes me as someone who’ll always struggle with above-average takedown artists. I don’t see him getting close to contention; it’s best to just throw him in against strikers and see what happens, which is what UFC is doing with the very limited and similarly inactive Aaron Phillips.

His Bellator bouts are on the promotion’s website.

---

Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Las Vegas fight card right here, starting with the ESPN/ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance (also on ESPN/ESPN+) at 8:30 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Kansas City: “Holloway vs. Allen” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.