There were a lot of questions surrounding Cynthia Calvillo tonight. The Women’s strawweight fighter was making her promotional debut against a big name, and was promoted to the main card following the removal of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson.
The only thing we really knew about her was the fact that she trained out of Team Alpha Male. Following the trend of the TAM fighters recently, she looked phenomenal, and picked up a first round win.
Calvillo came out, and looked comfortable on the feet; she landed the better shots, and was landing more volume, too. The fighters were feeling each other out, until Amanda Cooper threw a high kick which was caught, and got taken down. From that moment on, Calvillo looked superb, and showcased some fantastic transitions, controlled Cooper on the ground, almost locked in an anaconda choke at one point, but Cooper managed to escape.
It may not have been the greatest idea to escape, as before Cooper knew it she was in another submission, as Calvillo had a rear naked choke locked in. “ABC” fought it, and it looked like she may have gotten out for a second, but when Calvillo flattened her out, she was forced to tap.
Fantastic debut by Cynthia Calvillo, who may be looking at a bonus at the end of the night.
