A women's Flyweight Championship fight stole most of the female attention at UFC 238 Saturday night, but the undercard also featured some important bouts, likely as title eliminators.
#3 Nina Ansaroff made her unexpected ascent up the Strawweight rankings over the last year, finally clashing with #2 Tatiana Suarez, with a 115-pound title date with Jessica Andrade likely on the line. Suarez implemented her excellent wrestling to outlast Ansaroff on her way to a unanimous decision win.
Many looked for #6 Joanne Calderwood to also earn a title shot by the time score cards were read against #2 Katlyn Chookagian -- at least based on commentary. After a three round striking battle, Chookagian picked up the unanimous decision win, and called out the winner of the night's co-main event Flyweight title fight.
The stakes weren't quite as important for #10 Karolina Kowalkiewicz took on #13 Alexa Grasso. Both are well removed from the championship title picture, with Karolina losing four of six fights and Grasso losing two of three leading into the night. As it turns out, many were touting both as having career-changing performances, with Grasso's leaving her looking like the highly touted prospect that lured Dana White to see her fight in person back in her Invicta days. She would take home a unanimous decision win.
While not a ranked fight, former Invicta Champion Angela Hill welcomed prospect Xiaonan Yan to the cage. While Xiaonan picked up the win, Hill was never quite out of it, constantly threatening. Yan will likely find herself ranked at Strawweight next week as she's 4-0 in the UFC.
You can see Fightful's full, live coverage of UFC 238 at this link, and check out our live post-show podcast at this link. We'll also recap the event on Tuesday's Fightful MMA Podcast at 2 PM EST.